Interest, understanding, and knowledge of disease of the small intestine have increased exponentially in the decade following the development of the instruments for peroral intestinal biopsy. During this period, several new syndromes and diseases have been described; old syndromes and diseases have been redefined and characterized; and fundamental understanding of the processes of digestion and absorption has been obtained.
With this information explosion has come a plethora of books on disease of the small intestine. The present monograph Malabsorption Syndromes by Shingleton and Dobbins is a valuable addition. It combines the experience of a surgeon who has helped popularize the triolein test (although probably of little value today) and a gastroenterologist who has described in depth various aspects of jejunal morphology.
The book is a collection of eight chapters on various aspects of morphology, normal and abnormal mechanism of absorption, and diseases of malabsorption.
The most valuable chapter of this