The proceedings of the Third International Congress of Hedrologicum Conlegium held in Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, in October 1968 are presented in this volume. The preface helpfully indicates that hedrology is a newly coined synonym for proctology. The publication is a compendium of 60 papers on clinical proctology dealing with injuries, anal fistula, obstipation, incontinence, polyps, carcinoma, inflammatory disease, and diagnostic procedures. The majority of contributions are surgically oriented and are from two to four pages in length.
Most papers are devoid of hard data and present a point of view about a surgical technique. No mention is made of even the most basic advances in the subspecialty such as cytology of fiberoptic techniques for diagnosis, the newer concepts of diverticular disease, or the important recent advances in our understanding of sphincteric mechanisms. Newer advances in our understanding of immune mechanisms and enteric flora are conspicuously absent. On the positive side, there