Microbiology of the Seventies: A Symposium.

For clinicians who were old laboratory (microbiology) hands, this little volume is an eye-opener. It presents new techniques and speed-ups of old ones and illustrates strikingly the new directions in which microbiology is going. The book contains the edited proceedings of a symposium in which laboratory directors and researchers met with interested clinicians to learn what is going on in the modern microbiology laboratory.

With true British flair, the various studies are presented crisply and in easily understood terms. One is not bewildered by intricate details. Down-to-earth exchanges between the presenters and clinicians, and between each other, make the discussions at the end of each chapter forums in which the practical value of what has been demonstrated can be better assessed.

I was impressed by the fact that often a very good idea of the nature of the viruses in smears of secretions or aspirated vesicular fluid or in cultures