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Abstract

Yet another text on bile salts? Well, yes, but a book with a difference: it is aimed particularly at biologists and has an emphasis on the comparative biochemistry and evolutionary aspects of bile acids and bile alcohols. Professor Haslewood Notes and Activities paints a large canvas and covers the physiology, chemistry, biosynthesis, medical significance, as well as the comparative biochemistry of these important sterols; and all in a mere 190 pages. Intentionally the chemistry of the bile salts has not been presented in any detail. The book is well set out and the text easy to read; but inevitably the superficiality of cover elicts minor criticism. It is not strictly correct to claim that 'both canalicular and ductular bile secretion are divisible into a "bile-salt dependent" and a "bile-salt independent" phase'; more could have been made of the striking species differences in bile secretory patterns; the important controversy whether bile acid or cholesterol is responsible for feed-back control of bile acid synthesis is treated too lightly; and the section dealing with the complex changes in bile salts accompanying liver disease might have benefited from greater elaboration. This is not a book for the expert; but it will have considerable appeal to a wide audience of clinicians and basic scientists who have an interest in the bile. Inevitably the strength of the book lies in the remarkable account of the distribution of bile salts within the animal kingdom and their evolutionary significance. What a fascinating story and who better to tell it than Professor Haslewood ?

Source: North-holland research monographs frontiers of biology – volume 47 – 1961