Book review

Journal of Medical & VeterinaryMycology 1996,34, 153-154 Accepted 5 September 1995 Book review The ecological version of the economist's 80:20 rule, or Pareto principle, recognizes that the great majority of isolates from most habitats will belong to a few common species, while the great majority of significant species will be uncommon or rare. This inverse exponential distribution of species abundances is certainly seen in medical mycology. Most of the clinical mycology identification manuals that have been published over the years have responded by documenting the common, the uncommonbut-regularly-occurring, and the spectactular, while the merely rare has been left to moulder in the back issues of journals. With the Atlas of Clinical Fungi, two taxonomists, G. S. de Hoog and J. Guarro, assisted by colleagues, have taken on both the great swell of the common species and that long, asymptotic dragon's tail of the rare. Their Atlas is a massive, painstaking attempt to depict and describe nearly every fungus that has ever caused a disease in humans or other mammalian hosts. The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with pathogenic fungi and common opportunists. It begins with succinct summary sections on fungal classification, clinical pathology, 'natural ecology' and laboratory techniques, but soon moves on to its mainstay: one- or two-page descriptive summaries of each recognized fungal pathogen and common opportunist. Most species in this section are represented by short summaries of their colony and microscopic characters, a brief paragraph on their pathogenicity, and exquisite camera lucida drawings showing their micromorphology. Many of these line drawings are suitable for framing; for example, Ajellomyces dermatitidis on p. 64 is a drawing worthy of the brothers Tulasne, the patron saints of mycological line drawing. Keys to the genera and species treated in the book are also included in this section. An extensive bibliography and glossary at the end of the book adds to the value and ease of use of the material. In the second part, on 'rare opportunistic fungi', the format continues except the line drawings are supplemented with a large, full-page plate of light and electron micrographs for each species. An enormous number of © 1996 ISHAM species (over 200) is included; any clinical mycologist wishing to become vividly aware of what Pseudochaetospheronema larense or Dissitimurus exedrus looks like need only consult this book. Frustrated bench technologists will, however, be chagrined to know that no purely nonpathogenic 'contaminants' are included. Only infectious fungi and a few close relatives are represented; thus problematic common genera like Malbranchea are not mentioned at all, and 90% of the species that would grow at random from sputum, for example, are not here. If this book had attempted that level of documentation, it would have become like Encyclopedia Britannica in dimension. The deficit in contaminants is to some extent compensated by the principal shortcoming of the book, that is, a tendency to include some species on the basis of dubious reports of pathogenicity. For example, alleged cases of cryptococcosis caused by species other than C. neoformans, a collection of reports subject to considerable criticism [1,2] are cited without comment. One criticism of a case report [1] is even cited as if it were itself another case report. Also, several fungi attributed aetiologic status in onychomycosis on the basis of single, not repeat-confirmed isolations are included, and so on. Although the authors exercise some skepticism, they clearly do not utilize the stringency applied by some others (e.g. McGinnis [3]) in deciding what is worthy of acceptance. Thus a very well rounded identification manual is born which requires some critical input from the user. In a book of such great scope, a few minor errors and anomalies are bound to occur. A structure very much resembling an apophysis is labelled a columella in the schematic life history of Zygomycota on p. 4, but all parts are correctly labelled in fig. 8, p. 44. On p. 5, an overview says 'six orders of Euascomycetes will be treated' and briefly describes them; actually, the book includes eight such orders, as shown in table 2 and elsewhere. Cerebrospinal fluid is referred to throughout as 'liquor', its common appellation in German but not in English. Chytrids are stated to be 'related to the Algae' (p. 3); actually, molecular studies have again reaffirmed them as true fungi. Of numerous typographical errors, the most obstructive I found is that Colletotrichum dematium, cross-referenced to p. 300 on p. 74, should actually be referred to p. 308. Some key couplets are idealistic or Atlas of Clinical Fungi G. S. DE H O O G & J. GUARRO, eds. Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Baarn and Delft, the Netherlands and Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain, 720 pp., 1995. ISBN 90 70351 26 9 U Bookreview mention of the better media devised in recent decades for Blastomyces and Histoplasma. The conidia of Blastomyces dermatitidis are well drawn in the section devoted to the Ajellomyces teleomorph, but in the section devoted to the anamorph, some odd structures appearing to be hyphae in the process of converting to the yeast phase are represented as typical conidia. Canada has been omitted from the major endemic zones of Blastomyces (perhaps as a result of the inaccurate distribution map often seen in other publications), and South and Central America from the distribution of Coccidioides. But then, as the authors move away from classic pathogenic fungi to opportunists, and away from faulty source material to their own areas of greatest systematic strength, opportunities for criticism abruptly diminish. This herculean compilation is a must for the shelves of all clinical mycologists, and will be put to immediate use. The editors state that they intend to go on revising and updating the Atlas; doubtless, then, the Atlas will long be regarded as one of the core references of clinical mycology, a classic from the first edition. R. C. SUMMERBEI.I. References 1 Gordon MA. Pulmonary cryptococcosis: a case due to Cryptococcus albidus. Am Rev Respir Dis 1972; 106: 786-7. 2 Krajden S, Summerbell RC, Kane J, et al. Normally saprobic cryptococci isolated from Cryptococcus neoformans infections. J Clin Microbiol 1991; 29: 1883-7. 3 McGinnis MR. Laboratory Handbook of Medical Mycology. New York: Academic Press, 1980. © 1996ISHAM,Journal of Medical & VeterinaryMycology34, 153-154 abstruse: Basidiomycetes are referred to as bearing clamp connections on p. 9 (clinical isolates almost never do); key couplet 45 on p. 88 opposes 'conidia arising sympodially or synchronously; if single, in acropetal chains' to 'conidia solitary, not in chains', an already tortuous apposition making sense only if the semicolon in the first phrase is interpreted as an 'or', not as an 'and' as it usually would be. But the key (...truncated)