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The seven-year updating of this 408-page, soft-covered volume by the editors and 20 coauthors was aimed at "providing the student and postgraduate with a basis in dermatology for the final MB or MRCP examinations and subsequent practice." On balance, their aim has hit the mark, though it may be more useful for the examinations than for practice.
The multiple authorship provides a trap. Black and James advise only venesection in the treatment of porphyria cutanea tarda (page 154); Cairns and Pope agree, but they say "chloroquine can be helpful but must be used with great caution," and the type of caution is not specified (page 199). Frain-Bell, in an excellent, if perhaps overly sophisticated, new chapter on photodermatoses suggests either venesection or chloroquine therapy in a dosage of "around 77.5 mg twice weekly," which is the best advice of all but might be missed unless the reader searches the book's