Customer Reviews

Wheater's Functional Histology: A Text and Colour Atlas, 5th Edition

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This new edition of Wheater's features more quick-reference tables and diagrams, while still focussing on the relationship between structure and function of cells. The authors understand that not all students enjoy histology. It is designed to dip in and out of, and makes the time spent on histology slightly less tedious and more productive. The slides are of very high quality and more EM slides have been included than in previous editions. This edition is keeping up with the needs of students.

Also included is a CD ROM of all the slides in the book and a programme to enable these to be arranged into tailored presentations. This can also be used as a random slide presentation to test knowledge.

Young and Heath have improved an old classic, making this a very good buy for all with an interest (voluntary or enforced) in Histology

I was pleased with this new edition. The text and images are superb, and the CD-ROM is a nice feature that allows me to tailor presentations to my needs. There are many new schematic diagrams, charts and tables wich in my opinion improve the utility of the book. One drawback is that the color tables and charts, which are extremely informative and visually pleasing, do not show up well when used in presentations. They are too light. Otherwise, I highly recommend this book for students who would like good images for reference, with enough text included to aid understanding, but not so much that the book becomes tedious.

I've somewhat changed my view of this book over the last few months. Although what I said below is correct, my overall judgement was too harsh, so I've increased my rating from 3 to 4 stars. It's not that this is a great book, it's just that medical courses these days have slimmed down the Histology component so much that books like these are more than adequate. In fact, you can do extremely well in theory exams by just studying prac books like this.

Now of all *prac* books, this is certainly the best! And having completed my first year Histology course, I am certain Wheater's would have had more than enough detail - and would have saved me a lot of time. Get this book if you're a medical student, but if you're a histology major or need something more advanced, you will be disappointed by this book.

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Many of the reviews here are full of praise for Wheaters, and they aren't all wrong in my opinion. Wheaters is one of the best "prac"/lab books for histology. However, the people who give it 5 out-of 5 are either biased or filled with elation from passing their courses that they neglect the weaknesses of this book.

Like any book, this has weaknesses. Glaring ones at that: the diagrams are sometimes too dark (contrast too high) or too pale (contrast to low), most of the pictures are much too small to discern and analyse the detail, the text is certainly what you need to know for 1st year med ... lab, it is not going to get you through the theory exam with flying colours.

As I said, though, this book is one of the best "prac"/lab books, because it doubles as a decent text and a decent atlas. But, it is neither the best text or the best atlas. Di Fiore's long running atlas has excellent drawings with many photomicrographs and deserves a browse. I haven't seen Gartner and Hiatt's Atlas, but I hear it is competitive. Then there is Kerr's Atlas, which lacks quantity but has some good quality.

As for texts, Ross, Romrell and Kaye is a popular choice (it has a good, but not overwhelming level of detail for Medicine). Junquiera's Basic Histology is also popular. For a simpler book, or simpler course, Cormack's Essential Histology is an excellent choice.

So, if you're looking for a book to bring to practical classes/labs: you can't really go wrong with Wheater's. But, don't rely on this book to carry you through the theory exams. You'll often be frustrated that some of the things you need can't be found in this atlas, or that the pictures are too darn small. Overall, a fair buy ... but, the best advice is to, shop around a bit before deciding.

As a first year medical student, I was required to buy this Atlas. I thought it was a terrible atlas for someone who has never taken histology before. The identification of the structures is minimal and often confusing. I had to buy another atlas to make it through the course. (Difores Atlas of Histology).

Wheater's Functional Histology is a life vest in a sea of confusion. I am a first year veterinary student who was told that the best text for histology was the vet school's own published text. Ha! What a joke! The vet school's text has black & white micrographs and has a text that puts you to sleep within nanoseconds. Wheater's is a marvelous color atlas that is extremely user-friendly. Without Wheater's I would be totally lost. If you are entering vet school, make sure you purchase this book. Even though Wheater's Functional Histology is a human based book it is still superior to the black & white veterinary texts. The information is basically the same. Histology is histology afterall.

I am a medical student and found this textbook very helpful because it was well-organized and full of important information. It's very thorough and complete with great pictures. Also, this book will always serve as a great reference in years to come. My study group and I also used the following which is also on amazon:
Histology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers by Patrick Leonardi (isbn: 0971999686) The questions in the second book were of similar type to the tests in our medical histology class. In fact, we were recommended the second book from our friends at another med school and they found it quite helpful. It goes to show they were right, we all got A's and B's by using these two books.

This book has superb illusrations. It tells you exactly what you need to know. It will not go off on clinical tidbits etc. It will tell you exactly what you need to know about Pseudostratified Columnar Epithelium, and nothing else. The authors write a concise and informative book. I cannot any fault in this book.

Wonderful images, practical text. Made THE difference in my cell bio performance in my first year of med school. thanks for the great product and prompt delivery.

This is a nice text for supplemental materal, but not for a primary text. This was a supplemental text for my med school Histology course and it was a nice reference for images only. I would sometimes read some of the text near the image I was studying and found it was not informative enough for a primary text...I would always have to refer to our primary text (Histology: A Text and Atlas, by Ross and Pawlina) for clarification or further detail. But, with that said, I did use this text to practice further image ID...and it was great for that with nice image captions.

this book sucks compared to the last older edition, but our professor made us buy it. So I got it great, thanks Amazon, it's wonderful. but BOOO to the writers who didn't take good pictures this time around