» Casarett And Doull's Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons (Casarett & Doull Toxicology)

Casarett And Doull's Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons (Casarett & Doull Toxicology) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book!!! totally worth it
Comment: I feel this is a great book for toxicology students. I am a PhD student and I find it very very useful.......I am not sure about undergrads. I totally liked it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: 7th Edition, Essential if Flawed
Comment: This is a book by and for professional toxicologists. Folks in the field have long regarded it as the standard. It is the primary text for most graduate programs in toxicology around the world. I own editions 2, 4 and now 7. Despite some of the rather uninformed reviews below, it does keep getting better with each subsequent edition. And note the dates on some of the other reviews, they refer to earlier editions. Number 7 just came out in November.

I cannot compare the 7th edition to number 6 but I can say that relative to number 4 the introductory chapters are much improved. The first three chapters provide a solid overview of the History of Toxicology, Principles of Toxicology and Mechanisms in Toxicology. The only thing missing here is a chapter similar to Shan Gad's excellent treatise on Statistics in Toxicology found in A. W. Hayes' "Principles and Methods of Toxicology" (which you should also own). Andrew Parkinson's chapter, Biotransformation of Xenobiotics, is by itself worth the purchase price, and the chapter on Toxicokinetics is one of the best short discussions of this subject I have seen. The book then has chapters on Chemical Carcinogenesis, Developmental Toxicology and toxicology related to various organ systems. As with any large text written by a group of experts in a particular field these chapters are variable in quality and sometimes tend to emphasize the research interests of the individuals writing the chapter. I found the chapter on hepatic toxicology terse and inadequate considering the importance of this organ system. The chapters on pulmonary and renal toxicology are stronger. With the exception of the chapter on metals, the other chapters on Toxic Agents are far from comprehensive. The topics of animal venoms, plant toxins, radiation and pesticides really require books of their own but the treatment here is adequate for the entry-level graduate student. The chapter on Regulatory Toxicology is most informative if about as exciting as watching paint peel.

The book does contain a very few factual errors, but this is not surprising in a book this size written by so many people. It does not make the book any less valuable for the toxicologist. It would be next to impossible for Dr. Klaassen to police completely such a massive text. That said, the editing (and certainly the printing) has not yet approached the level of sophistication found in such texts as Goodman and Gilman or Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. The book still cries for greater internal consistency and the imposition of standards that lead the individual chapter authors away from their personal interests (I had an advisor once that taught four lectures to medical students on cyanide, he was the expert) and more toward general principles and practice. There is also a glaring lack of information about the now not so new advances in molecular toxicology; some of the authors need a few new arrows in their quivers. But, the single worst fault of the book is the index or serious brevity there of. For example, the chapter on ocular toxicology describes the classic Draize test over nearly two pages yet the word Draize is nowhere to be found in the index. It lists very few chemicals. This lack of a comprehensive index seriously limits the usefulness of the book as a reference. You already have to know a lot of toxicology to find what you are looking for in the text.

If you aspire to be a toxicologist (and you should), buy this book. If you desire to become a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (and you should), buy this book - many of the exam questions come directly from it. Once you really know enough to understand its flaws you will probably be a toxicologist.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: it's still the ultimate toxicology book
Comment: there is not that much to say, really. Casarett & Doull's Tox book has been THE toxicology textbook for the past years. This edition has a few additions and changes, but not that many, so older editions are still worthwhile. However, anyone in the environmental science field, toxicology, carcinogenesis or related subjects, you should have this as a reference book. period.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Hopeless
Comment: As a doctoral graduate in toxicology and now a practicing preclinical toxicologist for several years, I rate this book not only as "poor", but poorer with each new edition.

Consider Goodman & Gilman's Pharmacology. Like C&D, it is a text with nearly as many authors as chapters, and covers diverse subject material. UNlike G&G, though, Casarett & Doull's painfully lacks the editorial wisdom, guidance, and "tie-together" of the exceedingly disparate chapters. As a result, there is a lot of overlap, and a lot of gaps.

In case you graduate students haven't figured it out, this book is essentially the manual for the ABT cert exam. In my opinion, that is the only thing keeping it in print. Otherwise most of us in practice would have a book that covers chapter 6, and then separate references for our area of work. As a preclinical toxicologist, for example, I couldn't give two hoots in hell about air pollution or toxic effects of plants.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: If you can only buy 1 toxicology reference, make it this one
Comment: I found this to be an outstanding and thorough treatment of the entire gamut of toxicology. The book is well organized, with a very logical sequence of chapters. Each chapter is authored by recognized experts in the various subspecialties of toxicology, such as neurotoxicology. The principles and model systems of each specialty are discussed in detail. This text contains no fluff. I recommend it for graduate level students and above, though ambitious undergraduates may find it useful as well. My only suggestions for improvement would be updated figures and a glossary of terms. I sometimes found that authors of the earlier chapters would use terms which were not defined until later chapters. Overall, this is an excellent reference--well worth the price.

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