exposed as a poor substitute for a properly planned and executed removal. The rest of the book is devoted to a wide-ranging, though necessarily rather superficial, account of identification factors, the hardy old annuals of race, sex, age, stature etc. being given the treatment. However, on p 55, a novel approach is offered, in that a new strategy for identification is proposed in which a type of statistical matching is made between the gathered data from the bones and the possible matches with known missing persons in the area. Though this is the object of any identification process, the authors have put it on a more systematic basis and those forensic scientists with a bent towards "joint probability theory" will enjoy these manoeuvres. There are many peripheral matters discussed, such as etymology of bony remains, some botanical considerations and some practical appendices about the personnel, equipment, and documentation needed during bone hunting. A good book for SOCOs, detectives, and any interested policemen, but one which forensic scientists themselves need not feel is too elementary for them: indeed, to paraphrase the authors again, they hope that the law officer and the academic will share in the recovery process, to their mutual benefit.

BERNARD KNIGHT

ECCE THESAURUS

Exotica W St Clair Symmers (Oxford University Press, 1984, 226 pp., ISBN 0 19 261225 5 , £8-95) Exotica is the sequel to Curiosa and to the unfamiliar is a further collection of unique, unusual, and always instructive cases collected by Professor Symmers. As the title implies, the cases recorded in this book concentrate upon those with an exotic background which at first usually escaped the patients' medical attendants. It also includes cases which go far to show that nothing is impossible in medicine.

Exotica is essentially for pathologists, although physicians and surgeons would also benefit from perusing the pages. Much is written in a light and amusing vein which caused the reviewer much uncontrolled mirth. However, each case, or group of cases, however amusingly presented, carries a lesson and also important pathological teaching. Those of us who have been delighted by hearing the author at first hand describe some of his Curiosa et Exotica will be grateful to him for producing the "camera-ready" copy himself to enable its publication at a price which can be afforded by the pathologist. They will be delighted by his slating of neologisms which have become part and parcel of modern medical terminology and never more than the less accurate and sometimes misleading modern synonyms for pseudotuberculoma silicoticum.

Exotica is a must for all pathologists, especially those who appreciate

Professor Symmers7s wit and clear exposition. Let us hope that he will find time to complete the trio with Etcetera.

A KEITH MANT

MESMER-VERBALS

Forensic Hypnosis: Clinical Tactics in the Courtroom Milton V Kline (CC. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1983, 154 pp., index, ISBN 0398048525, $24.75)

There are some interesting ideas in this book but they will probably be of more interest to hypotherapists than lawyers, the police or forensic scientists.

The message of the book seems essentially to be that although hypnosis may not create 'supermemories' in normal individuals, and although it may lead to confabulations and distortions of memory, it can still be useful in cases where the witness is traumatized or mentally ill (or to establish the same). Three of the nine chapters seem to deal directly with forensic issues; these concern judicial perspectives and defending the mentally ill (Chapters 1 and 2) and considerations in the role of the expert witness (Chapter 9). The bulk of the rest of the book espouses some more general principles about how hypnosis can be used to establish the mental state of an individual, either at present or previously. If it is the case that hypnosis can be used to establish mens rea, or the absence of it, then it would indeed be an important investigative tool. However, Kline provides little definitive evidence as to whether hypnosis can achieve this other than some anecdotal case histories and his own conviction. The problems with anecdotes in this area are well known, the essential difficulty being that it is impossible to establish whether hypnotic intervention per se was responsible for any 'successes7, or whether some other incidental feature was responsible.

Whilst it may be the case that hypnosis will be shown to be useful in some cases, I doubt that this book will do much to further its use in the forensic context. Forensic scientists will probably baulk at its non-experimental orientation, and lawyers will find little practical instruction, and the theoretical implications hard to follow. The problem is perhaps best illustrated with an example, not atypical, from page 29 in the chapter entitled 'defending the mentally ill':

'Sensory hypnoanalytic techniques emphasize the reorganization of cognitive correlates of sensory and motor components encountered in behavioural disorders. Nonverbal stimulation is utilized in elucidating areas of sensory deprivation and sensory overload. . . Sensory hypnoanalysis had been found to facilitate rapidly abreactive experiences, spontaneous regressions, the intensification and frequency of nocturnal dreaming, and the spontaneous venting of rapidly emerging feelings directly bound in with repressed ideation and affect'.