Review of The Pigmentary System: Physiology and Pathophysiology (2nd ed) by James J. Nordlund, Raymond E. Boissy, Vincent J. Hearing, et al.

It is not without some apprehension that I submit my first book review to the readership of Dermatology Practical & Conceptual. The challenge of succeeding my colleague and friend, Mark Hurt, as Book Review Editor is great. In fact, I am certain that I will not be able to fulfill it alone for any length of time. Therefore I want to begin by inviting readers of the Journal to participate actively by suggesting titles they would like to see reviewed, submitting their own reviews and/or in any other way that might come to their mind. I would be extremely grateful to receive your contributions. I can be contacted at: ac.cq.bpsssc@ettelim.siocnarf. 
 
The format that Mark used to apply to his reviews (submitting the books to two reviewers, obtaining responses from the authors when possible and only thereafter writing is own text) is ideal and should be maintained. However since I have accepted only very recently to the opportunity of Book Review Editor, I could not proceed that way this time. Rather, I have chosen to present a book that I had the pleasure to read and found unexpected and interesting surprises. 
 
Let me now humbly present my first contribution as Book Review Editor of the Journal.


Introduction
It is not without some apprehension that I submit my first book review to the readership of Dermatology Practical & Conceptual. The challenge of succeeding my colleague and friend, Mark Hurt, as Book Review Editor is great. In fact, I am certain that I will not be able to fulfill it alone for any length of time. Therefore I want to begin by inviting readers of the Journal to participate actively by suggesting titles they would like to see reviewed, submitting their own reviews and/ or in any other way that might come to their mind. I would be extremely grateful to receive your contributions. I can be contacted at: francois.milette@cssspb.qc.ca.
The format that Mark used to apply to his reviews (submitting the books to two reviewers, obtaining responses from the authors when possible and only thereafter writing is own text) is ideal and should be maintained. If this is true of dermal melanocytes, needless to say, it can only be truer for nodal melanocytes. My a priori intuition that the affirmation that nodal melanocytes were "migration arrested" was essentially speculative was confirmed.
However, as is often the case in life, the point of arrival was less interesting than the road followed. I had made a wonderful journey through the pages of this book that purported to be nothing less than the definitive text of its time! In fact this rather vain statement has some truth in it. The book is a team effort to which nearly 120 authors from all around the world collaborated. It covers all aspects of the "pigmentary system" that can come to mind. Even the contemptible notion of skin color based racism is evoked (on page 5): The furious pace of forward progress was slowed somewhat in the early part of the nineteenth century when skin color scientists in both Europe and America were drawn into acrimonious debates over social issues, especially slavery and the place of "peoples of color" in the family of man.
As its subtitle indicates, the book is divided in two parts: I. Physiology and II. Pathophysiology.
Part I is particularly interesting for a dermatologist or a dermatopathologist curious to explore the basic science foun-   The following two sections explore respectively hypopigmentation and hyper-pigmentation disorders from the most common to the rarest and exotic entities. Each is presented in a coherent manner going through historical perspective, terminology, epidemiology, clinical findings, associated disorders, histopathology, laboratory investigations, diagnostic criteria, differential diagnosis, pathogenesis, treatment and prognosis. Iconography of these two sections can be considered remarkable especially if one considers the rarity of many entities treated.
The following section addresses the pigmentary disorders of nails and mucous membranes. It is not clear to me why placing those entities affecting nails and mucosae apart appeared necessary to the authors and editors of the book. In my opinion it creates some confusion, as in the preceding sections extracutaneous disorders of pigmentation affecting the meninges or the eyes were included with disorders of the skin.
The next section concerns benign neoplasms. This is probably, at least to the eye of a pathologist, the weakest part of the book. The section is divided in two parts devoted respectively to frequent and rare neoplasms. The designation "rare" should probably be replaced by "controversial," as at least some entities discussed in this section captioned "Rare benign neoplasms of melanocytes" are clearly malignant.
Consider, for instance, the so-called "melanotic neuroectoder- Perhaps is it better that way, though, judging from the unconditional adoption of the dysplastic nevus theory presented in chapter 24 devoted to the genetics of melanoma. The mythology of precancers surrounding the concept of melanocytic neoplasia physiolopathology could only have been spread by a chapter such as this.
The last section of the book concerns treatment of pigmentary disorders. I humbly admit that, since I am a pathologist, I skipped this section. Pardon me! As an excuse I may say that the book already is seven years old and I suspect that many things probably have evolved during these years so. Since I cannot judge, I leave it to the interested reader to decide.
I will conclude by admitting that this second edition is already dated and it is possible and even probable that some notions presented have evolved. To my knowledge there has been no further edition of this book. Nevertheless, this second edition is so large in its scope that I am convinced any curious scientist interested by the subject will still find valuable things in it.