Rob McEvoy, University College Cork

Wheater’s Functional Histology was recommened as a reference book for my first year Anatomy courses at Medical School. Histology is microscopic anatomy, which many students find it difficult to get excited about, compared with gross anatomy! Wheater’s opens up this invisible world of human cells and makes it accessible to the pre-clinical medical student. The first thing Inoticed about Wheater’s was the feel of the book – it is printed on a glossy paper that really enhances the histological images. The 400+ pages of the book mostly comprise high-resolution images of histological slides. Our Histology lecturer used many images from Wheater’s in class; however, these are much better quality in the printed book than in the lecture notes. I registered the book on studentconsult.com and had immediate access to all of these images in the ‘Virtual Histolab’, an excellent interactive learning tool. Wheater’s is not just about histological slides: all of the images are labelled and accompanied by clear, explanatory text. From time to time cartoon diagrams of the relevant gross anatomy are given, to put the histology in context. Purple boxes scattered throughout the book make clinical correlations with the material under discussion, helping us med students to realise the importance of histology in the big picture of treating patients.

Posted 4th Oct 2011

nabeela adam, University of Stellenbosch

It is a fantastic, easy book to read. What I love about this book is that it is not only histology but a bit of anatomy and physiology is also explained. This makes the book easy to understand. One is also then able to apply the theory to a clinical situation that you may have heard or read about.

Posted 10th Oct 2010

Andrew Batchelder, University of Leicester

Wheater’s Functional Histology is a histology textbook which systematically covers cell structure, basic tissue types and organ systems. The micrographs are complimented by diagrams which serve to explain the tissue sections. A range of magnifications and further diagrams are especially helpful in aiding understanding of how macroscopic structure relates to the microscopic details. The labelling is clear and the accompanying text is comprehensive without being overly-detailed.
Also provided with the text is a CD of all the micrographs and diagrams in the book. Its purpose is principally to provide the reader with a bank of illustrations for presentations etc.
In summary, the combination of clear, colour images and easy-to-read accompanying text make for an excellent book for medical students.

Posted 1st Jul 2008

Lucy Blair, University of Keele

Wheater’s Functional Histology provides a comprehensive reference text. It is more than just a directory of histological images, as each chapter contains an introduction that gives a general overview of the contents. This is very useful and contains a large amount of both molecular cell biology and physiology. All chapters are continuously illustrated by excellent diagrams, figures and tables throughout. Clinical correlation boxes relate the importance of the histological structure to function, which is a nice addition. All these features combined make each chapter very understandable, approachable and very user friendly. This book mainly uses photomicrographs taken with electron and light microscopes. These have exceptional figures which are both well labelled and coloured. Details about the use of the microscopes, staining techniques and a glossary are developed in the appendix section at the back of the book, making the book more reader friendly. This book also allows you to access all the images online via Student Consult, which includes a bank of self assessment questions. I would definitely recommend Wheater’s as the book of choice for Histology studies.

Posted 1st Jul 2008