Noch vor wenigen Jahren war die Beschaftigung mit der nationalsozialistischen Geschichte der Medizinischen Fakultaten ein absolutes Tabu. Nun zeichnet erstmals ein Autor die Entwicklung einer Medizinischen Fakultat monographisch nach. Am Bonner Beispiel stellt Ralf Forsbach die hochst unterschiedlichen Akteure in den Instituten und Kliniken vor. Zugleich stehen die internen Strukturen im Blickfeld, vor allem aber Moglichkeiten und Grenzen des Agierens in dem komplexen Wissenschaftsgefuge des "Dritten Reichs." Forsbachs akribische Studie macht deutlich, dass samtliche Mediziner der Universitatskliniken und -institute durch ihre Arbeit das nationalsozialistische Gesundheitssystem stutzten. Selbst oppositionelle Klinik- und Institutsdirektoren glaubten sich an nationalsozialistischen Medizinverbrechen wie der Zwangssterilisierung oder dem hemmungslosen Umgang mit den Leichen Hingerichteter beteiligen zu mussen. Die Problematik um die nicht immer klaren Grenzen zwischen Opposition, Widerstand, Anpassung, Mitlaufertum und explizitem Bekenntnis zur NS-Medizin erhellt zu haben, gehort zu den Verdiensten des Buchs, das weit uber die Qualitat einer Lokalstudie hinausreicht."

This is the initial volume in a new series entitled Ars medicinae: The Science of Medicine and Human Salvation. The name of the association behind the series is Initiative Gesundheit (Health Initiative), which is made up of physicians, researchers, and university teachers working in the sciences and the humanities. This first publication is designed to reflect the broad range of subjects to be addressed in the volumes to come, the immense variety of which has prompted the editors to opt for a format that will do justice to this multiplicity.The leitmotif for the first installment is "health," a concept that both delineates the boundaries of the topics envisaged and provides an introduction to the issues and problems involved.In line with the interdisciplinary approach adopted by Initiative Gesundheit, the essays assembled in this volume approach the subject from the perspectives of medicine, medical history, philosophy, theology, and philology. Historically, the purview extends from antiquity to the present day.

Now in its second edition, this atlas serves as an easy-to-use diagnostic guide for the analysis of the human karyotype. Split in four parts, it starts with a comprehensive introduction covering the molecular cytogenetic basics, the role of ethic committees and international quality control in the field of diagnostics. The main parts II and III show the spectrum of different types of chromosomal abnormalities by a combination of karyogram and ideogram. They compare the significance of different banding techniques, give the karyotype formula and describe morphological peculiarities of each case presented. The final part provides a detailed description of non-coding DNA variants and focuses on potential problems in the detection of aberrations. It also mentions necessary additional investigations and peculiarities to be considered when counselling carriers of a chromosomal aberration or their relatives. Given its comprehensive scope and practical approach, this atlas is an indispensable resource for researchers, clinicians and practitioners working in the field of cytogenetics and clinical genetics.