It seems that fingernails and toe-nails, despite being among the more visible parts of human anatomy, rarely receive their due in literature. Those descriptions that are offered often seem to lean toward the sinister: long, clawlike fingernails or tortures involving insertions under, or extraction of, the nails. But nature and normal human activity can provide plenty of problems for these 20 comparatively small anatomic areas, and many of the nail-related difficulties that are apt to come to medical attention are described in this interesting and unusual book. According to the author, some of these problems, such as the polish removers of a few years ago that could go through the nail plate, are subsiding. But other problems still are surfacing as a result of past events. For example, keratoses now are being seen that are attributed to ionizing radiation used 20 to 35 years ago to treat fungal problems and