Clinical Pharmacology (dilling)

FoR this new edition of Dilling's Clinical Pharmacology extensive revision has been undertaken by the staff of the Department of Materia Medica and Therapeutics of Glasgow University, based in the Stobhill and the Western District Hospitals. For medical students it is good that so many of the modern textbooks of pharmacology are written by authors familiar not only with pharmacology but also with the use of drugs in current therapy. This is the case with this excellent book. Few books for this price give so much information. There is an interesting section on chemical nomenclature, sensible advice about prescribing and a useful section on immunising agents. Many students will find this book too detailed; and for its size I would like to have seen included less didactic statement and more critical discussion of modern controversies. It should surely devote more space to the discipline of the controlled therapeutic trial. There is a limited bibliography of useful reference books and textbooks, but I would like to see references to contemporary papers at the end of each chapter. The modern student needs to be persuaded to read journals; it is a necessary discipline if he is to remain an educated doctor throughout his life and in no subject is this more obvious than in modern therapeutics. O.L.W.