Textbook of Medical Treatment

THE latest edition of this very valuable book contains much up-to-date information. But although it has been kept rigidly to size it is still a heavy book and I doubt whether many students read it from cover to cover before they qualify. By the time they have qualified a lot of the details of treatment will be out of date (indeed in some instances this is already true). This raises the problem as to whether this book is meant to be a textbook for students or a reference book for qualified doctors. It has shortcoming in both respects: (a) As a textbook for students. Apart from being too long and detailed for the undergraduate the book is arranged in an extraordinarily haphazard way. Sections on general principles of treatment (the care of the unconscious patient, the care of old people, the relief of pain, principles of prescribing, disturbances in water and electrolyte balance etc.) are to be found scattered through the book, sandwiched between sections on the treatment of specific diseases. For instance, the use of antibiotics in certain specific diseases is described before the section on the general principles of antibiotic treatment. (b) As a reference book for postgraduates. Here the arrangement of the book is less important. It has an excellent index, a glossary of proprietary names for drugs and a well laid out table of contents. The major shortcoming as a reference book is the almost comp'ete lack of references to the medical literature. As is befitting a textbook for undergraduates many of the sections are beautifully written but express dogmatic opinions as to the correct and the incorrect methods of treatment. Some of these opinions are based on well established scientific knowledge but others ar not. Some of these latter are the accepted opinion of the 'medical establishment' but others are opinions held only by the author. There is no way of distinguishing these three on reading the text. F'or the practising doctor, as opposed to the postgraduate student, this book will be used for reference for the treatment of uncommon diseases, especially at the fringes between medicine and such specialities as dermatology and otorhinolaryngology. This provides adequate justification for the inclusion of these special subjects. This book has been found very useful in the past because there has been no convenient equivalent. It may need mor drastic revision and some alteration to maintain its preeminence. P.C.E.