A Synopsis of Medicine

A SYNOPSIS OF MEDICINE. By Sir Henry Letheby Tidy, K.B.E., M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P. Bristol: John Wright & Sons. Pp. 1215. 30s. WHEN, in 1920, Dr. H. L. Tidy set himself the task of producing "A Synopsis of Medicine" it was a formidable undertaking. How successful its outcome and how ac-ceptable to thousands of. medical readers is shown by the need for an eighth edition in 1945. The task which faced Sir Henry Tidy in revision and selection of new material must have been a pleasant one b;ecause of the tremendous advances in the treatment of disease, bu't it was rendered unusually arduous by two severe air raids on the publishers' premises and by the author's very active service as a Major-General, A.M.S. At least he can feel gratified in having fulfilled his wish to be "of assistance to those who have to revise rapidly their knowledge of medicine in general or of some disease in particular; to the worried student, and to the hurried practitioner, . . . possibly even to the teaclher with a lectuLre to prepare or to the examiner for purposes of a viva voce. . "Tidy" is, we are sure, a better book for the M.D. or M.R.C.P. candidate than for the final-year student; for the latter it is too condensed an intellectual pabulum, but as an iron ration for emergency use in clinical room or study it is invaluable. In this latest edition there are many interesting changes not only in the classification and nomenclature of diseases, but, as has been mentioned, in their treatment, notably by the use of sulphonamides, which, when the seventh edition was printed, were just rising above the horizon.