Oxford Textbook of Medicine

159 good understanding of the placement of the transducer and changes in patient position to highlight certain features. Like the first edition published six years earlier, this is an excellent, well-written volume of use to the clinician as well as to the ultrasound technician. With its expanded treatment of findings and interpretations, it furnishes a good replacement for its predecessor. How does one review a mountain? The Oxford Textbook of Medicine replaces Price's Textbook of the Practice of Medicine which ran 12 editions. This new compendium weighs over 14 pounds and contains over 2,600 pages written by 300 authors under the direction of three editors. The textbook covers the usual subdivisions of internal medicine, including diseases of organ systems, diseases caused by infectious or environmental agents, and metabolic and endocrinologic derangements. Brief chapters on genetic-immu-nologic-neoplastic diseases, gerontology, and terminal care complete the list of subjects covered. The Cecil Textbook of Medicine (three editors, 240 authors, 2,350 pages) is similar in format. Harrison's Principles ofInternal Medicine (seven editors, 85 authors, 2,100 pages) contains in addition a long section on "Cardinal Manifestations and Approach to Disease" particularly useful to medical students. Certain imbalances are present in the Oxford text. For example, a section on congenital heart disease and treatment of the adult with congenital heart disease is given 36 pages while the entire subject of gerontology, an important and steadily growing responsibility in the practice of internal medicine, receives only ten. In the section on principles of drug treatment of cardiovascular disorders, the broad classification of drugs includes digitalis, diuretics, catecholamines, f-blockers, vasodilators, and antiarrythmics. In the latter two sections, nifedipine and verapamil, respectively, are mentioned virtually in passing. Calcium channel blockers have been used for a number of years in Europe and although relatively newly introduced in America already play a major role in the therapy of many car-diovascular disorders. While the Oxford text is understandably two years behind current literature, this important class of drugs should have been discussed more extensively. Speaking of drugs, the usual disparity in American-English pharma-cologic nomenclature is present. I always think of wood when "lignocaine" is mentioned. There is less disparity in the names of newer drugs-presumably a spinoff from the development of international industrial conglomerates. I was unable to find any mention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the text, nor a presentation of a systematic approach to advanced cardiac life support-subjects of particular value for …