Fundamental Mechanisms of Human Brain Function: Surgical Treatment of Epilepsy as an Investigative Resource

capita gross national product of less than one dollar per day. Provision of medical care for the indigent in America is a microcosm of this problem, and thus the article should be of interest to American physicians. Historically, England has been involved in Asia, Africa, India, and elsewhere, and the text often is concerned with medical subjects peculiar to foreign geographic areas or to undeveloped or developing countries. These subjects may be of lesser interest to the average American medical student or practitioner. Production of the monumental second edition of the Oxford Textbook ofMedicine is obviously a major achievement. The text is markedly improved over the first edition and will serve well as a useful reference resource of internal medicine. I believe, however, that its massive size and price, description of British treatment modalities, which sometimes differ from American, and techniques and utilization of a significantly different pharmacology, will render the volumes less attractive to American students and practitioners than the classic American texts.