Textbook of the Rheumatic Diseases

The current edition of this textbook remains a collection of informative papers brought expertly together into a compact whole. The book is spotty in that some of the chapters are excellent—notably the editor's on the historical aspects, Davidson and Duthie's on rheumatoid arthritis, Horder and Bywaters' on rheumatic fever, and Golding's on radiology—while others are mediocre. Clinical description is heavily accented, particularly the severe, museum specimen type of disease. This is in contrast to the current emphasis on early disease in rheumatic disease instruction in the United States at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Schlesinger's chapter on Still's disease is a notable example of this tendency. The illustrations, particularly the radiographs and colored plates, are superb and alone would justify the book. For these reasons, this book should be considered a reference work rather than a textbook for undergraduates. The format is pleasing, typographic errors are few, and the style,