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Gastroenterology is a rapidly changing field with new drugs, immunological techniques, and technology dramatically altering its fabric. Sleisenger and Fordtran presented us in 1973 withGastrointestinal Disease(currently in its fourth edition), which broke away from traditional clinical gastroenterology and introduced extensive pathophysiology into GI teaching. Their fine text represented a quantum jump from the then existing texts and thinking. This has been further improved with each edition, retaining what was strong and enhancing the clinical sections, as well as incorporating new information. Now, after 18 years, a new major leap in GI texts has been accomplished by Yamada and his coeditors, making theirs clearly the best, and I hope to convince you of this. There are four major subdivisions: "Basic Mechanisms," "Clinical Approach to Common GI Problems," "Specific Diseases," and "Diagnostic and Therapeutic Modalities." All logic and decision making are related to the pertinent basic science. The genius of
Frank L. Iber (Wed,) studied this question.