Maladies allergiques is long overdue: the foreword states correctly that a French textbook on allergic diseases does not exist. The fact is surprising if one considers the discoveries and technical advances which French scientists have contributed to the discipline.
The treatise is uneven. The fundamental sections are readable and informative, but applied immunology changes so rapidly that a book which has required years of preparation cannot be uniformly up to date: the loose-leaf binding which permits periodic revision is an attractive attempt to solve this predicament.
The clinical sections suggest that the editors have been restrained and, at times, too gentle: the chapters emphasize the preferences and preoccupations of their authors. The sections on treatment are less convincing, less critical than the preceding sections. They represent a curious mixture of accepted and abandoned approaches to therapy without sufficient attempt to place them in proper perspective.
While the format of the