Clinical Toxicology

The authors in the second edition deviate little in their original intent, namely, a book useful both as a guide to the general practitioner and as a text in the classroom. Intimate details are avoided in the discussion of the pharmacy, chemistry or general pharmacology of the drugs capable of acting as poisons. This edition groups and discusses the poisons according to the mechanism of action or the chief presenting symptom instead of following the usual chemical or alphabetic classification. That system may be more satisfactory to the student and physician but restricts the discussion of a poison from several considerations.

About three fourths of the book discusses the toxicology of poisons, diagnosis and treatment in a fairly adequate manner. The book has been somewhat expanded to include chemicals which have been put to increasing use since the last edition, such as the chlorinated solvents of ethane. Still omitted, however,