For the most part medical texts either cover a narrow field exhaustively or review a broad subject in less detail, trying to emphasize key points. Sodemans' Pathologic Physiology exemplifies the latter.
That such a book exists today reflects the temerity of its authors and the demand of the medical public, the latter conditioned by salutary experiences with previous editions. In 1967 only a courageous editor supported by a splendid group of contributing authors should attempt to review mechanisms of disease in one volume.
I think the Sodemans have succeeded, for the quality of the text is high and most sections are remarkably current. A few chapters suffer from excessive minutiae. Often a fine line divides a superficial discussion from an encyclopedic one. Authors of such texts as this should not feel compelled to be encyclopedic. Rather, they must present basic pathophysiology lucidly and simply, offering the average reader a solid