In this 14th edition, Dr. Barnett, intending a different approach, has invited outstanding specialists to serve as associate editors and to share in the responsibility for the major chapters. In addition he has included an "extensive and sophisticated discussion" of the mechanisms underlying both human development and disease in infants and children. Actually, the presentation of material in this volume is comparable to that of the leading competition. But there is indeed a vast difference between this and the earlier editions by Holt and McIntosh. These were excellent books at the time, but the present volume is a complete, up-to-date presentation of material for the pediatrician of 1968-1969.
In a multiauthored book there will always be unevenness, no matter how well the book is edited, and this is no exception. As the editor himself has suggested, this is a "first" edition, and it will require subsequent editions to achieve the