A new book on pediatric cardiology from the United Kingdom offered the prospect of a portrayal different from that seen in several recent United States newcomers or revamped oldsters. Dr. Hamish Watson, who edited the work, has assembled 68 chapters by 39 contributors in almost 1,000 pages. Well over half the contributors are from the United States, but the omission of contributions from pediatric cardiologists who have amassed enormous clinical experience below the 55th parallel in the United Kingdom seems an extraordinary one.
One in five of the authors is an internist, and all have made important contributions to the subject previously. The inclusion of physicians working with adolescents and adults, while facilitating a broad view of the picture of heart malformation, unfortunately tends to reintroduce an old error: the internist concentrates on what for him is the "big picture," ie, the big child, to the deemphasis of larger problems