Recent years have prepared us to expect some disappointing changes in the new editions of our favorite textbooks. It has become customary for the textbook authors to recruit collaborators. While the multiple authorships may help to increase the accuracy of the text, it almost invariably weakens the cohesion, breaks up the continuity, and disturbs the uniformity of style.
Dr. Rushmer has not escaped the pressures which have modified the structure of many other recent textbook editions. He assigned the discussion of the clinical problems to several colleagues from clinical departments. The somewhat arbitrarily selected bits of information on the etiology, diagnosis, or therapy of the cardiovascular disease do not blend well with the bulk of a book designed to present the structure, function, and control of the cardiovascular system. These clinical chapters, comparable to a good syllabus for second-year medical students, may be instructive to the novice, but have limited