When I was a youth in medical school we used abbreviated booklets in various courses called compendiums. This volume is such a booklet, updated of course, in obstetrics and gynecology. It is in a loose-leaf format with glossy paper and, as the authors indicate, is geared to the house staff level. They refer to it as a manual that they evidently intend to flesh out, but their primary selection has been rather odd.
It consists basically of complications of pregnancy, labor, and delivery, a gratuitous chapter on obstetrical regional anesthesia, a few chapters on uterine and ovarian carcinoma, management of postmenopausal bleeding, and a finale on evaluation of female infertility, which includes organization of a fertility clinic. If the book addresses itself to the house staff, it would appear to me that chapters on proper conduct of normal pregnancy, labor, and delivery are equally important as their aberration. They have