This book is the eighth edition of what has been a true classic in the field. First published in 1958, it was, for many years, virtually the only quality textbook that attempted to compile information related to the infectious diseases of children. However, despite assertions of two of the authors that the preparation of the eighth edition has been responsive to "dramatic changes that have occurred since publication of the seventh edition in 1981" and despite the addition of two distinguished new authors, this book does not serve as a complete text of infectious diseases of children and might fare better as a textbook of selected diseases.
A sense of the problem begins in the table of contents, where an alphabetized list of topics chosen for discussion includes intermingled specific diseases, disease syndromes, and specific pathogens. From the contents section, it is not obvious which chapter might contain information about