In Britain, as the editors state in the preface, many medical students do not possess standard large texts of surgery. The present work is intended to fill this need for a comprehensive yet compact book at a moderate price.
To achieve homogeneity and awareness of the common problems of medical students, the number of contributors has been kept low. The style and composition lend the feeling of a single-authored text. The senior editor has written ten of the 31 chapters, and the coeditor, five. Five other authors contribute the balance. The editors have stressed general principles and accepted concepts rather than the divergent views of research workers. The book includes very little operative detail. Excellent line drawings emphasize practical points, but no original photographs or roentgenograms are reproduced.
The style is succinct, direct, and clear, as we have come to expect of English authors, and the diagrams are pertinent and