Problems in Respiratory Medicine

THE increasing importance of geriatric medicine in the medical curriculum is shown by the fact that, whereas ten years ago there were no short soft-cover textbooks on the subject, in 1981 second editions of three of these books appeared. The second edition of this book has the same basic format as the first and is a product of the author's wide knowledge and experience of the subject. Revisions to bring some topics up to date have been undertaken, and three new chapters have been added-on skin diseases in old age, home assessment visiting of the elderly and retirement. The chapter on the home assessment visit has been written by Dr EW Knox and is one of the outstanding features of the book, being full of clinical acumen and warm humanity. This chapter and the large table of normal and abnormal age changes are unique to this book and make it an important contribution to the literature on geriatric medicine. Professor Adams has succeeded in the difficult task of writing a textbook which emphasises the medical aspects of health care of the elderly without repeating the contents of textbooks of medicine. This book should, therefore, be used as a supplement to textbooks of medicine. There is no doubt that this edition will repeat the obvious success of the first. RWS