A manual of the diseases of infants and children

Front matter

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Open Knowledge Commons

A MANUAL

Preface To The Fourth Edition

This little book has been so cordially received that a fourth edition has been prepared with the idea of bringing it up to date. Numerous minor changes and additions have been made, and among these may be mentioned the insertion of an article on pellagra in children, the use of the soy bean, and some other methods in the section on infant feeding, a chapter on drug eruptions and a full account of the Binet- Simon test for the mentality of children. It has been the aim of the author to keep the book a small one so that the student may use it for rapid references in the wards or clinics, and it will also be found useful as a desk book for practising physicians.

The references throughout the book will be found of great use when the student wishes more extended information than is given in the average text-book. For the most part these references are in readily accessible journals in the English language and the articles referred to contain, in most instances, extensive bibliographies.

Baltimore, Md., September, 1914.

Preface

The average medical student attending the third and fourth sessions has about fifteen different brandies with which to familiarize himself. The text-books treating of these subjects average about 1000 pages each, or a total of some 15,000 pages. The student is busy all day at the college or in the hospital. In the evening he is expected to review the subjects which he has considered during the day, as well as fill in the many gaps in the college curriculum. Small wonder is it that, as the German proverb puts it, he cannot see the wood for the trees.

This little book has been prepared for the medical student, not to supplant the larger and necessary text-book, but to enable the student to grasp quickly the more important parts of the subject of pediatrics, and to furnish him with a rapid reference-book for clinical use. It is hoped that the volume is not too condensed to be of service to the busy practitioner.

In preparing this book all of the more important text-books have been consulted, as well as the literature as found in the journals. The chapter on Infant Feeding has been made more comprehensive than might be expected in a work of this scope, owing to the great importance of the subject. A large number of references to journal articles have been added as footnotes to enable the student to look up any given subject in the medical library. Almost all of these references will be found to contain a more or less complete

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bibliography of the subject. As many teachers suggest that students look up various topics in the medical library, a short chapter has been added on this subject.

The illustrations are partly original and partly from other authors. For these latter the writer wishes to express his obligations to the authors from whom they have been borrowed. Many thanks are also due to Dr. W. E. Magruder for assistance in reading the proof and to Messrs. W. B. Saunders and Company for their courtesy during the preparation of the work.