In this much needed monograph the authors have undertaken to bring together the scattered clinical and pathologic literature on this subject and to organize it in utilizable form, using as illustrations 50 cases of their own.
In the authors' classification, modified from Kugel, the following categories are considered: (1) congenital anomalies; (2) infections; (3) anemias; (4) syndrome of myocardial degeneration of Kugel and Stoloff; (5) hypertrophies of metabolic cause, including those caused by disorders of glands of internal secretion, vitamin deficiencies, storage diseases and cardiomegaly in newborn babies of diabetic mothers; (6) tachycardia; (7) hypertension; (8) tumors of the heart; (9) exudative pericarditis, and (10) an unclassified group.
Each of these categories is discussed in detail with illustrative cases.
A general clinical, electrocardiographic and roentgenologic discussion is then given with tables of differential diagnosis of the general syndrome of infantile cardiac insufficiency from pneumonia and pericarditis. It might be considered