One might well question the present need for a book emphasizing the surgical aspects of liver disease because of the recently published texts which cover the major portion of the material included in this volume. Furthermore, there already exist surgical texts devoted to portal hypertension.
It is, of course, quite possible that with further advances the surgeon's role in the treatment of liver disease may increase, particularly as it pertains to hepatic resection and transplantation. These aspects, as well as that of hepatic trauma, are treated in separate chapters, which are missing in other textbooks on the subject of hepatic disease.
The chapter on liver function tests does not attain the high caliber of the remaining portions of the book. For example, there is no mention of hyperlipemia producing false increases in thymol turbidity or of the diagnostic value, in cases of cirrhosis, of the greater increase in the serum