The flowering of pediatrics during recent decades, especially the past ten years, has been characterized by intensive research, accumulation of a vast body of new and clinically useful information, proliferation of pediatric subspecialties, and the introduction of a variety of advanced techniques in the diagnosis and treatment of patients.
We are virtually inundated with new knowledge. Even the most conscientious and dedicated doctor finds it difficult, if not impossible, to keep abreast of this constantly quickening scientific stream. Even the specialist has difficulty mastering his specialty.
In addition to the flood-tide of original pediatric articles, we have an increasing number of definitive monographs, multiauthored general textbooks, and condensed and simplified pediatric books that seek to make the more clinically useful aspects of current knowledge more readily available.
Practical Paediatric Problems, by James H. Hutchison, fits into the latter category—a relatively small general pediatric textbook. As stated in the preface to