Bigger and better, this fifth edition of a popular pediatrics book outgrows its designation of being a "synopsis" and emerges as a major, even though abbreviated, textbook that covers the essentials of the medical care of infants and children.
In a preface to the first edition, Dr Hughes indicated that his intention was to solve the riddle of combining brevity and clarity with a proper degree of comprehensiveness. In this edition, he has succeeded. The 32 chapters cover the field of pediatrics in a traditional fashion and in this edition two new chapters appear: "Adolescence" and "Child Abuse and Neglect." From the first edition through this one, the temptation to treat problems in a "cookbook" fashion has been resisted: mechanisms and reasons for disease, with a clear delineation of principles of treatment, have been used throughout. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the outstanding chapter, "Common Fluid and Electrolyte