This huge tome is an encyclopedic work dealing with disease from the standpoint of the causes and the part that the host plays in the disease. Realizing that this subject was too inclusive for one author, Gay has used a collaborating staff of nineteen specialists, most of whom are associated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.
The book confines itself largely to principles rather than to practice and does not contain, except in rare instances, any details concerning the technic of the laboratory sciences with which it deals. An attempt has been made to have the book fall somewhere between the designation of a textbook, on the one hand, and detailed systems or monographs on the other. In this respect the work is a success, for it will give the reader all that is necessary in most instances, unless he is specifically interested in some small