Chronic and Constrictive Pericarditis.

For this volume, Dr. Spodick has compiled a reference list of more than 1,000 publications concerned with chronic and constrictive pericarditis. It is improbable that many important works related to these disorders have been omitted, although it is curious that the classic work of Capps is not mentioned in the brief and inadequate discussion of pain in pericardial disease. Unfortunately, this monograph tends to be reportorial rather than critical. One is left with the impression that the author has been content to record conscientiously what has been described, without endeavoring to subject his material to thoughtful scrutiny. This type of presentation is unlikely to assist the reader in clarifying his views about complex or controversial matters. The paradoxic pulse, for example, is an important clinical phenomenon in pericardial disease. Numerous hypotheses explaining its mechanism have been proposed, and they are duly mentioned by the author. I question whether many readers,