This book is written primarily for practicing physicians in the United States and in Europe, and the object is to provide "information sufficient for the comprehension, the diagnosis, and the treatment of tropical diseases." The approach is therefore clinical and pathological and no detail is provided on the entomology or the epidemiology of the conditions considered.
This policy is fully justified by the needs of doctors practicing in temperate regions who now are commonly confronted with clinical problems that have originated in the tropics. For the handling of these problems in temperate environments detailed knowledge of the background epidemiology is unnecessary and its inclusion in a book of this kind would greatly increase size and cost.
Further justification of this approach is in the large numbers of persons now traveling to and from the tropics and immigrating from the tropics to temperate regions, bringing with them tropically acquired diseases. The