The first edition of this book was a good one. It served as the standard reference for a number of disorders of hemoglobin that have been called by the Greek word for "sea." This edition, the second, is a better one; it may well remain the standard reference text for a long time.
Much of the recent knowledge of hemoglobin structure, its relationship to function, and the resultant clinical entities has come from the study of the thalassemia syndromes. It is appropriate that a lucid discussion of "The Structure and Synthesis of Haemoglobin and Its Genetic Control," the title of the second chapter, be given a prominent place in this book.
Such information is imperative to the understanding of the many thalassemic states. It is also important for an understanding of the range of conditions created by simple substitutions, rearrangements, or deletions to the complex hemoglobin molecule—information that only recently