This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
This is an impressive-looking two-volume loose-leaf set on cardiovascular disease. The volumes are bound in magnificent red covers which will look extremely handsome on any bookshelf. The price of this set is startling鈥�$35.00. The volumes are big enough and unhandy enough so that they will not be read in bed, on trains, or in the dentist's waiting room; therefore they are designed as a reference work. The publisher states that "all departments will be attentively scanned by the editors alert to send you low-cost replacement pages that will bring the worthwhile new developments on the heart."
While the principle of a loose-leaf volume which can be kept up to date with periodic revisions is a sound one, I always have questioned whether this actually works. There is evidence in these volumes to support the fact that it does not. The volumes were published in 1957. The chapter on bacterial endocarditis,