Handbuch der Inneren Medizin: Blut und Blutkrankheiten.

Abstract

This rather impressive volume deals, as indicated by the title, with clinical entities resulting from abnormalities of the erythrocytic system: anemias, erythremias, and polycythemias, with a separate chapter on anemias of childhood. It is the second part of the volume on hematology, which is again part of a 14 volume textbook of internal medicine. It was conceived and prepared by Heilmeyer with the collaboration of several prominent German hematologists, who completed the work after his death. The basic outline is fairly standard, but the extent and detail of various discussions is sometimes unbalanced. The chapter on Osteopetrosis, for example, comprises 35 pages and that on Hereditary Elliptocytosis, 20; Thalassemia Syndromes are described in only 10 pages. There is an extensive bibliography which covers almost 100 years (up to 1968) with better representation of European literature than American. It is surprising, for example, that in the chapter on iron absorption the