Smith's Blood Diseases of Infancy and Childhood

Abstract

The authors of this lucid and comprehensive textbook have spared me from an awkward position. When I first received this textbook for review from the editor, I was tempted to return it and ask him to seek another critic. I felt that I had valid reasons to decline comment: the coeditors of the book were either my friends or respected colleagues, I was the coeditor of a competing textbook in the field that contained contributions from some of these writers, and, finally, I had great respect for the late Carl Smith, the father of this book. Criticism might be painful or appear self-serving. The moment I began thumbing through the book I was trapped. It was well organized, clearly written, and well designed for its intended audience of "medical students, pediatric house staff officer, trainee in pediatric hematology-oncology, pediatrician, family physician, laboratory technologist, pathologist, and internist-hematologist who dabbles in pediatrics."