The Body Fluids in Pediatrics.

Abstract

There is unquestioned need for a current, authoritative text on body fluid physiology, disorders of acid-base equilibrium, and parenteral fluid therapy in children. This book by 24 authors and edited by Dr. Robert W. Winters almost fills these requirements. The book was born, as explained in the preface, as a series of postgraduate lectures that were revised by the various authors into chapters, and additional chapters were added to round out the subject matter. As is often true in a multiauthored book, the quality varies greatly from chapter to chapter. Those sections written by Dr. Winters and his immediate colleagues at Columbia are uniformally comprehensive, well-documented, and written with clarity. Unfortunately, chapters by some of the other authors read as if they were transcripts of lectures. They deal primarily with that particular author's work, which, while significant, is seldom a comprehensive or balanced review of the subject. The chapters on