Essential Clinical Medicine, edited by R.H. Salter. Pp. x + 532, illustrated. Wright, Bristol, 1984. £9.95. The best medical teaching is received on the wards. A good teaching ward-round can impart more knowledge than many hours spent in the lecture theatre. Unfortunately once a clinician has obtained his necessary qualifications, he is no longer exposed to this form of teaching, except possibly from his juniors or at hospital clinical meetings. Many become set in their ways, practising the

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... cine they were taught years before and often perpetuating the errors. Conventional textbooks cannot correct this problem but a clinician's vademecum might, and this is what 'Essential Clinical Medicine' edited by R.H. Slater attempts to be. Each of the nine chapters in this 'bench-book' is written by an individual specialist about the common problems he encounters. The style is similar to that ofa ward-round and the somewhat sketchy illustrations reminded me of those drawn by consultants on the backs of temperature charts. They are certainly easier to understand than many of the illustrations in conventional texts. It will be interesting to see whether this book reaches a second edition. Its rather uncritical repetition of the given truth is however suitable for medical students or MRCP Part II candidates in the weeks prior to their orals and clinicals. The occasional error ( fig. 6 .3) can be forgiven, but I do feel that the treatment recommended for malignant hypertension (page 15) would cause more cerebral damage than it prevents. As a mainstream account of contemporary British medicine as practised in the wards of a busy hospital, this volume can be recommended; whether any consultants or principals in General Practice ever read it is, sadly, uncertain.