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The presentation of a summary of knowledge of any particular branch of medicine is of great value, provided it is well done. It can be of great scientific value if the author has the analytic knowledge and the ability to present all of the pertinent material. In fact, such summaries may be milestones in scientific progress, and in many instances their value is greater than that of original research, unless the latter is of outstanding value. Such a compilation in three volumes is presented by William Engelbach in "Endocrine Medicine." The scheme of presentation is to present the endocrine glands as individual functional units, as related to each other through the interhormonic action and the interrelation of their incretions on the nonendocrine system. The individual glands are discussed in order of the period of life in which they are most active.
The first volume, of 460 pages, presents the fundamentals—etiology,