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This engrossing book by a distinguished internist, peripatetic teacher, philosopher, and writer is unique. We have passed the time when generalists in medicine make even a token effort to cover so wide a sphere of medicine comprehensively. Thus its uniqueness is of a kind not likely to be seen again. No longer will there be medical figures of proportions comparable to Jonathan Hutchinson, a man who in the literal sense took all medicine for his field. Snapper's book is just the kind of bedside reading anyone can enjoy even if he cannot put it down. It will not favor somnolence, though it can be read in brief snatches or consecutively. There are innumerable marks of the perceptive clinician. Not only has Snapper seen medicine widely in Europe, Asia, and North America, but he has seen it wisely and digested it well. The book is rich in personal and anecdotal matters.