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This is a book of major importance in the field of chest diseases. First, its purpose is unique: to explain and interpret the physiological disorders of the respiratory system in disease states. No other book attacks this job so precisely. The widespread recent interest in clinical pulmonary physiology makes this task a large one. The authors consider the work an extension of earlier efforts at McGill and dedicate it to the memory of Jonathan Meakins. It is indeed a handsome tribute! Comparison with the first edition reveals that the text has been rewritten completely without much additional length.
Second, the book is masterful for its reduction of difficult concepts to simple, understandable explanations. The authors write for the physician and not for the graduate student in physiology. The outstanding parts of the book are chapters 2 and 3 which describe normal and applied pulmonary physiology, chapters 6 and 7 on