The Oxford Medical Companion

When John Walton published The Oxford Companion to Medicine, reviewers were ecstatic. "I had a wonderful time reading these two volumes," wrote Eric Cassell in The New England Journal of Medicine, "but I must confess that it was difficult to get other work done....[It] should be enjoyed not only as a useful reference but also as a mine of information about the present, the past, and by extrapolation, the future." Given the tremendous response, Walton and two distinguished co-editors began to thoroughly revise and edit this massive work to produce an accessible, convenient, up-to-date resource--The Oxford Medical Companion, an invaluable reference for doctors, students, and medical professionals of all kinds, as well as the general reader fascinated by the healing arts.
The Oxford Medical Companion represents an unequaled achievement among medical resources: here, in one volume, is a comprehensive account of the state of the physician's art, presented in hundreds of alphabetically arranged articles. In fact, no matter what your training and background, you'll find much to learn from this magnificent work. Here are articles summarizing the past and present of entire specialties of medicine--psychiatry, for example, or neurology, or anesthesiology--along with concise definitions of medical terms, capsule biographies of key figures, and entries on illnesses, medical education and training, the structure of the profession, and other related topics. This new Companion is tremendously far-reaching in scope, ranging from accounts of medical systems around the globe to essays on social issues and the close links between medicine and the arts, including painting, music, and literature. Most important, this book provides the definitive reference on the latest advances, such as the rapidly expanding field of molecular medicine and the most recent research into genetics. Indeed, this volume allows specialists and students, as well as the lay person, to probe the farthest reaches of the medical field. Along the way, the contributors paint a rich portrait of the long history of medicine, from the writings of the ancient physician Galen to the depiction of illnesses and doctoring in Shakespeare's plays.
Unlike other books of medicine, The Oxford Medical Companion is neither a weighty, inaccessible tome nor a popularized account of little interest to professionals. Instead, here is a refreshing departure--a rich, intelligent guide to the state of medical science, written by the world's leading authorities, that will appeal to the broadest audience