Edited by George R. Schwartz, 4th ed, 1936 pp, with illus,ISBN 0-683-07646-9, Baltimore, Md, Williams & Wilkins, 1999.
This is the fourth edition of a comprehensive emergency medicine textbook first published in 1978. Six years have passed since the issue of the last edition; the new version represents a remarkable change. Those who remember the cumbersome two-volume 3400-page metallic gold third edition will barely recognize the size and conservative appearance of this updated single volume. This reversion from two volumes to one is a novel development and most welcome. Emergency medicine lacks a single-volume reference text that is a consensus authority, and the editors of Principles and Practice of Emergency Medicine are in the running for this designation.
