Care of the Child with Diabetes

Abstract

With this report the proceedings of the Conferences in Advanced Medicine held at the Royal College of Physicians come of age.They have been of immense value to general physicians working throughout the country.The 1985 Conference was no exception.It is, however, a great disappointment that the Report has taken so long to publish.Dr Morris Brown wrote his forward to this volume in May, 1985 and it has taken more than a year for the book to appear.A great part of the value of these conferences is that they bring one up to date.Research and knowledge advance very quickly in medicine these days.Opinions about management change quickly too.It should surely be the aim of publishers to get this Report out within the year.There should have been firmer editing of the figures and tables and their captions.Many captions are difficult to understand or insufficient, presumably because in his talk the lecturer expanded the description.Some figures contain information not referred to in the caption or the text and are therefore irritating.A number of the illustrations have not reproduced well and could have been left out.Nevertheless, there are some excellent lectures reported here.The topics covered in the Conference were endocrin- ology, liver and gastro-intestinal disease, cardiology and vascular disease, dermatology, neurology, haematology, a small amount of renal medicine and a section on new methods of diagnostic imaging.Not surprisingly, the style was patchy, some speakers having the gift of clarity and others not.Most lecturers have given their references and this is one of the particular values of this book, it opens the door to a much greater bank of information for those who wish to study a subject in greater detail.All in all, this book is an excellent weekend's reading for the general physician.However, at £35.00 it is too expensive and it has come out too late.A cheaper production appearing during the autumn following the Conference, even though it might have many blemishes, would be a better proposition.