Edited by G Douglas Campbell Jr and D Keith Payne (pp 315 plus index and colour plates; $95) 2001. Haggerstown, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 0 7817 3436 3

This book aims to cover an enormous subject, and the editors have done very well to contain it to a little over 300 pages. Its 26 chapters are grouped into six sections, the lion's share being occupied by respiratory topics, with critical care being limited to the relatively short final section. The atlas format is certainly stylish and on the whole achieves the editors' aim—that is, of helping busy clinicians and students of chest disease absorb …