When I first picked up this book I wondered for what sort of reader it was intended. It looked too small to deal with the enormous breadth of the subject in any great depth so I thought experts and workers in the field who might have wanted a thorough discussion on a particular issue would be deterred. I believed that it would not be attractive to paediatricians and other clinicians because it had a decidedly epidemiological approach to the subject. However, my opinions changed rapidly as I read …