This little book was assembled from the authors' lectures to medical students and was originally published as one volume in the series Human Physiology, edited by O. H. Gauer, K. Kramer, and R. Jung. The editors intended that each volume in this series be independent of the others and we have kept to this purpose. We have included here only material that we feel is necessary for medical students to know in order to understand kidney function in health and, by later extrapolation, in disease. The contents rest on accepted principles estab lished by experiments, and little space is given to what is controversial, hypo thetical, or unresolved. We are pleased that Dr. Coxon has been motivated to prepare an English language version of this text. We hope that it will serve as a ready reference and review source for the beleaguered medical student. P. Deetjen J. W. Boylan K.

The strengths of this popular text { its conciseness and logical progr ession through renal physiology and pathophysiology { are retained in the 4th edition. The text has been updated throughout, and the content has been expanded to make the book eminently suitable for 'systems-ba sed' courses.

Easily understood, up-to-date and clinically relevant, this book provides junior anaesthetists with an essential physiology resource.