A practising clinician is required to use knowledge from many differ ent fields. It is unrealistic to expect him to be master of more than a few. In reality, clinicians acquire a smattering of information on most relevant subjects, and learn which texts provide the detailed informa tion which is occasionally required on more highly specialized matters. In my professional contacts with clinicians and medical students it has become evident that they often lack the simple frame work of microbiological knowledge necessary to guide their actions. This is because standard textbooks and learned...

The purpose of this book is to provide reviews of various antibiotic topics which will be of interest to practising clinicians and to microbiologists. It is hoped that enough references have been provided to enable the enthusiast to immerse himself in the source literature. No attempt has been made to cover the whole field, which is well catered for in the numerous works on the subject. Rather, the intention has been to select a number of topics in which there has been a great deal of change in recent years, and to ask an appropriate authority to review the subject. Since I chose the topics,...