As old as the practice of medicine itself is the desire of clinicians to identify easily observable cutaneous signs leading to the diagnosis and eventual treatment of obscure internal diseases. Even with the availability of a plethora of sophisticated modern diagnostic tests, the skin, because of its immediate accessibility, remains a focal point in any search for clinical clues to the cause of underlying systemic symptoms. A basic appreciation of associations between internal and external disease, as presented in this book, is requisite for both the competent dermatologist and internist.
Two of the editors, Jeffrey P. Callen and Joseph Jorizzo, describe this 350-page volume as a teaching text. Read cover to cover, it unquestionably is. More importantly, this book represents an update of the principal reference text in most dermatologists' libraries for cutaneous clues to systemic disease. As our specialty experiences an apparent drift of interest toward the lucrative procedural