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Previous Volume 340:659-660 February 25, 1999 Number 8 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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By M. Lawrence Podolsky. 430 pp. Amsterdam, Harwood Academic, 1997. $32.95. ISBN 90-5702-556-6.

In his lecture to first-year medical students entitled, "The Internist as Sherlock Holmes," Stanford hematologist William Creger described the "crimes" (illnesses) that strike patients and the "clues" (the patient's medical history and the results of physical examinations, laboratory tests, and other tests) with which physicians have to work. He went on to demonstrate that the clues are not always in sequence. Data can be incomplete or misleading; physical evidence can disappear. Too many sleuths can spoil the plot; reasoning can be faulty. The payoff — finding the solution by using a systematic approach — is exhilarating. What could be better . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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