More than 10 years ago, I had the chance to visit the university hospital in Munster, Germany. At the outpatient clinic there, I accidently met a young dermatologist who was devoted to the study of the quantification of irritated skin during his busy daily clinical work. I sensed immediately that this Dr. P. Frosch was conducting his research with the ideals and enthusiasm which were so familiar to me. Soon we found that we shared a similar past experience; we both had begun our careers in dermatological investigation with the same mentor. For me it was more than 25 years ago that I first met Dr. Kligman, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA. I reminisced that I had been greatly shocked by his initial question ''As a dermatologist, do you want to study living or dead skin?" because, at that time and even today, whenever we cannot collect enough information about the skin with the naked eye, it is invasively removed is common practice to histologically examine a skin sample that from living tissue. Many dermatologists still would never think of studying the living intact skin itself noninvasively with the aid of existing advanced technologies to assess its structural and functional properties. At that time Dr. Kligman intended to build up a system of evaluating the skin from various aspects, using methods that had been unduly neglected in the past and introducing various technological instruments.

This is an "old-fashioned" book in the best sense of the term: It is written by one man, and it is scholarly, complete, thorough, and thoughtful. It is, in fact, a magnum opus wherein every aspect is not only touched, but handled to perfec- tion. This is a treatise that deserves careful reading by that increasing cadre of medical specialists who understand the many ways in which mycoses threaten human health and happiness, viz, the veterinarian, pharmaceutical chemist, general practitioner, pharmacologist, and entire consortium of researchers who study the biology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of fungus infec- tions. Mycoses encompass a vast spectrum of diseases from trivial superficial skin infections (tinea versicolor), troublesome ringworm infections (the tineas of skin, hair, and nails), yeast infections (candidosis), the systemic mycosis (cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis), and even the deep-seated infections due to molds and saprophytic fungi (aspergillosis). It is precisely because of the great variety of causative organisms that the imidazoles deserve a special treatise. They provide the first class of drugs with therapeutic activity against all the important fungi which infect humans and animals. Accordingly, their medical significance is great and the possibilities endless. Morever, the imidazoles are the first effective drugs whose antimicro- bial activities extend beyond the usual designation of "broad-spectrum. " Broad-spectrum antibiotics, for example, are either antifungal or antibacterial, not both as the imidazoles are. To be sure, there have been other chemothera- peutic compounds which inhibit bacteria and fungi.