This work, Essential Endocrinology: A Primer for Nonspecialists, is written with dual purposes in mind: first, to provide a framework of basic endocrinology and diabetology to the medical student, and second, to provide a quick, con cise, and handy "guide" to the junior residents in their early years of training who wish to obtain a working knowledge about endocrine disorders that affect their patients. One of the outstanding advantages of being a teacher of en docrinology to students and junior residents is that it bestows a perspective from a unique vantage point. Books written for the junior members of our profession have suffered from extremes of caliber, ranging from excellence beyond their comprehension to insufferable mediocrity. Textbooks in en docrinology that are simple enough to cover the principles of that speciality and yet comprehensive enough without treading into controversial quicksand are few and far between. This book is aimed at filling that gap and is written with no other criterion than simplifying a complex subject matter. From this touchstone, the work has never really departed. A decade of experience as a teacher and physician in the field of endo crinologyhas impressed on me that the process of "simplification" rests on four basic principles: an understanding of endocrine concepts, the application of these concepts to the understanding of diseases, the transference of knowl edge to clinical situations, and the integration of the patient with the labo ratory, the ultimate testing ground where clinical diagnoses stand or fall."

This work, Essential Endocrinology: A Primer for Nonspecialists, is written with dual purposes in mind: first, to provide a framework of basic endocrinology and diabetology to the medical student, and second, to provide a quick, con cise, and handy "guide" to the junior residents in their early years of training who wish to obtain a working knowledge about endocrine disorders that affect their patients. One of the outstanding advantages of being a teacher of en docrinology to students and junior residents is that it bestows a perspective from a unique vantage point. Books written for the junior members of our profession have suffered from extremes of caliber, ranging from excellence beyond their comprehension to insufferable mediocrity. Textbooks in en docrinology that are simple enough to cover the principles of that speciality and yet comprehensive enough without treading into controversial quicksand are few and far between. This book is aimed at filling that gap and is written with no other criterion than simplifying a complex subject matter. From this touchstone, the work has never really departed. A decade of experience as a teacher and physician in the field of endo crinologyhas impressed on me that the process of "simplification" rests on four basic principles: an understanding of endocrine concepts, the application of these concepts to the understanding of diseases, the transference of knowl edge to clinical situations, and the integration of the patient with the labo ratory, the ultimate testing ground where clinical diagnoses stand or fall."

The past two decades have witnessed an unprecedented growth in the field ofneuroendocrinology. The conjoint research contributions by clinicians and basic scientists have promulgated revolutionary concepts at a breakneck speed. This first volume in Clinical Surveys in Endocrinology, The Pituitary Gland, has been written with but one purpose in mind: to integrate the current knowledge in this dynamic field with the existing body of information already available to the clinician. The chapters in this book attempt to portray current research information seen through the eyes of a clinician. The contributions of pioneers in each field have been placed in a perspective relevant to the practicing endocrinologist. The selection of the almost 1500 references from a bewil of literature has been inftuenced by the degree to which these dering body articles-original as weil as review papers-contributed to the growth of pi tuitary endocrinology. Despite the most scrutinizing attempts, it is inevitable and regrettable that works of importance must be excluded due to the practical limitations of any comprehensive work. Nevertheless, to the researcher these references are complete enough to serve as a significant resource. To the reader who wishes to gain an indepth clinical perspective of pituitary disor ders, this work is written precisely from that vantage point. The single authorship of this work notwithstanding, several friends have been instrumental in the completion of this work. I deeply appreciate the incessant zeal and excellent assistance of Ms."

This volume, The Adrenal Gland, is the second in the Clinical Surveys in Endo crinology series. Like its predecessor on the pituitary gland, this work is written with one purpose in mind-to view the vast, relevant adrenal literature through a clinician's eyes. The intricate, and often complex, interrelationship between the clinical and research perspectives of "adrenology" poses a challenge. This is, in part, due to the commonly held belief that the milieux of steroid hormone research and clinical medicine are parallel phenomena, not destined to meet. But the twain do meet, and often with relative ease, when viewed as twin facets of the same gem. The view presented in this work is from the vantage point of the clinical endocrinologist who applies the research literature to understand adre nal diseases more clearly. Adrenal pathology is arguably the most fascinating of all endocrinopathies. The images of patients suffering from adrenal diseases are of kaleidoscopic quality: the newborn child with ambiguous genitalia, in whom the very first ritual of assigning sex becomes shrouded with uncertainty; the revitalized pa tient with hitherto undiagnosed Addison's disease, who but for the cognitive powers of the endocrinologist would have ultimately succumbed, undiagnosed; the virilized female with adrenal tumor and its attendant onslaught on the body and mind; the febrile patient with pheochromocytoma masquerading as fever of undetermined origin for months."