Having the privilege of editing the English language version of this book I have found the detailed thought, explanation and step-by-step instruction that this book provides most refreshing and stimulating. There are few publications indeed that provide a completely reliable companion to bedside and out-patient instruction for the medical student - and even fewer that enhance the established physician's techniques. Medical skills in the art and science of patient examination are normally learnt experimentally - time, personal instruction and constant repetition are necessary for them to be acquired. Even then it must be admitted by many that there are some techniques that are never fully understood, properly learnt or correctly concluded - and these errors are liable to a lifetime's repetition. This volume with its excellent photographs and illustrations takes the reader clearly and incontrovertibly step-by-step through every detail of all the procedures necessary for the standard forms of examination of a patient. It is a companion for every student and doctor who wishes to learn fully and completely these necessary skills and to improve the ones they already have. Dr Alexander D. G. Gunn, Director, University Health Service, Reading, Berks, UK 1982 Preface to the Dutch edition The idea of writing this book coincided almost them a superficial acquaintance with five or six exactly with the establishment of a 'skills 'fashions' and proficiency in none of them.