50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Comprehensive Health Guide for Wide Audience, June 3, 2003
This is an excellent guide to health and wellness written for lay people and quite comprehensive in its coverage. This second edition (first comes from 1997) adds about adds 35 chapters and 400 pages to the first edition, with updates throughout the book (e.g., on various drug therapies). It is very well-organized, primarily as 300 plus chpaters written around body systems (e.g.. digestive disorders) or topical areas (children's health, preventative medicine). The book has many short sub-sections within chapters (typically 5 to 10 pages) that cover specific topics (skin cancer, glaucoma, family planning) that can readily be found in the table of contents. The book is extremely well written with a very detailed index that makes it easy to find information on specific topic. One nice feature of this book is that it is printed to be about the size of a college dictionary (though with larger print than most dictionaries). It also includes an excellent appendix listing other resources for information by topic, with organizations listed out with their mail addresses and web sites.
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unparalleled Masterpiece - ALMOST PERFECT!, December 2, 2004
Compared to other medical references available in the market such as American Medical Assoc, Harvard's, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic or British Medical Assoc medical / family health guides, etc. the Merck's Manual is definitely the best and the most complete & informative. With contributions from around 300 medical experts, no other guide comes close to it in terms of quality, readibility and relevance. However, this 1940-page awesome piece of work can yet be further improved. That's why I'm not giving it a full 5-STAR rating.
One feature that can be added to this Medical Manual are a series of FLOW CHARTS with cross-referencing for the readers to "diagnose" their symptoms, complications etc. Doesn't have to be too many - probably around 100 symptom charts would do. These decision diagrams would be quicker and easier to use than the Index. The ones found in British MA Family Doctor Home Advisor and Harvard's Family Health Guide are very good examples.
Secondly, the editors should use the METRIC SYSTEM for measurement units e.g. temperature in Celsius (with Fahrenheit in brackets), weight in kilograms, metres (or centimetres) for height, etc. so that everybody around the world can enjoy reading those knowledge-packed pages without having to convert and carry a calculator every time.
Thirdly, some COLOUR CODINGS (or thumb index) should be helpful for easier referencing since the book contains over 300 chapters. At least, we don't have to refer to the Appendix or Content Page too often. If colour codings are too expensive, shades of grey, light red (as in the diagrams) etc. should still be acceptable.
Fourthly, the middle coloured-pages section of the book (8-page colour inset) showing the various systems of the body should be placed with the flow charts (as suggested above) so that it can give an EXCELLENT OVERVIEW of the body's anatomy, physiology and related diseases and complications.
Lastly, the Index is not that exhaustive. Not all relevant pages are listed e.g. an important page on "thalassemia" (page 994) has been missed out. And entries for common symptoms like "sneezing" cannot be found. May be a REPRINT with CORRECTIONS is advisable.
P/S. A slightly THICKER PAPER would do justice to this book...
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Merck Manual, February 12, 2004
This is a comprehensive book, detailing nearly every type of ailment known to mankind. Those who judge just one small portion of it (who may or may not have medical degrees to support their opinions) do the work an injustice by focusing on the narrow instead of the entire range of the book.
This book is full of detail that the average person can comprehend. At times the book does seem a bit rigid in that certain ailments can only occur in specific parts of the body. Case in point, my wife was diagnosed with a ganglion cyst on her ankle, an uncommon location, but according to the book, such cysts are limited to the wrist.
But this does not detract from the overall usefullness of this book as a standard reference. Of course, no book should be the sole source of medical evaluation and doctors must be consulted as the needs arise.
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