We were pleased with the favourable reception given to the first edition of our
book and proud when it won first prize in the Medicine category of the 2009
British  Medical  Association  Medical  Book  Competition.  Indeed  we  feel  that
there has been more than enough support for our conviction that this text should
be  a  welcome  addition  to  the  member  of  the  Davidson  family  of  books.  Our
original  aim;  that  it  should  encourage  and  help  students  to  approach  clinical
problems  in  a  way  similar  to  the  contributors,  all  chosen  because  of  their
considerable  clinical  and  teaching  experience,  appears  to  have  been  met.  But
medicine does not stand still and there have been ample advances and changes
in the diagnosis and management of diseases to warrant an extensive update and
revision of the text. We have dropped a few cases and added a number more to
complete the century; hence the not so subtle change in the title of this edition!
Davidson’s  Principles  and  Practice  of  Medicine,  now  in  its  21st  edition,
has stood the test of time because it continues to reflect Sir Stanley Davidson’s
determination to produce a book that was readable without ambiguity, uncertainty
or wordiness. It attempts to provide an international perspective on disease, to
reflect  the  huge  success  that  the  book  has  had  in  many  parts  of  the  world,
especially in the Indian subcontinent.