Preface to the fourth edition:

The very fact that the fourth edition of "Essentials of clinical Medicine" is in your hands, clearly demonstrates the encouraging response it has received from the medical students and the practitioners alike. It is really a great pleasure for me and I express my gratitude to all concerned for the same.
In this new edition the book has been thoroughly revised and edited with necessary additions and alterations in an attempt to bring the work more nearly up to date. In different chapters, few diseases have newly been incorporated e.g. Nephrotic syndrome, Rheumatoid arthritis, Gout etc. A new chapter on "Vitamins" and some of the deficiency diseases has also been added. Latest technological procedures which have proved valuable aids to diagnosis e.g. Ultrasound sonography, Scanning etc. have also been incorporated. In the "Temperature" chapter, conversion to corresponding centegrade scale has been worked out as and where necessary. The chapter on "Laboratory data" has been thoroughly revised and rewritten with many more additions.
Medicine is an unfathomable ocean. But my endeavour here is humble. The basic aim of this book is to train the students with clinical approach. With this end in view, I have restricted inclusion of theoretical disease conditions. This book is in no way a substitute for the text books of medicine. Readers are requested to go through the books mentioned in the "Bibliography" for intensive as well as extensive study.
I am thankful to m/s. M. Bhattacharyya & Co. Pvt. Ltd., who has come forward to shoulder the responsibility of publishing the fourth edition which has been a great relief to me in the light of my ill health and advancing age.
The help rendered to me by various quarters in the preparation of this new edition can never be fully acknowledged. However, I cannot refrain from specially thanking my dear pupils Drs. Kali Sankar Bhattacharya, Kalyan Bhattacharya, Kankar Bhattacharya and DilipAdhikari who were always at my beck and call in completing this work.
Suggestions for further improvement of the work and correction of mistakes if any will be highly appreciated.