Antibiotics in Laboratory Medicine

Abstract

This second edition of Dr Lorian's already-classic "silver book" is an encyclopedic compilation of current information concerning the various in vitro aspects of antimicrobial agents. One can only wonder, when perusing a volume of this scope, whether Alexander Fleming ever envisioned the revolution he started when he first described his "ditch plate" susceptibility test for the newly discovered penicillin in the years prior to World War II. This text has been updated and expanded extensively from the original 1980 edition, with seven new chapters, more than 100 new tables and illustrations, and nearly 500 more pages. The contributing authors' list reads like a "who's who" of clinical and experimental in vitro antibiotic research. These authors collectively discuss virtually every conceivable topic in their burgeoning field. The bibliographies for each chapter are compulsively comprehensive and current, with many 1984 and 1985 literature citations. The text is replete with tables, diagrams, charts,