Paediatrics is distinguished from general medicine by the different spectrum of disease encountered, and the interplay of disease and development within the growing child. Thus, clinical management taxes acumen, experience, and factual knowledge in a particularly challenging way. Infectious disease problems and their attendant pressures continue to dominate paediatric practice. As improvements in care ap­ proach marginal proportions, the onus on clinicians to provide prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment gains increasing importance. Newcomers are often impressed by the pace of evolving syndromes, indicating the need for repeated examination and balanced judgement at all phases of illness. This book considers common bacterial syndromes from a modern perspective. The authors' attitudes and opinions reflect their experience of paediatric infectious disease in a large teaching hospital. Thus, we are daily concerned with an overall minority of patients who fail to respond to domicilary measures. or who develop a specific complication. We believe this perspective will have particular relevance for community practitioners who take satisfaction in the care of sick children, and for house officers faced with the dual problems of an ill child and alarmed parents. M.J. Marks Montreal, January, 1979 v Contributors Ahronheim. Gerald A. Assistant Professor of Paediatrics, McGill University, Montreal. Marks. Melvin I. Associate Professor of Paediatrics and Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, Montreal. Spratt. H. Cl(fford Lecturer in Paediatrics, McGill University, Montreal.