Merck Manual | Medical Textbook

The Merck Manual is the world’s most popular and the best-selling medical text book. Its complete name is The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. This medical book was first published in 1899 and now it is in 2006, it was in its 18^th edition.

This book is accepted by both professionals and general people as there are two editions available for both the parties. Merck Manual explains everything there is about disorders. It explains the likely person, who can have a certain health disorder, the symptoms that the patient would show, how they would be diagnosed for the disorder, how these disorders can be prevented, how the patients should be treated etc. It also provides valuable information to the reader about prognosis.

This amazing manual has been written in almost every language, thanks to the more than 300 contributors who have helped to make it possible. It can be found for free in the internet as a part of Merck & Co., Inc.’s public service measure.

The textbook also been widely recommended as references by many librarians. The amazing thing is that this book is pretty cheap if compared to other book. The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy has been listed in the Brandon/Hall select list of books and small medical library as the one of the most inexpensive medical books. The first of its kind was published by Merck & Co., Inc., pharmaceutical company. But due to its rise in popularity, it is now edited by and created by independent peer reviewers and editorial board.

There are normal hard cover editions of Merck Manual. But to make it available to the general mass, it can now also be found for free online. Like most of the medicine books for internal organ, the Merck Manual has also been divided into organ systems such as muscular system, gastrointestinal system, lungs, heart etc. It explains the major diseases that these organs can get infected with and talks about the prognosis, treatment and symptoms of the health disorder. In its 2992 pages, the Merck Manual has been able to condense important information on health disorders by emphasizing on none but only practical information that can come of use to the physician.

In order to let the general mass have a grab on the book, a revised edition for consumers named The Merck Manual of Medical Information, Home Edition was published 1997. A second edition of the Merck Manual for general consumers was published in 2003 which is a re-edited version. This edited home edition includes everything of the professional edition. However, it does not contain details about medical tests, technical information about the treatment procedure and about the health disorder and drug dosages.

But, it also contains medical terms of the health disorders in parentheses as many patients are also interested in learning about the medical terms which they want to use further reading purposes. It also has detailed illustrative descriptions about the functions of human organ system. The Merck Manual home edition version is also available on paper back covers and also on the internet besides its usual hard back cover.