Kenneth Ellman

This review is from: Wilderness Medicine: Expert Consult Premium Edition – Enhanced Online Features and Print, 6e Author: Auerbach, Wilderness Medicine Hardcover

Kenneth Ellman Reviews “Wilderness Medicine”, by Paul S. Auerbach, A Deep Knowledge of Medicine and Science, September 7, 2014. From ke@kennethellman.com, Box 18, Newton, New Jersey 07860
As I write this review, the Auerbach work is now in it’s Sixth Edition. In the field of Scientific Medicine, the only comparison I can make is with the extraordinary Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. The Merck 19th edition of 3754 pages is a much more compact volume than this Auerbach work. But each has incomparable scientific and medical information, with the Auerbach book providing hands on clinical care for every possible and impossible environment and circumstance.

Wilderness Medicine is 2277 pages in a large size hard bound volume that you will wish could always be with you. However unless you carry it in a backpack or digitalize it, it is not an easily portable creation. There is a much smaller field companion edition but it cannot compare with this vast medical science compendium of the parent Wilderness Medicine. I cannot overstate the wealth of information both academic and practical that this book contains. The more you read it the more it continues to surprise and perhaps shock in its coverage of medical, environmental, survival and practical science and skills in virtually every possible setting and some settings that are impossible for most people. If you find a medical or survival subject not contained in this book please let me know. Don’t worry if you will undertaking a Space Expedition, as this volume even includes Space Medicine for those who may be contemplating such an adventure (currently not that many of us).

There is a scene from the 1960 H.G. Wells Time Machine movie (somewhat absent from the Wells book) where 3 books are missing from the library of the Time Traveler when he again leaves. The thought is what 3 books did he take to a world without any books and where human knowledge is so decimated and reduced. If this book would have been in his library I think he would have chosen it. Wells would probably have laughed at my statement since I do not think Wells took his own stories too seriously, yet I also think he would agree after reading Wilderness Medicine that he must have his copy . Remember as an old man Wells obtained a Doctor of Science degree.

At this point you may gather that I consider the title Wilderness Medicine to be misplaced.
It is. This Wilderness Medicine is an Encyclopedia of Clinical Practice of General Medicine including Emergency Surgery, of Survival Skills and Equipment, of practical and explicit advice and information on how to cope with living in our world today. Wilderness Medicine appears to be a creation of at least 211 Contributors. There are 114 Chapters and an Index and an Appendix on Drug Stability in the Wilderness. The book is well taught with voluminous charts, tables, figures, photographs, and clinical presentations.

This is in actuality a total science textbook on a combination of Earth Science, Physiology, Emergency and General Medicine and Procedures and related technology and survival skills. Physicians and any person who knows how to read can gain lifelong valuable information, ability, understanding and knowledge by reading this book and having it available when needed. To master the entire contents is probably a lifetime of devotion. Get this book and get out of it all you can. Let me know what you think and if you disagree with me please tell me. Kenneth Ellman, Email:ke@kennethellman.com, Box 18, Newton, New Jersey 07860