The editors of this volume occupy senior positions in departments of pediatrics in England. They have been fortunate in securing a distinguished list of contributors from England, the United States and Russia. The scope of the 21 contributions which make up this Second Series of Modern Trends is comparable to that familiar to readers of Advances in Pediatrics published in the United States. Modern Trends attempts to cover the recent advances in the entire field of pediatrics, as broadly conceived, in contrast to the fewer selected contributions in each volume of Advances in Pediatrics.