This is a medical text-book, designed for college students. It was written by three professors at the Boston University School of Medicine. They also taught its subject in their classes, they updated, and corrected errors for three editions of the book. The first edition was published in 1952, the 'Second Edition' was published in 1954, and the final "Third Edition" was published in 1957. This is also Isaac Asimov's first published non-fiction book. Isaac Asimov mentions the book, and his seven years working on it, in the first two volumes of his autobiography. It originally cost $9.