This unique volume may very well foreshadow the treatment of renal disease in the twenty-first century. The editors have obviously compiled and reviewed the current clinical problems in which the kidney plays a major role. They then selected as topics for chapters those in which recent scientific investigations have added significant new data. The investigators themselves or their peers have been persuaded to produce a summary of current concepts of renal structure and function for each topic. The result is a volume which will be as invaluable as a clinical guide on the laboratory bench as it will be a reference for the clinician seeking guidance to rational therapy at the bedside. The strength of the volume lies in the incorporation of those data on renal cellular structure and function which hold the key to the etiology of the majority of renal diseases we now call 'end-stage'. Fully, two-thirds of the volume is devoted to current concepts of renal function and related subcellular structure of various renal tissues. The illustrations, correlations, and explanations are superbly presented in much detail and with an obvious effort to fill out the current knowledge of each subject. We may anticipate this book will remain a valuable reference for many years to come.