The Merck Manual of Medical Information is a book about the field of medicine.

It  covers everything from legal subjects in medicine to children's healthcare. Since medicine is a very big subject this book is very thick. It is useful no matter it is used by a physician, a caregiver, families, or patients.

I like this book because it is a very approachable book for everyone. We can also search for symptoms in its special index.

I found out that underneath the name of a symptom or a disorder, many causes and its page numbers are listed, for example, underneath the topic of cardiac arrhythmia,  atrial fibrillation, atrial fibrillation and Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, atrial flutter, atrioventricular block, Brugada syndrome, bundle branch and fascicular block, ectopic superventricular rhythms, reentrant superventricular tachycardia, sinus node dysfunction, ventricular fibrillation, ventricular premature beats, and ventricular

tachycardia are listed.

These topics all have a very thorough description containing:

Cause, symptoms, diagnosis and prognosis. Oftentimes, the medications for the disease is included. The other parts include highly relevant cross-reference, subjects on emergency medical care, exercising and overall body fitness, sections focusing\ specifically on the subject of drugs, herbs, and nutraceutical products. Diagnosis tests are also mentioned. The Merck Manual also has a very interesting history.

First published in 1899, it was a 192-page booklet named “Merck’s Manual of the Materia Medica” Even Schweitzer carried a copy to Africa! The publisher, Merck & Co., is a pharmaceutical company. In its history, the Merck Manual has always been the bestseller in all the medical text published, and I understand why. With its easy to use  format and its detailed descriptions, both physicians and patients benefit immensely from this all time classic medical text that had accompanied Schweitzer to Africa and Admiral Byrd to the South Pole!