Students often tend to regard diseases of the nervous system as a difficult subject. This book has surely dispelled that traditional belief, as testified by the success of the four previous editions, spanning almost a quarter of a century. The authors have managed to make the nervous system and its disorders accessible in several ways. First and foremost, they have used every possible opportunity to include illustrations, especially simple line drawings, whenever the subject allowed it. In this way the structure and functions of the nervous system, baffling at first sight, are lucidly explained, part by part. Thanks to their didactic guidance, the student will eventually find the matter less complicated than the street map of inner London. Secondly, the text has been restricted to bare essentials. Students do not have to wade through a wilderness of words in order to grasp the key elements they need to know. Finally, between the traditional signposts of physical examination, technical investigations and traditional disease categories, the authors have made ample room for a didactic discussion of the variety of symptoms that bring patients to the neurologist or neurosurgeon - from loss of smell to problems of memory. After all, the patient is the point of departure in medicine. Like a convenient travel guide that leads the tourist to memorable sights, the book will teach the student – and remind the physician - how to understand, recognize and treat disorders of the brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscle. In this fifth edition the authors have taken account of new developments, while preserving the admirable clarity and simplicity that make it stand out from other textbooks.