A Text-book of X-ray Diagnosis by British Authors

The three-volume A Text-book of X-Ray Diagnosis by British Authors was first published in 1938 and was for many years the "go to" reference book of radiology. Indeed a review from 1963 stated that "It should be considered a "must" for those undertaking the study of radiology."

It was co-edited by three giants of radiology from the 1930s: Peter Kerley (1900-1979), S Cochrane Shanks (1893-1980), and Edward W Twining (1887-1939) ^6-8. Its initial cost was 50 shillings. Later editions had increasing numbers of volumes which were often released sequentially so that an edition may have taken a few years to publish.

The fourth and last edition was published in 1970. This final edition was panned by critics in the specialist journals (usually a fairly benign bunch!) for reproducing a large amount of text from the third edition which had not been updated, leaving many factual inaccuracies and accompanied by poor quality radiographs ⁵. 

Editions

• 1^st edition (1938): three volumes ¹
• 2^nd edition (1950): four volumes ²
• 3^rd edition (1960): four volumes ³
• 4^th edition (1970): six volumes ⁴