Park's Textbook Of Preventive And Social Medicine: 21st Edition

The general consensus is that this textbook is the best there is for third years.

We'll just see about that, shall we? The following are direct quotes from the book.

General dumbness/randomness/failed punch lines:

• Insects, rodents, animals and plants are constantly working for their survival^(p.35)
• Accidents are no longer considered accidental^(p.374)
• "Use of stolen vehicles" is one of the precipitating factors for accidents^(p.378)
• Damage from accidents may be minimised by "wearing leather clothes and boots"^(p.378)
• Years wrinkle the skin, but worry, doubt, fear, anxiety and self-distrust wrinkle the soul^(p.547)
• "Times of India" listed as one of the references^(p.560)
• In Kwashiorkar, oedema is present in the lower legs and lower arms^(p.591)
• It is possible to classify individuals with reference to two poles: children with insufficient but proportioned growth and those with normal height, but who are wasted^(p.591)
• Nations and civilisations are linked together not only by ideas but also by bread^(p.602)
• Anger can cause a person to be rude and sarcastic^(p.625)
• The traditional barber is called a nai^(p.636)
• The arithmetic mean may look ridiculous^(p.786)
• "Noise, invisibility, congestion" are barriers to communication^(p.795)
• Newspaper readers are often seeking newspapers^(p.805)

Technical errors:

• Guinea worm disease is a public health problem in India^(p.722)
• Toxoplasmosis is classified as a virus ^(p.262)
• Earliest sensation affected in leprosy is light touch^(p.288)
• Psoriasis is a hospital-acquired infection^(p.333)

There are too many typos to list, but the book did end up calling affluent societies "effluent societies"

But then lets forget all of these minor infractions for a minute, for to err is human after all (though to err this much for 21 editions is indicative of either extreme ineptitude or an underlying organic brain lesion). 

There are bound to be several excellent uses for this book, though only a few come to mind:

• It can be used to line the bird cage and collect droppings
• You can point and laugh at any poor soul who's stuck reading it
• It is sturdy enough to be used as a murder weapon