Professor Armitage's book is a text on medical statistics, the first edition having been reprinted seven times. Written primarily for the non-mathematician, it describes the statistical techniques most frequently used in medical research. The main changes in the new edition consist of a rewriting of the chapters on survivorship tables, sequential and statistical methods in epidemiology, the expansion of several sections (eg on clinical trials), and a general adjustment of the approach to analysis of data in the light of modern computing methods. The volume will continue to be essential reading for the student of medical statistics and biostatistics, either in medicine or related life sciences (eg psychology), and the postgraduate in fields in which statistics are particularly important, such as epidemiology and community medicine.