Another Book Review/Rant

Firstly I would just like to say I am very frustrated in general and do not want it to spill over to important things like my education. One of the things that was bothering me was the mistakes I noticed in one of my required texts: Pediatric Physical Therapy, 3rd Ed. (Tecklin, 1999). Firstly this book is 8 years old and there has been no newer release to correct the mistakes I have noticed in only the first 40 pages (I am sure there are many more to come). I paid nearly $60.00 for this text and feel that I was ripped off. A publishing company like Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins should be ashamed for never acknowledging these mistakes and I assume printing this for the last 8 years. I assume not many others have been as bothered by these mistakes or not noticed them, but I have and I decided to write an e-mail, because that's about all I am able to do at this time. Ultimately I am upset about this because I feel things like this reflect poorly on our profession. This is a major text used in PT and for there to be these kinds of mistakes (keep in mind only in the first 40 pages) is just unprofessional. I ain't no english major but sheesh...
Below is the e-mail that I sent to orders@lww.com because that was the closest thing I could find to an actual chance to provide this kind of feedback to them (a.k.a. their site was not user friendly for leaving feedback)...

Greetings,
I have recently purchased your textbook Pediatric Physical Therapy, 3rd Ed. I paid $56.39 through amazon.com as this was the least expensive I could find it for.
After only reading the first 40 pages I am already very dissapointed in the text. I feel outraged that these simple mistakes have been in this text for the last 8 years with no newer printed version to correct them. The following is the list of mistakes that I have noted on the first 40 pages:

• p. 6 - the word "result" is spelled incorrectly as "rsult"
• p. 8 - the word "life" is clearly out of context and should be "lift": "The newborn infant, able to lif e the head only momentarily..."
• p. 10 - the sentence reads: "The ability of the baby to lift is upper chest off the supporting surface..." The word is should either be "his" or "its"
• p. 12-13 - the paragraph under the heading "THE SUPINE POSITION" is repeated as the end of the last paragraph under that same heading on p. 13: "Although the infant does not consistently... and neck are precursors to the abiltity to roll". If this is done to emphasize this sentence/paragraph, I do not see the point.
• p. 22 - Simple plural confusion: "Antigravity controls begin s with lifting..." One of these two words should not be pluralized so as to read "Antigravity control begins with lifting..." or "Antigravity control s begin with lifting..."
• p. 32 - There is a blatant mistake here as "sensitivity is defined as the ability of the test to able to identify those who actually have a disorder" and "specificity is defined as the ability of a test to identify those who do not have the disorder." Perhaps my education has steered me wrong in regards to this topic, but I was taught that SNNOUT - a test high in SeNsitivity with a Negative result can rule OUT a disorder and SPPIN - a test high in SPecificity with a Positive result can rule IN a disorder.

Please justify to me how these errors have gone uncorrected for this long a period of time with no newer printing of the book. With the price that we as students end up paying for these texts it is very upsetting to see these kinds of mistakes. Furthermore, it makes it very difficult to take pride in the profession I have chosen when the attention to detail is lacking in a major text of the Physical Therapy profession.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.