William Boyd was born in Portsoy, Scotland, in 1885. During World War I, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Flanders. After the War he moved to Canada and became a Professor of Pathology. Boyd wrote several well-respected pathology textbooks, such as this volume on the pathologic characteristics of disease which includes short summaries of clinical presentations, treatment, and prognosis. Boyd’s textbooks were popular with medical students all over the world for their clarity, fine prose and infectious enthusiasm for the subject matter. His books had a readability that reflected Boyd's own joy in reading. As a professor once said to a young lecturer, "It doesn't matter what book you recommend to the undergraduates, they will all read Boyd."