Vom Steinschnitt zur Nierentransplantation: Ein medizinhistorischer Ruckblick auf die Entwicklung der Urologie (review)

The roots of urology—which is a rather young specialty in modern medicine—date back to the early days of the history of medicine. Uroscopy as a diagnostic tool and lithotomy as an early surgical procedure are very obvious examples of major importance for a medical historian. Jürgen Konert offers a well-written review of the development of urology, focusing on the causal connection of historical facts and the interaction of urology with other fields of medicine, rather than aiming for a complete encyclopedic accumulation of historical data. The structure of the book very usefully reflects the single steps of this evolution rather than running through the variety of urological topics.

For the German-speaking reader, this book by Konert is the second available on the market after the publication of Streiflichter aus der Geschichte der Urologie (Highlights from the history of urology) three years earlier.¹ The advantage of this new book is the fact that it was written by one author with one style and structure running through the whole text. As Konert states in his preface, the book addresses not only physicians and historians but, more importantly, the "nonexpert." This is accomplished by not only tracing back the historical evolution but also repeatedly outlining the present status of urology and its future development.

A rich choice of relevant illustrations has been made, although reproduction quality is not of the highest standard. These images within the text are enriched by sixteen color illustrations in the middle section of the book. As this book is more a reader than an encyclopedia it does not provide an index of names or subjects. The selected references concentrate mainly on publications written in German. Proper names mentioned in the text are accompanied by the dates of birth and death but only the initials of the first name are used, an unnecessary limitation and lack of information.

Those in search of a short and readable yet comprehensive publication will benefit most from this book. But even historical experts will enjoy this informative book, which provides a very good introduction to the important facts of the history of urology.