The Oxford Medical Companion (review)

This book is the successor to the two-volume Oxford Companion to Medicine, which Irvine Loudon reviewed positively in this journal in 1988 (62: 481–82). The editors of the original edition described their intended audience as, first, medical practitioners; second, allied health professionals; and third, the educated public. In an attempt to make this edition more accessible to a general readership, the editors have made it shorter and less specialized, and have lowered its price. Like its predecessor, it is unabashedly oriented to the Atlantic English-speaking world, with noticeably more British (rather than North American) content. It contains about two hundred “main entries” (substantial signed articles, frequently with brief bibliographies) interspersed alphabetically among a much greater number of shorter articles that resemble dictionary entries. Cross-references abound, but there is some seeming arbitrariness in the choice of topics. The short articles are substantially the same as in the previous edition, the main differences being the abbreviation of existing biographical entries, and the addition of some new ones for people recently deceased.

The editors commissioned a new set of main entries, frequently from the same contributors. Most of the topics of these articles are the same, but in some cases the titles have changed (“Substance Abuse” takes the place of “Addiction,” “Complementary Medicine” appears instead of “Fringe Medicine”). No longer among the main entries are “Sexology: Medical” or “NHS: Its Structure,” but there are a good number of new articles that look to be useful for ready reference purposes. Most notable among these are a series of essays on medicine in various geographical locations around the world, including regions in the third world, the former Soviet Union, and some of the leading industrialized countries.

This leaves the question of the value of this book for medical historians. A good number of our colleagues have contributed, but one can presume that their articles will be most useful to nonhistorians in the general public or among health professionals. Many of the other main entries have some historical content (including a new one on “Alchemy”), and even those that do not—if written to the editors’ specifications—can provide useful background on technical topics or policy matters. In brief, this is not a required reference work for the historian’s bookshelf, but it is a volume worth keeping in mind for any medical history collection.