Book Notes

John Scarborough.Medical and Biological Terminologies: Classical Origins. Originally published as Medical Terminologies: Classical Origins, 1992. Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture, vol. 13. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. ix + 303 pp. $19.95 (paperbound).

The Bulletin’s reviewer, John Riddle, has identified the author of this volume as “a true lover of words” who “has produced a text that goes beyond the dry world where philologists traced etiologies to boredom.” ¹ The republication of this “lively textbook” in a paperback version (at half the cost of the original cloth edition) is a noteworthy event.

Daniel Teysseire, ed., with the assistance of Claire Berche and Alain Nafilyan. La médecine du peuple de Tissot à Raspail, 1750–1850. Groupe de recherche en épistémologie et histoire de la médecine, Université de Paris XII, Val-de-Marne. Créteil, France: Conseil Général du Val-de-Marne, 1995. 137 pp. Ill. F 100.00 (paperbound).

This book presents the proceedings of a workshop commemorating the bicentenary of Raspail’s birth. Discussing popular medicine before 1789 were Corinne Verry-Jolivet (“Les médecines des pauvres au XVIII^e siècle” [Medicine and the poor in the eighteenth century]) and Geneviève Artigas-Menant (“La médecine dans le Nouveau Magasin français” [Medicine as portrayed in the Nouveau Magasin français]). Talks on popular medicine after 1789 were given by Yves Pierronne (“Le corps médical dans le personnel révolutionnaire de la région parisienne” [Revolutionary medical personnel around Paris]) and Daniel Teysseire (“Un plan révolutionnaire de santé publique populaire: Le projet de décret du 31 août 1790” [The Revolutionaries’ plan for public health: The decree of 31 August 1790]). Finally, Bernardino Fantini spoke about Raspail and cellular theory; Alain Nafilyan, about the Raspail papers housed in the departmental archives of the Val-de-Marne; and Henri Dubief, about Raspail as a benefactor of the “common man.” An appendix contains a transcription of an unedited manuscript by Raspail, concerning “the method of Raspail.”

David Innes Williams. The London Lock: A Charitable Hospital for Venereal Disease, 1746–1952. London: Royal Society of Medicine Press, 1995. x + 166 pp. Ill. $32.00; £16.00.

The London Lock is, according to the preface by William F. Bynum, the first comprehensive account of this medical institution. Founded by William Bromfeild, it was the first of many specialist hospitals in London. The first seven chapters concern the founding of the hospital and its fortunes in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These years were marked by struggle between the founder and the chaplains of the Anglican Evangelical Movement, as one-third of the hospital’s annual income was derived from pew rents from Lock’s Chapel. Chapters eight through eleven take the hospital through its relocation in the mid-nineteenth century to its activities in the First World War, and the last chapters chronicle its revival, decline, and eventual closing.

An unfortunate number of typographical errors mar an otherwise handsomely produced book, with large type, clear black-and-white illustrations, and index.

Kurt Bayertz and Roy Porter, eds. From Physico-Theology to Bio-Technology: Essays in the Social and Cultural History of Biosciences: A Festschrift for Mikulás Teich. Clio Medica, vol. 48. Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 1998. vi + 287 pp. Ill. Hfl. 145.00 (cloth), 40.00 (paperbound); £45.00 (cloth), £12.50 (paperbound).

This volume honors Dr. Teich on his eightieth birthday. The fifteen chapters, written by his friends and colleagues explore “Questions of History,” “Scientific Lives,” “Disciplines,” “Natural History,” and “Science and Disease” in Europe since the sixteenth century. A brief biographical sketch of Dr. Teich is followed by fourteen essays: “Business History: Cinderella, Prince Charming or Ugly Sister?” by Terry Gourvish; “Darwin’s Revolution,” by Robert Proctor; “The Different Faces of Science: Is Genetics a Social Construct?” by Benno Müller-Hill; “Bare Heads against Red Hats: A Portrait of Paracelsus,” by Charles Webster; “Science—Education and Culture. Ideas and Concepts of German Scientists in the Nineteenth Century,” by Dietrich von Engelhardt; “Thomas George Hodgkins (1803–92) and the Future of Research at...