Dictionary of Medical Quotations: With Biographies of Authors (review)

This latest addition to the field of medical quotations is a nicely illustrated monograph; its unique contributions are the inclusion of author biographies, as well as illustrations of some of the authors. It also contains a substantial bibliography. According to the author’s preface, the Dictionary is aimed at “medical practitioners and family physicians. . . not. . . at medical historians” (ix) and is meant to acquaint contemporary physicians with “the most brilliant and talented minds of medical men” (ix). It is arranged in alphabetical order by broad subject headings (such as “Disease,” “Medical Life,” or “Physician”), much in the way of other medical quotation dictionaries. Generally speaking, any quote within a broad subject section includes that particular word within the quote. However, quotes are not repeated within the dictionary. For example, Logan Clendening’s quote: “Surgery does the ideal thing – it separates the patient from his disease. It puts the patient back to bed and the disease in a bottle” (53), is listed ONLY under the category “Disease in a Bottle” (where it is the only quotation listed), NOT under the subject “Surgery.” In other quotation dictionaries, this has not been a problem; just flip to the keyword index, and look up the word you remember. However, here it is a major issue, as the Dictionary does not contain an index, making it difficult to locate a quotation based on partially remembered phrases (which in this reviewer’s experience is the primary reason for the use of a quotation dictionary).

Dictionaries of quotations are, by nature, idiosyncratic. One individual’s words of great wisdom are a cliché to another person. Thus, it is expected that each author’s contribution to the field would be slightly different. That being said, it would also seem that certain authors, because of their influence on science and literature, would be present in any quotation dictionary. This is not the case here. Where most quote dictionaries carry several listings from William Shakespeare, Robert Boyle, and The Bible, none are included in this volume. And while major authors, like Paré, Galen, Osler, and Hippocrates are very much in evidence, it is next to impossible to find a quotation by a particular author, since neither an author nor keyword index is included.

The presence of author biographies and images are a nice touch, and certainly useful when dealing with less well-known physician-authors. However, it is not really clear that another biography of George Bernard Shaw is really necessary when any decent encyclopedia will provide much more information than is included here (and that is without even looking to the Internet for quick reference information on major figures). The author claims that “the quotations make the feelings and knowledge of physicians and surgeons of the past available to contemporary doctors” (ix); but biographical information on nonmedically affiliated authors certainly does not need this context. And while the pictures are attractive and add to the physical appearance of the book, they do not assist the reader very much when they are not anywhere near the biography of the author, and are not referenced from either the author’s biography entry or from an index.

The quotations themselves include only the quotation itself and the name of the author of the quote. No reference is made to the source of the quote. While it is pleasant to know that Hippocrates said “wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also the love of humanity” (115), the location of where, within his vast list of works this particular statement can be found, would be more useful (it’s from Precepts, VI).

The author states in his preface that this book emerged as the result of “a long-established practice of jotting down aphorisms. . .over 50 years. . .” (ix) As a browsing work, this is a lovely book. The casual reader can sit in a comfortable chair, flipping through the volume, chuckling...