Not a moment to lose: some reminiscences

LESLIE T. MORTON and ROBERT J. MOORE, A bibliography of medical and biomedical biography, Aldershot, Hants, Scolar Press, 1989, 8vo, pp. ix, 208, £37.50. This book was originally conceived as a third edition of John Thornton's slim paperback A select bibliography of medical biography (1961, 1970) but has been so much enlarged and improved that it is rightly presented as a new work. Like its predecessor, it is selective and restricted to nineteenthand twentieth-century material in English, but its scope has been widened to take in the biomedical sciences. The compilers have abandoned Thornton's limitation to monographs: journal articles, obituary notices and articles in the Dictionary of scientific biography and other collective works are included, giving a more comprehensive coverage, particularly of continental figures. Locations of archive material are noted and there is a useful specialty index, although Thornton's author index has been dropped. Altogether it is a praiseworthy performance by which the indefatigable Leslie Morton once again puts us in his debt. It should serve as a useful first port of call for biographical research. Errors and omissions are inevitable, but it would be invidious to particularize, especially as the compilers are already looking towards future improved editions. One curious feature is the universal omission of knighthoods and titles of nobility-an egalitarian touch? It is mildly irritating to see familiar names deprived of their handles and one misses this sign of the public recognition accorded to individuals in their lifetime. May one hope for a paperback edition to secure the book the wide circulation it deserves?