The Harvard Medical Unit at Boston City Hospital. (History of the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory and the Harvard Medical Services from their founding until 1974)

The proceedings are divided into four sections. The first and largest section comprises papers concerned with disease in the Bible. The topics covered are wide ranging and include military medicine, obstetrics, and the nose and its disorders, as witnessed in the Bible. The second section is devoted to biblical psychology and the soul, and so inevitably strikes a philosophical chord. Miracles and faith healing are grouped with contributions relating to medical plants in the Bible to form the third section. A miscellany of topics that do not fit into any of the three previous sections makes up the fourth section. As can be seen, the subject matter, although centred on the Bible, is extensive and shows the degree to which medical practice and thinking had developed in ancient Israel. It is pointed out in the editorial that, although the symposium was concerned with medicine and not theology, it is impossible to divorce one from the other when considering medicine in the Bible. "There is one sole God, and in man body and soul are closely interpenetrated and constitute one whole" (p. 11). This aspect pervaded all the contributions although there was some inequality in the level of the papers offered. It was disappointing that in a collection of papers dedicated to medicine in the Bible only one contributor dealt with the subject in the New Testament (pp. 134-145). One would have expected that part of the Scriptures to receive rather more attention, especially since the third Gospel and Acts are attributed to St Luke, the physician. This publication, however, is an important contribution to the study of medicine in the Bible, especially the Hebrew scriptures and as such a fitting record of an important symposium. It is to be hoped that proceedings of future symposia on medicine in Biblical times will appear as a witness to international scholarship in this area of medical history which transcends all barriers in the words of the psalmist quoted by the chairman of the symposium, Professor Leibowitz, in his closing remarks "Behold how good and pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity" (Psalm 133:1). Nigel Allan Wellcome Institute