Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen—his life and the new kind of rays

raising all kinds of interesting questions. How did surgeons fight to establish their position, especially since the "German" context is rather different from the English? How did the relations between the various German states affect the pattern of moving around of medical men? Could we, through the biographies of these two men, learn something more about the differences between Berlin and Viennese practice? How did these German surgeons place themselves in the international discussions on problems like hospital fevers, epidemics, etc.? Billroth, especially, was a prolific writer and has left us an enormous correspondence, part of which was published in German in 1895, but much of which is still widely scattered. Both the biography by Absolon in English in 1979, and the present author make ample use ofthese letters. Much of the biographical work on Dieffenbach, which Genshorek quotes from, dates back to before World War II. It seems to me that biography as a genre is far from having reached its limits, and if this volume makes anything clear, it is that a lot of work can still be done. G. M. van Heteren Wellcome Institute