On the elements according to Hippocrates

the chapter entitled 'The scientific method', in which a remarkable range of thinkers and themes are introduced (his book also has the fuller index of the two). The greatest contrast between the two books is the way in which they engage with the existing literature. As already noted, each has a lengthy bibliography which is worth consulting in its own right. However, Henry makes repeated reference to specific items in his by citing them by number in his text. The result is that, though compact, his book is very effective in referring to a wide range of material, thus enabling the reader to know exactly what secondary literature is being referred to and enabling him or her to follow it up. With Shapin's book, the link between the text and the bibliographic essay is less clear, and matters are not helped in this regard by the fact that the essay has a different organization from the book, so that it is not possible to look to one for a direct commentary on the other. Though modem authors are occasionally referred to by name in the text, elsewhere allusions to the secondary literature are generalized and sometimes rather arch-Shapin speaks vaguely of 'Marxist historians', for instance, or of 'some recent historical work', in the latter case evidently alluding to his own A social history of truth (Chicago, 1994). Hence, a degree of surmise is required to work out exactly what literature is being referred to at any point, apart from the clues provided by Shapin's practice of marking with asterisks the items in his bibliographic essay on which he acknowledges that he has chiefly relied. On balance, though a stimulating essay, Shapin's is a less satisfactory work than Henry's, in which the well-tried pedagogic model deployed proves highly successful, quite apart from the merits of its exposition in its own right. The verdict therefore is that Henry's book is to be recommended as the best brief introduction to the Scientific Revolution currently available. The volumes of the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum are now appearing at a faster rate than heretofore without losing any of their quality. Texts and translations are produced and edited to a very high standard, and the accompanying commentaries combine brevity with substantial information. Of the works here discussed, Professor De Lacy's edition of Galen's On the elements according to Hippocrates maintains its author's pre-eminence as a textual critic …