Krankheit und Heilen. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Volksmedizin in den Ostalpen

should be encouraged to read this book. Sadly many will ignore it in their haste to push forward the frontiers of science, not understanding that the accounts here are from the creators of the modern science they pursue so relentlessly. More mature neuroscientists will undoubtedly relish the reminiscences. David Hubel's description of painstaking experiments, carried out in a "slapdash set-up" makes particularly thoughtful reading for a modern scientist obsessed with state-of-the-art equipment. Even more thought-provoking, to scientists and historians, are Hubel's observations on scientific research in the 1960s and in the 1990s, the difficulty nowadays of getting, and keeping, financial support; of grant proposals that took him a couple of days to write, now taking months to prepare; and of over-crowding in each research field. Almost unbelievably to modern neuroscientists, he remarks laconically "in 1960 . .. we virtually had the visual cortex to ourselves".