College and Research Libraries


er's blurb, book jacket, binders' title , nor the 
half-title contain the word , Horus. 

This "Guide" is a must acquisition for the 
reference shelf of every college and research 
library.-Thomas P. Fleming, Columbia Un :-
versity. 

M edical Bibliographers 
The Or eat Medical Bibliograph ers: A Study 

in Humanism. By John F. Fulton. Phila-
delphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 
I95 1. xv, I07p. , 37 figs. $4.00. 
As the Rosenbach Fellow in Bibliography 

for I950, Dr. John F. Fulton, Sterling Pro-
fessor of the History of Medicine at Yale 
University, delivered three informative lec-
tures on medical bibliography. These lectures, 
cleverly written and fully documented have 
now been printed in an attractive format by 
the University of Pennsylvania Press. 

The first lecture deals with the origin of 
bibliography under the influence of Bishop 
Johann Tritheim. The first real medical bib-
liographer was Symphorien Champier with 
his De medicinae claris scri'ptoribus (Lyon, 
I506). The outstanding medical bibliographer 
of the sixteenth century was Conrad Gesner 
whose Bibliotheca universalis (Zurich, I545) 
contains an immense alphabetical listing of 
authors with abstracts of their publications, 
both printed and manuscript. With Gesner 
the science of bibliographical description was 
born. 

The second lecture on the seventeenth and 
eighteenth century covers a period in which 
Dr. Fulton is particularly interested. His 
accounts of the· first medical book sales and 
the first book sellers' catalogs with biblio-
graphical descriptions are particularly in-
triguing. Due attention is given to the 
outstanding bibliographer, Albrecht von Hal-
ler (I 708-I 777), and the great bio-bibliogra-
phers, Eloy and Atkinson. 

The third lecture covers the expanding field 
of medical subject indexes and the contribu-
tions of Ploucquet, Forbes and Callisen. John 
Shaw Billings and the great Index Catalogue 
of the Surgeon-Gen eral's Library (now the 
Armed Forces Medical Library) are given 
well justified appreciation. The medical-
bibliographical works of Choulant, Osler, and 
Geoffrey Keynes are treated with some length. 
The volume contains five appendices: I) The 

various editions, extracts and supplements of 
Gesner's Bibliotheca, 2) A list of early medi-
cal book sales, 3) Descriptions of the various 
Haller bibliographical publications, 4) A list 
of the works of Johann Ludwig Choulant, 
and 5) A full description of the twenty-two 
personal bibliographies compiled by Geoffrey 
Keynes. There is a special section of thirty-
seven figures illustrating the various outstand-
ing items discussed. 

Here is another example of how the rich 
resources of libraries can be put to work in 
the hands of a skillful scholar. Dr. Fulton is 
fortunate in having available the rich collec-
tions of Arnold Klebs ( I870-I943), Harvey 
Cushing ( I869-I939), in addition to those of 
the Yale Medical Library and his own out-
standing collection. 

Medical bibliographers throughout the cen-
turies have been leaders in the bibliographical 
field, and this publication should be present in 
every library concerning itself with bibliogra-
phy and the broader field of documentation.-
Thomas P. Fleming, Columbia University. 

Library Literature 
Library Literature. 1949-1951. Edited by 

Dorothy Ethelyn Cole. New Y ark, H. W. 
Wilson Co., I952. 862p. (Service basis). 

Librarians have come to know that if they 
want to find bibliographical citations to litera-
ture relating to problems in their field they 
consult Library Literature. The current 
cumulation covers the years I949 through 
I95I. Miss Cole, the editor, has made an 
effort to include foreign publications for the 
war years. Also, it is intended to fill in as 
many gaps for foreign publications as possible 
in future issues. 

The present indexing includes I20 periodi-
cals, as compared to 97 in the I946-48 
volume. As in past issues, it also includes a 
"Check-list of Professional Publications." 
Miss Cole notes that the library school theses 
indexed have greatly increased, a result of 
the thesis requirement for the master's degree 
in library schools which have changed from 
the bachelor's degree. Cooperation from 
library schools is essential for Library Litera-
ture to be complete in this respect, and one 
is somewhat disturbed to find such Columb:a 
omtsswns as the essays by Budington, Bump, 
Martignoni, Schein, Stickle, Stripling, and 

400 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES