W F Bynum and Helen Bynum (eds), Dictionary of medical biography, 5 vols, Westport, CT, and London, Greenwood Press, 2007, total pp. 1667, illus., £425.00, $749.95 (hardback set 0-313-32877-3).

Abstract

This is an impressive addition to the existing number of dictionaries of medical or scientific biography which, given the potential of the subject, is still surprisingly limited in scope. This dictionary is particularly to be welcomed for its inclusive coverage across medical systems, time periods and cultures. The first third of volume one sets the tone for this cross-cultural collection with six fascinating introductory essays, each with a helpful bibliography: ‘The Western Medical Tradition’ (Stephen Lock); ‘The Islamic Medical Tradition’ (Nikolaj Serikoff); ‘Medicine in China’ (Vivienne Lo); ‘Medical Traditions in South Asia’ (Guy Attewell); ‘Medical Traditions in Southeast Asia: from Syncretism to Pluralism’ (Laurence Monnais); and ‘Medicine, State and Society in Japan, 500–2000’ (Akihito Suzuki.) Using anthropology as well as history, several of these are particularly valuable in looking at the interconnections between medical traditions, at their crossovers and exchanges, and often at a dynamic mix of the modern and the traditional that might aid a revitalization of the latter. References to the contextual influence of the market, of political change, or of culture make for stimulating analyses, whilst significant perspectives are provided on long-term developments. With such riches it is perhaps churlish to regret what is not there, but a second edition could usefully provide similar introductions to medicine in Africa, and in the Americas as well. The component entries of the dictionary are concise, interesting and have sources listed at the end. The scope of the collection is suggested by the first entry being for Maude Elizabeth Abbott (one of the first modern medical women in Canada) and the last for Ibn Zuhr (a medieval practitioner, with a practice in Seville). In between there are another 1,138 entries covering many familiar practitioners, and numerous ones with whom it should prove interesting to make a first acquaintance. Inevitably, there are other practitioners one would have liked to see included as well, but at one and a quarter million words it must be acknowledged that this collection is already very extensive. And, in locating individuals, the reader should find the three appendices valuable, as they categorize individuals by country, by fields of activity, and by birth/death dates. The principal editors have been meticulous in their compilation of what has been a massive scholarly enterprise. They have been fortunate in their team of twenty area editors who were key agents in selecting entries for each region. This five volume dictionary is a handsome production in which a particular delight is the range of illustrations (many of them little-known) that have been sourced by Carole Reeves from the Wellcome collections, and which provide apposite and relevant adjuncts to the text. Complementing the Dictionary of scientific biography, this Dictionary of medical biography should prove to be an essential reference tool in the social history of medicine, as well as an aid for absorbing browsing.