Biographical dictionary of medicine /

This reviewer feels that Facts on File may have had high schools in mind when publishing the Bendiners' Biographical Dictionary of Medicine. The inadequate introduction does not indicate the audience, is very sketchy about the scope, and does not identify the authors. Coverage reaches from Pythagoras to people of the 20th century. In the main section, the dictionary is organized alphabetically with very readable narratives, each emphasizing the person's medical accomplishments. Comparisons with other sources indicate that these accounts are accurate; however, this one-volume dictionary does not give the detail one would want in an academic reference work. Entries do not always include lists of the subject's selected works or references to other sources. In those entries in which selected works are mentioned, references may be outdated, e.g., the fourth edition (1946) of Charles Herbert Best's Physiological Basis of Medical Practice being cited although an eighth edition (1966) was published. The subject indexing is very simple, so that looking under "Diabetes" or "Insulin" does not give one access to Frederick Sanger, a Nobel Prize winner, whose work with insulin was so important. In the subject index, under "Nobel Prizes," the reader is told to "see sep. listing"; under "Microscope," one is referred to "van Leeuwenhoek" although his entry is under "Leeuwenhoek." For those academic libraries with such general biographical sources as Biography and Genealogy Master Index or Current Biography, let alone more specialized sources such as the Dictionary of Scientific Biography or American Men and Women of Science or D.M. Fox's Nobel Laureates in Medicine or Physiology (CH, Mar'91)--or planning to buy the forthcoming medicine and physiology set in the "Nobel Prize Winners" series from Magill--this purchase is not necessary. -T. C. Trawick, Troy State University

YA-- Five hundred prominent men and women instrumental in the history of medicine from earliest times to the present day are included in this one-volume encyclopedia. The alphabetically arranged entries range from a paragraph for minor figures to two-page coverage for major contributors, e.g., Linus Pauling. A chronology of the history of medicine; a select bibliography; a name index; and an index of inventions, processes, and medical conditions will aid researchers. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.