The reader's guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica : A handbook containing…

FOR PHYSICIANS, SURGEONS AND DENTISTS The Britannica adds so largely to medical literature that, in outlining the services which the work can render to those engaged in the prevention and treatment of disease, it is desirable to define the limits, rather than to insist upon the extent, of the plan adopted by the technical assistant editors to whom the Editor-in-chief entrusted the control of this important part of the undertaking. It is true that the 644 medical articles, many of which might be described as books in themselves, cover the whole field of anatomy, physiology, pathology, therapeutics, surgery, pharmacology, medical education, medical jurisprudence and medical biography. It is also true that the writers who sign these articles are specialists of world-wide authority, and that the total number of words and illustrations in these articles is as great as would be required for a complete encyclopaedic hand-book of medical science. But, notwithstanding all this wealth of matter and of international collaboration, the Britannica does not profess to take the place of the elementary working library in daily use by every professional man. “Working library” is, however, an elastic term, and it is used here to mean only the handbooks which constitute an irreducible minimum, the few without which no beginner would venture to establish himself in practice. Certain manuals are, to the practitioner, what mathematical tables are to the engineer; and it is not the function of the Britannica to duplicate what the practitioner already possesses, nor yet, for example, to include a pharmacopoeia in a book used by the general public. [Sidenote: The Encyclopaedic Method] On the other hand, no professional man restricts himself a day longer than he must to the bare modicum of medical literature with which he may have been forced, at first, to do his best; and when he can add _anything_ to it, there is nothing he will use so often, or find so helpful, as the Britannica. It may be well to define in general, its professional uses, before dealing in detail with the articles included in this course of reading. (1) The system of technical collaboration is, in the Britannica, organized and coördinated with a completeness which gives the medical articles an authority and impartiality often lacking in isolated treatises. The contributors were selected with a view to their recognized ability only, whereas the publication of medical works is too often an outcome of the writer’s ambitions, which, however legitimate they may be, are no proof of his capacity. (2) The Britannica articles were written for the sole purpose of being used in their present form. A great part of current medical literature originates in lectures to students, and retains too much of its first form to be satisfactory to the professional man. (3) The articles are all based upon an original and recent survey of knowledge, and thus contain information which cannot be found in reprints of standard medical works insufficiently brought up to date by additions to earlier editions. (4) In relation to statistics, to administrative and legislative provisions regarding public health, to hospitals and other public institutions, the broadly international character of the Britannica, with its contributions from twenty different countries, gives a scope which the private writer cannot attain. (5) The great number of biographies of physicians, surgeons and men who devote themselves exclusively to research, gives professional men access to information which they cannot elsewhere obtain. (6) Chemistry, bacteriology, general biology, botany, psychology and other sciences allied to the more immediate field of medicine are fully treated by specialists of the highest authority. (7) Apart from the definite occupational diseases (fully discussed in the Britannica), there is often a relation between the pathological results of overwork and the routine of the patient’s business life. Every branch of industry and commerce is treated in detail in the Britannica, and the insight which the physician may thus gain will often be of service to him. (8) The Britannica not only enlarges the medical library of the practitioner, but gives him, and the members of his family, the use of _the only complete library of general information_. [Sidenote: Scope of the Medical Section] Specifically, the medical and surgical section of the Britannica comprises 3 general articles, constituting broad systematic surveys of the various provinces of the subject: 103 articles on anatomy and physiology, which are partly surgical; 265 articles on pathology; 75 on pharmacology; 21 on public health, in addition to the articles on dentistry and on veterinary science, and 170 biographies. But this comprehensive scheme does not by any means include all the material of value to the medical man. The sister sciences of chemistry, physics, biology, botany, zoology and psychology, have much to offer him. A consultation of the list appended to this section will show how the needs of the physician and surgeon are served by the Encyclopaedia. It must suffice here to call attention briefly to some of the more important contributions. Taking up, first, the more general articles, there is MEDICINE (Vol. 18, p. 41) containing about 35,000 words. This deals with the history and development of the science. Dr. J. F. Payne of the Royal College of Physicians, London, traces its history from the earliest known times to the middle of the 19th century; and Sir T. C. Allbutt, professor of physic in Cambridge University, completes this review with a section on _Modern Progress_ (p. 55). Of high practical value is MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE or FORENSIC MEDICINE (Vol. 16, p. 25), by H. H. Littlejohn, professor of forensic medicine, University of Edinburgh, and T. A. Ingram. This deals solely with that branch of the science which has to do with the application of medical knowledge to certain questions of civil and criminal law. There are discussions of questions affecting the civil or social rights of individuals, and injuries to the person, the function of the physician in questions of mutilation, homicide, infanticide, poisoning, etc. MEDICAL EDUCATION (Vol. 18, p. 23) is a useful reference article by Sir John Batty Tuke, Dr. W. H. Howell, dean of the medical faculty, Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. H. L. Hennessy, furnishing data on the educational qualifications necessary to the practice of medicine in Europe and America. [Sidenote: Anatomy, Embryology, and Physiology] Dr. Frederick G. Parsons, vice-president of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, lecturer on Anatomy at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London, contributes the general article ANATOMY (Vol. 1, p. 920) which goes deeply into its history, and has further sections on _Modern Human Anatomy_ (Anthropotomy) and _Anatomy, Superficial_ and _Artistic_. This noted authority also writes detailed and fully illustrated articles on the anatomy and embryology of the BRAIN (Vol. 4, p. 392); HEART (Vol. 13, p. 129); EYE (Vol. 10, p. 91); EAR (Vol. 8, 791); OLFACTORY SYSTEM (Vol. 20, p. 77); LYMPHATIC SYSTEM (Vol. 17, p. 166); VASCULAR SYSTEM (Vol. 27, p. 926); NERVOUS SYSTEM (Vol. 19, p. 400); MUSCULAR SYSTEM (Vol. 19, p. 51); REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM (Vol. 23, p. 129); and RESPIRATORY SYSTEM (Vol. 23, p. 184) and on the SKELETON (Vol. 25, p. 169); SKIN AND EXOSKELETON (Vol. 25, p. 188); SKULL (Vol. 25, p. 196); JOINTS (Vol. 15, p. 483); and NERVE (Vol. 19, p. 394). Another valuable anatomical article is CONNECTIVE TISSUES (Vol. 6, p. 958), by Dr. T. G. Brodie of the University of Toronto. Prof. Adam Sedgwick writes a most excellent general and historical account of EMBRYOLOGY (Vol. 9, p. 314); and Dr. Hans A. E. Driesch of Heidelberg University adds to it a section _Physiology of Development_ (p. 329), treating of the laws that govern the development of the organism. The general article PHYSIOLOGY (Vol. 21, p. 554) is from the pen of the celebrated Prof. Max Verworn of the University of Bonn, and to this there are closely linked, according to the new plan of the Britannica, extensive and detailed accounts of the physiology of the BRAIN (Vol. 4, p. 403); SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM (Vol. 26, p. 287); SPINAL CORD (Vol. 25, p. 672); MUSCLE AND NERVE (Vol. 19, p. 44); RESPIRATORY SYSTEM (Vol. 23, p. 187); VASCULAR SYSTEM (Vol. 27, p. 929); ALIMENTARY CANAL (Vol. 1, p. 663); BLOOD (Vol. 4, p. 77), etc., by noted specialists, including Dr. Charles S. Sherrington, professor of physiology in the University of Liverpool, Dr. J. S. Haldane of Oxford University, Dr. L. E. Hill, lecturer on physiology at the London Hospital, Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, and Dr. T. G. Brodie of the University of Toronto. [Sidenote: Articles on Pathology] Drs. D. J. Hamilton and Richard Muir are the authors of a brilliant summary of the whole subject of PATHOLOGY (Vol. 20, p. 913) with over 50 illustrations, including coloured plates. The whole story of the elevation of the science dealing with the theory and causation of disease from a mere philosophical abstraction to one of the natural sciences is admirably told. For the pathological details of various diseases and groups of diseases the reader is referred to PARASITIC DISEASES (Vol. 20, p. 770), fully illustrated, by Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, professor of pathology, Cambridge University, one of the notable contributions to the Britannica; METABOLIC DISEASES (Vol. 18, p. 195), by Prof. D. N. Paton of Edinburgh University; DIGESTIVE ORGANS, _Pathology_ (Vol. 8, p. 262) by Dr. A. L. Gillespie of Edinburgh and M. Fisher; KIDNEY DISEASES (Vol. 15, p. 784), by Dr. J. R. Bradford of University College Hospital, London, and Dr. Edmund Owen, the famous English surgeon; BLADDER AND PROSTATE DISEASES (Vol. 4, p. 27); VENEREAL DISEASES (Vol. 27, p. 983)—these two also by Dr. Owen; SKIN DISEASES (Vol. 25, p. 190); INSANITY (Vol. 14, p. 597), by Sir John Batty Tuke, president of the Neurological Society of the United Kingdom, and medical director of the New Staughton Hall Asylum, Edinburgh, Dr. J. Macpherson, and Dr. L. C. Bruce, author of _Studies in Clinical Psychiatry_,—for this article the noted American specialist Dr. Frederick Peterson has written a section on _Hospital Treatment_ of the insane; NEUROPATHOLOGY (Vol. 19, p. 429), fully illustrated, by Dr. F. W. Mott, the distinguished pathologist to the London County Asylums, and editor of the _Archives of Neurology_; RESPIRATORY SYSTEM, _Pathology_ (Vol. 23, p. 195), by Dr. Thomas Harris, author of numerous articles on this subject, and Dr. H. L. Hennessy; BLOOD, _Pathology_ (Vol. 4, p. 82), by Dr. G. L. Gulland of Edinburgh; HEART, DISEASE (Vol. 13, p. 132), by Sir J. F. H. Broadbent, author of _Heart Disease and Aneurysm_, etc.; EYE, _Diseases_ (Vol. 10, p. 94), by Dr. George A. Berry, hon. surgeon oculist to his Majesty George V; VISION, _Errors of Refraction and Accommodation_ (Vol. 28, p. 142), by Dr. Ernest Clark of the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital; EAR, _Diseases of_ (Vol. 8, p. 794), by Dr. E. C. Baber, late senior surgeon, Brighton and Sussex Throat and Ear Hospital. Dr. Harriet L. Hennessy is the author of GYNAECOLOGY (Vol. 12, p. 764). For more specific details there is the complete list of articles on different diseases and ailments under their common names. This includes veterinary diseases, to which branch of medicine an admirable