In the paper entitled Some things of general interest in the Bristol Medical Library.

  • Griffiths, L. M. (Lemuel Matthews)
Date:
[1902]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: In the paper entitled Some things of general interest in the Bristol Medical Library. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    path; and the very attempt to show what is right, frequently exposes that which is wrong; so that the immediate blunders of one person rectify those of another: and he ever must deserve well of society who attempts improvement.” Remembering the difficulties and dangers of subject-classification, and our own mistakes, we shall be lenient to the errors of others, and “ forbear to judge; for we are sinners all; ” but it is difficult to forgive the British Museum for placing Ziemssen’s Cyclopaedia of Medicine in a list of bibliographical works, or for putting Holden’s Landmarks, a book which deals with surface anatomy, under the heading of “ History of Medicine,” or worst of all, for classing under “ Obstetrics,” a work on “ Child Labour,” especially as it adds immediately after the entry that it was issued by the American Economic Association. There is no better instance of careful bibliography than the Index- Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General of the United States Army. Sixteen volumes were issued in the first series, and the sixth volume of the second series is in the letter H. The references to Cholera in the two volumes in the two series may be taken as an example of its value. In the first of these the titles cover 152 pages, and in the second 102, a fairly good start for the man who wants to get up the subject, It is only right to mention the Index Medicus, a monthly classified record of current medical literature, a work which grew out of the Index-Catalogue. After twenty-one years of existence, during which it passed through many difficulties, it came through insufficient support to an end. It is a book simply indispensable to the librarian and the student. The most expert cataloguer must admit its thorough- ness and its splendid accuracy. Its place has been excellently filled by Bibliographia Medica, working on almost exactly similar lines, but incorporating the Dewey system. It is issued by the Institut de Bibliographic of Paris, and fortunate is the branch of literature that has such an invaluable help. A puzzling bit of bibliography comes before us in reference to the anatomical work of Bidloo, who in 1685 issued from Amsterdam his Anatomia Humani Corporis. In 1698 the same plates with reference in red ink and nine additional plates were printed at Oxford, and on the engraved title the portion indicating Bidloo’s authorship is covered by a slip declaring it to be “ The Anatomy of Humane Bodies by Will111' Cowper, Surgeon,” and this is so neatly pasted over as to escape recognition until very closely examined. Cowper, in an address to the reader, says: “ These Figures were Drawn after the Life, by the Masterly Painter G. de Lairess, and Engrav’d by no less a Hand, and Represent the Parts of Humane Bodies far beyond any Exstant; and were some time since Publish’d by Dr. Bidloo, now Professor of Anatomy in the University of Leyden,” and the theory is that Cowper bought the plates and considered that the additions he made were I sufficient to justify him in calling the work his own. But this hardly seems to be ideal bibliographical morality, and the view which Bidloo took of the transaction may be gathered from a fifty-four page pamphlet which he issued from Leyden in 1700 entitled Gulielmus Cowper criminis literarii citatus, coram tribunali Nob. Amp. Soc. Brit.-Reg. Cowper appears to have made a tardy recognition ot Bidloo in his Euxapiaria, \n qua dotes plurimcc et singulars Godefridi Bidloo, perita anatomica, [etc. ]. I issued in 1701. But the mystery becomes more involved when we look J at a book containing the same plates which was issued at Leyden in | 1737 under the supervision of C. B. Albinus who described the work as the second edition of Cowper’s book. This seems extraordinary when | we remember that Albinus was Professor of Medicine, Anatomy, | surgery and Practice in the University of Utrecht, and could hardly | have been ignorant of the incidents connected with Bidloo and Cowper.