College and Research Libraries


financial return. Others would be a vigorous 
and sustained effort to raise both the quality 
and number of those going into the profession, 
to make the teaching of librarianship more 
attractive to promising candidates, to provide 
job information and candidate information in 
order to assure better matching of jobs and 
people, to bring the principles of sound per-
sonnel administration into operation in all 
libraries. 

Criticisms of the book limit themselves 
rather well to criticisms of the method, since 
the results are interpreted with an honesty, 
objectivity, fidelity and restraint that are a 
credit to the author. The sampling method 
was in this case so intensive, if not extensive, 
in its operation that a great deal more of ex-
pressed opinion lies behind the results than is 
customary with the sampling method. The 
safeguard of anonymity in answering the 
questionnaire should insure a high degree of 
sincerity in the reply. I for one wonder how 
many yielded to the temptations of casualness 
or flippancy behind the veil of anonymity. Not 
many I think.-Bernard Van Horne, Detroit 
Public Library. 

History of Science 
A Guide to the History of Science,· a First 

Guide for the Study of the History of 
Science with Introductory Essays on Science 
and Tradition. By George Alfred Leon 
Sarton. Waltham, Mass., Chron:ca Bo-
tanica, N.Y., Stechert-Hafner, 1952. xvu, 
316p. $7.50. 
The history of science is being studied and 

consulted more frequently by contemporary 
historians and social scientists than at any time 
since the seventeenth century. The cry that 
the scientist must become socially conscious is 
matched by the cry that the social scientist 
must know what science has done in order to 
understand what it will do. Civilization to-
day affects scientific development and in turn 
is affected by it. Hence, the librarian whether 
in a science library or in a general library will 
find a demand for and a need to know the tools 
which serve as a key to unlock the storehouse 
of knowledge concerning the heritage of mod-
ern science. 

I sis and 0 sir is are by-words in the history . 
of science. To these we can now add Horus, 
the recommended citing title of Sarton's 

OCTOBER, 1952 

"Guide to the History of Science." This new 
publication will strengthen the arm of every 
scholar and more particularly every research 
librarian. It is gratifying to note the increase 
in the number of guides to the literature of 
various subjects in the sciences. Chemistry, 
Mathematics, Physics, Zoology, Entomology, 
Geology and now the History of Science are 
well provided with guides. 

Sarton's "Guide" is in two parts. The first 
contains three introductory lectures explaining 
the purpose and meaning of the history of 
science. These make fascinating read:ng. 
The second part, entitled; "A first guide for 
the study of the history of science," is a great 
amplification of the bibliography which was 
published as an appendix to the author's 
"Study of the History of Science," Cambridge, 
1936. It includes a critical bibliography of 
works on methodology, and various types of 
reference tools; a selective list of abstracting 
and review journals (by Claudius F. Mayer); 
a directory of societies, national and interna-
tional devoted to the history of science; criti-
cal bibliographies of works on the history of 
science arranged by country and some forty-
one special branches of science; a critical list-
ing of journals and serials concerning the h:s-
tory of science (with Claudius F. Mayer); a 
section on institutes, museums, libraries, and 
a special section devoted to international con-
gresses. The annotations which are given for 
most of the publications cited are written in a 
most interesting and entertaining manner. 
For example, in speaking of a pubEcation 
which contains· a style manual as an appendix, 
Dr. Sarton notes that of the principles enumer-
ated, every student "ought to know tqem as 
well as he knows how to spell and how to 
blow his nose." 

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" 
and it is always tempting for one on the 
fringes to seize triumphantly upon and to 
belabor some minor point which seemingly 
does not measure up, but Dr. Sarton charm-
ingly disarms the reviewer by his statement on 
page 71, "Every bibliography contains errors 
by omission or by commission and at best it is 
bound to be vitiated by an irreducible mini- · 
mum of accidental arbitrariness." I cannot 
refrain, however, from pointing out that the 
citing title "Horus" which appears only at the 
head of the title page is bound to cause some 
bibliographic confusion. Neither the publish-

399 



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