Treating and preventing disease has always been one of the most important tasks in a society, and that task ultimately falls to one of the most respected and admired figures in any culture--the healer. This respect is understandable --medical practictioners ease pain, prolong life, and prevent disesase, making them among the most important figures in the daily lives of people everywhere. The "Dictionary of Medical Biography" provides authoritative biographical coverage of major medical practitioners in all times and cultures. While its emphasis is on practitioners within the Western medical tradition, it also covers practitioners of alternative medicines, as well as major figures within traditional Chinese, Indian, and Islamic medicine. In addition, special essays survey these medical traditions, which are more difficult to appreciate within a biographical framework. Overall, the "Dictionary of Medical Biography" concentrates on the nuances of medical practice, and the social context within which ideas of health, disease, and therapy exist. The most complete work of its kind, the "Dictionary of Medical Biography" is essential for any library that serves those who seek to understand the importance of medicine in the lives of people everywhere.

This is an extensively illustrated review of 1000 notable men and women who have contributed most to our current knowledge of medicine and surgery over the past 1000 years. Its publication celebrates what has truly been the medical millennium - an unprecedented triumph of human endeavor as succeeding generations of pioneers have built on the work of earlier doctors and scientists to provide yet further insights and advances during an extraordinary era of progress stretching from folklore to high science. Handsomely bound, this is an educational and absorbing record of the heroes and heroines of the medical millennium.

"This is a necessary and well-recommended acquisition for academic and larger public libraries building collections in the health sciences." Choice "an excellent addition to medical or history of science collections." Reference Books Bulletin