BOOKS MEDICAL
THE ROMANCE OF MEDICINE
By John Hayward, M.D.
There has long been a tradition that medical history is dull ; that doctors themselves seldom read it and know very little about it : and that, except in the crudest form, and in very occasional doses, there is no general audience willing to hear or read it. For this reason Dr. Hayward's book (Rout- ledge, 6s.) is very heartily to be wel- comed. For some years he has been making it his task to interest young audiences at public and private schools, at Polytechnics, social gatherings, and institutes ; he has met with so eager a response that this book has been the result ; and although it has been written with scholarly authority and clarity, it abundantly justifies its title. Few romances, indeed, have been so thrilling as the gradual evolution of Medicine out of magic and folk-lore into an Art that has increasingly called all the sciences, physical, chemical, biological, to its aid. It is a romance that has lit up and, during its unfolding through the centuries, moulded the social and political history of mankind to an extent still very largely unrealised by most people ; and it has included, upon its journey, a whole host of smaller and more personal romances. Dr. Hay- ward's concise and pleasantly written volume should be on the shelves of every household.
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