Science and Technology in Medicine: An Illustrated Account Based on Ninety-Nine Landmark Publications from Five Centuries

Selecting a list of 99 of the most significant discoveries of the past 500 years from the vast medical literature is no easy task. Gesner, the author of the pioneering Bibliotheca Universalis (1554-5), classified and listed the 12 000 works known at that time. Today, there are many millions of citations in Index Medicus, and on PubMed and the internet. A collection like this is often more memorable for its exclusions rather than inclusions and, to an extent, Andras Gedeon's choice is a …