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George N Bowers Jr, A Dictionary of the History of Medicine. Anton Sebastian. Pearl River, NY: Parthenon Publishing Group Inc., 1999, 784 pp., $98.00. ISBN 1-85070-021-4., Clinical Chemistry, Volume 47, Issue 3, 1 March 2001, Pages 611–612, https://doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/47.3.611b
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The first book, Dates in Medicine: A Chronological Record of Medical Progress over Three Millennia, is a collection of “important milestones in the development—since antiquity—of modern medicine”. It is a massive listing of approximately 6000 dates for persons and events from 8000 BC to 1999. I was somewhat confused by the frequent use of birth dates rather than the date of the medical progress event, and it would have helped to have had an index. But of greater concern was the absence of dates of important medical progress events over the last 50 years. For example, there are no dates for the introduction of enzyme markers in serum that signal acute myocardial infarction [1954 for serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), 1956 for lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isoenzymes, 1965 for creatine kinase (CK) MB, and 1989 for troponins] and liver damage [1956 for serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT)]. In addition, no dates are recorded for the change from colorimetric, flame photometric, and atomic absorption methods to electrochemical methods using ion-selective electrodes for the simultaneous determination of Na+, K+, Ca2+, Cl−, Pco2, Po2, pH, and glucose to provide rapid results for critical care areas (i.e., operating rooms, adult and neonatal intensive care units, and emergency rooms). Furthermore, the profound impact that automated instrumentation (e.g., introduction of the Auto Analyzer by Skeggs in 1957) and computers have made in clinical chemistry has no date. How do I answer the editor’s question about this book’s “value for the discipline of clinical chemistry”?
