The Faber Medical Dictionary [antikvár]

FOREWORD T "IHERE is in my opinion need for a concise and comprehensive medical dictionary, and when I was asked some years ago if I would edit such a work I gladly consented. It has, however, proved to be a difiBlcult task, which would have been impossible had it not been for all the kind help which I have received from numerous friends. It was hoped to publish this dictionary just after the Health Service came into being, because it was felt that medical men and women and nurses in the service required an up-to-date and reliable medical dictionary. This was not to be, however, because of the meticulous care that has been taken over the proofs and the constant addition of new material, especially with regard to new pharmaceutical preparations. I have to thank the Staff of the School of Pharmacy, University of London, for help and suggestions regarding entries on Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Mr. James Cleugh, M.A., St. Andrews, has supervised and corrected aU the Greek and Latin derivations. Professor Wood Jones and Miss Jessie Dobson have helped me with the anatomical nomenclature and eponyms. Surgical registrars at King's College Hospital have given me constructive and stimulating criticisms and also helped in the proof reading. Miss Katharine Watson, of the staff of Messrs Faber and Faber, has proved a tower of strength throughout the whole period during which the book has been compiled. She assembled the initial material and tirelessly typed and retyped every card on which each entry in this dictionary has been made. A card index system proved invaluable in the composition of the work, for it made revision and the addition of new names easier. During all the months of hard work, including the reading of highly complicated proofs, I have never known Miss Watson's good-humoured patience to falter and I can never thank her enough for her valuable help. In order to make doubly sure that the entries were as correct as they could be made, the proofs were re-checked by an entirely fresh team of helpers, Dr. E. A. Gates, O.B.E., M.D., Dr. J. G. Bate, M.B., Ch.B. and Miss Jean Cunningham, B.A., S.R.N., S.C.M., to whom I should also like to express my sincere thanks. It is hoped that this medical dictionary will prove to be of real value, not only to the medical, dental and nursing professions, as a whole, but also to thousands of the laity who are working in the Health Service and require a dictionary to explain briefly the many and varied medical and surgical terms. CECIL WAKELEY Royal College of Surgeons of England Lincoln's Inn Fields London W.C.2 July 1953.