The Oxford Dictionary of Medical Quotations

According to the publisher's blurb, The Oxford Dictionary of Medical Quotations is the 'perfect Christmas present for the doctor who has everything'. It reached me just as the December JRSM went to bed, and I am adding a few hasty sentences as a service to such doctors. But first a word on conflict of interest: Peter McDonald, surgeon and writer, is Honorary Editor at the RSM and I value my happy working relationship with him; only yesterday we met for lunch, when we reached accord on many things other than the proper control of foxes. In compiling the Dictionary his purpose was to offer a collection of medically related quotations, culled from eclectic reading, that might add spice to an article or lecture. 'Whether readers are looking for a suitable quotation on surgery, science, kidneys, or kindness', he declares in the preface, 'they should find much here to satisfy.' I agree: this is indeed a spicy collection, though not every wise saying is witty or every witty one wise; I spent a happy hour with it on the train home. The quotations, mainly from the English-speaking world, with a bias to the surgical, occupy just over a hundred pages, the other half of the book consisting of an index by subject. In truth, this is not a dictionary but a miscellany—a 'work in progress' with acknowledged imperfections. It reflects Peter McDonald's enthusiasms. None the worse for that (the index includes foxglove but not fox), but do not look here for a systematic and comprehensive collection. Even for doctors who do not yet have everything it would make an agreeable present.