John Clavell, 1601–43: highwayman, author, lawyer, doctor

problems, his achievements and his failures, as he appeared to contemporaries, pupils and successors, as well as to those who are the heirs of a tradition to which he contributed. I recall, dimly, reading a remark of Kipling's, that a teacher is at the mercy of his disciples. It was well said. In this instance the disciples are shown to have been worthy. They had their own successes and failures-who has not? It is one of the merits of this book that it has been written by a practising surgeon, a teacher, as well as an historian who can balance both sides of his narrative, for narrative and personal history it certainly is. Another merit is to emphasize the link between the British and American schools of orthopaedic thought and practice, founded at the inception of the British Orthopaedic Association, towards the end of the First World War, a beneficent influence which persists after three-quarters of a century. It pays deserved tribute to the ABC Club, a lively evidence of that link. Any practising surgeon knows how difficult it is to run a service department and to combine it with clinical research. The struggles of the British Orthopaedic Research Society are appreciatively noticed. One of the strengths of the book is that it relates how needs were perceived and met, from local matters to the gradual formation of a national service; how it was organized at different levels and how it has developed in Britain. Even after forty-five years in orthopaedics one can discover an influence, an achievement which one did not know. The book will be extremely helpful to future historians, because it is so evidently based on wide and deep research, though the author never intrudes and wears his learning lightly. Only one typographic error has been detected: "discrete" for "discreet" (p.252). The book is well printed, strongly bound and well, though perhaps a little sparsely, illustrated. The index is good. All in all, an excellent piece of work, a credit to the author and to the Association, and one which will be of lasting value.