Instruments and the imagination

informative account of the journal, register, letter and minute books, and of the many other series deriving from the Society's idiosyncratic structure and practice over more than three centuries. The private archival mysteries of the Society from "lapsed certificates" and "archived papers" to "Bulloch's Roll" are revealed briefly and clearly, rendering the archive intelligible for the researcher. The Wellcome Institute's Contemporary Medical Archives Centre is not yet twenty years old, but it has already accumulated more records than the Royal Society in over three centuries. The achievement is remarkable both in the quality and range of the collections acquired. Amongst seventy-eight substantial collections of personal papers are those of Lord Moran, Sir Richard Doll, Sir Ernst Chain, Sir E A Sharpey-Schafer, Frederick Parkes-Weber, Sir Henry Head, Melanie Klein, Sir Thomas Lewis, Marie Stopes, Sir Edward Mellanby, Sir Peter Medawar, and Sir Leonard Rogers. Amongst fifty-seven societies and associations which have placed their records in the Centre's care (itself an indication of the reputation and trust which it now commands) are those of the Eugenics Society, Family Planning Association, Lister Institute, Physiological Society and the Research Defence Society. The pace of development is fast, and the Centre's archivists have kept scholars up to date through successive editions of the Guide. This is the fourth edition, recording nearly 100 new collections acquired since 1991, including the papers of John Bowlby, Cicely Williams, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists and the Health Visitors' Association. Also included for the first time is a brief account of the Royal Army Medical Corps Muniment Collection. These are model guides, which admirably fulfil their purpose. They are affordable too, and attractively illustrated. Historians of science and medicine will find them not only valuable but indispensable.