Commemoration of Herman Boerhaave

The Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine is shortly to publish in two volumes the first complete Roll of the Commissioned Medical Officers in the British Army. The first volume consists of a reprint of Johnston's Roll, which has entries for all the officers in the Army Medical Services from the accession of George II (1727) until the formation of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 23 June 1898. Only 250 copies of this Roll were originally printed during the First World War (1917), and it is now so rare that it is often difficult to find even in large libraries. In 1925 one of Colonel Johnston's collaborators, Colonel Peterkin, supplemented the Roll with a similar list of medical officers serving between 1660 and 1727. This has become even more difficult to find, and is therefore reprinted as a preliminary to Johnston's Roll. Volume II of the work, which is much more extensive, consists of a complete list of the officers from the formation of the Royal Army Medical Corps until 1960. This has been compiled under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Drew, K.C.B., and he appears as the General Editor. These two volumes provide the basic reference work for any historical studies on the medical services of the British Army. The two-volume work will be available in the autumn from the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, 183 Euston Road, London, N.W.1.