A history of the Liverpool Medical Institution

wet. Alexander concludes that: "The Moscow plague was the extraordinary product of a unique combination of weather, warfare, and textile weaving in a wooden metropolis." The book reveals the vast scope for research into medical problems in preRevolutionary Russia, the availability of the material, and the willingness of the authorities to provide facilities for access. It is a field which is and has been neglected by Soviet medical historians; it has also been neglected by British medical historians, by contrast with some excellent work being done in, for example, Germany and the United States. The many institutions which provided financial support for Professor Alexander's investigations and for publication of his book can congratulate themselves that their money was well spent. A minor criticism is that the maps are generally uninspiring and their message is not always clearly stated. Map 1 suffers from local congestion in the south-eastern part of Russia perhaps a large-scale inset would overcome this problem; Map 4 is tilted through 20 degrees and an arrow pointing N is needed; in Map 6 the River Oka is shown as a tributary of the Kliazma, whereas the opposite is the case. But these are small blemishes which, indeed, serve to emphasize the value of the book as a whole as a unique contribution to our knowledge in the West of what is still a largely unexplored field in medical history. Basil Haigh Cambridge