AIDS: the burdens of history

efficiency chiefly to manual labour-were transplanted from the shop floor to the clinic. Instead of offering representative articles, as Howell has done, Morman includes in his 24 selections the milestones in the campaign for efficiency in hospital organization and practice, and the articles by Ernest Amory Codman, Michael Davis, Jr., and Richard Cabot (among others) presented here offer a solid foundation for understanding the intellectual history of the quest for efficiently engineered health care. Most of the text of these facsimile articles is readable, although some of the reproduced photographs appear as undecipherable rectangles of black and gray. Also, a very brief introduction to each original article could have greatly enhanced their usefulness. As they stand, however, these welcome volumes provide convenient access to sources that document the rise of technology and standardization as hallmarks of the American hospital.