Chain of friendship. Selected letters of Dr. John Fothergill of London, 1735–1780

BETSY C. CORNER and CHRISTOPHER C. BOOTH (editors), Chain offriendship. Selected letters of Dr. John Fothergill of London, 1735-1780, Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press, 1971, gvo, pp. xxiv, 538, illus., £14.95. In view of the regard Fothergill (1712-1780) held for North America as well as for Britain it is entirely appropriate that his letters should be edited by an American, the late Betsy C. Corner, wife of the distinguished anatomist and embryologist George Corner, and Professor Christopher Booth, lately of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School of London. .Moreover this combination of a historian and a medical man, each knowing a good deal about the other's discipline, has proved ideal for the task, and illustrates well the fruitful symbioses possible in medical history. In the mid-eighteenth century Fothergill was one ofa small group ofleading London physicians. But he was also a philanthropist, horticulturist, educationalist, a firm supporter of American freedom, a patron of the sciences, an outstanding Quaker who funded a variety of educational establishments, and a subsidizer of books. His contributions to medicine were also far from inconspicuous. In the light of this vast breadth of interest Fothergill's correspondence is, therefore, of concern to a wide circle of specialists, and in addition provides a remarkable survey of his times which will be of great value to historians of eighteenth-century medicine and of eighteenth-century cultural history in general. One also learns a great deal about Fothergill's personality, although little of his medical practice. The editors have selected about two hundred (1735-1780) of his four hundred extant letters, transcribing them accurately and providing profuse and valuable annotations. The collection is letter-editing at its best and its high standard of scholarship will, it is to be hoped, influence and guide those contemplating similar publications. What seems to some a relatively easy task is in fact a most difficult and arduous one, but one in which the late Mrs. Corner and Professor Booth have been entirely successful.