His choice of title deliberately allows for the inclusion of others, apart from anaesthetists, who have made a contribution to the specialty, so we find surgeons such as Esmarch - though not Lister, who was the first to describe the anatomy of respiratory obstruction and the use of tongue forceps - and laymen such as Lord Nuffield. He has written the greater part of the book himself, with some twenty five others mainly contributing autobiographical accounts of their own work. The presentation is alphabetical, but with a tendency for the articles to become thematic, so that pegs are created to hang other names on. For example Silk, whose contributions might be thought to merit a separate entry, receives just one sentence under Hewitt, although Hewitt played virtually no part in the Society of Anaesthetists, which was founded by Silk.
Many of the great names of anaesthesia appear; the founding fathers, obviously, though Wells doesn't get his own entry, being absorbed into Morton, which is a pity; Boyle, of course, Magill, Macintosh, Goldman (a Birmingham graduate), Pask, Nunn (another Birmingham graduate), Waters, Guedel, Lundy, who gets a bare sentence, which won't please them in Rochester, Beecher, Gordh, Ruben, and Severinghaus, to mention but a few from a list of almost eighty articles. Each subject's dates, family background, and education, are summarised, and his or her contributions are described and analysed. Some accounts are enlivened by background explanation, history, and personal anecdotes. All are very readable, interesting, and often entertaining.
The author anticipates in his preface, as well he might, that readers will argue about omissions, but in all fairness it is difficult to see why some names are included and others are not. At first sight eponymity seems to be the key, since each article bears the name of an eponymous piece of apparatus, or of a phenomenon, a procedure, a textbook, or a report. But in that case where are the ubiquitous Mason and Fergusson, not to mention Acland? Acland was a dentist in Bristol; not many people know that.
Manley is included, but not Beaver, Bromage but not Massey Dawkins. Coxeter is mentioned but not indexed, and Mushin has become a non-person. Some textbook writers get a raw deal. The textbook mentioned as being published by Minnitt and Gillies in 1944 was the continuation of Ross, later Ross and Fairlie, before it was taken over by Minnitt, and finally by Minnitt and Gillies. Blomfield wrote a standard textbook that ran to five editions, and Langton Hewer edited Recent Advances for some ten, and also Anaesthesia, but both are missing. Neither Nosworthy nor Rowbotham, celebrated names during the author's traineeship, are indexed, nor is Mitchell, whose non-clotting needle was widely used before the introduction of sterile disposables.
But for all that, this book is a valuable addition to the anaesthetist's library. It is a very useful source of information about the people it does deal with, and it is obvious that a great deal of research has gone into producing it. It is well illustrated, though the facemask labelled Skinner's is actually Murray's. This may be blamed on Buxton, who was not too accurate with the attributions in his textbook; and talking about Buxton, where is he, and where are Vernon Harcourt, and Waller ... and Junker?
What an excellent subject for a tutorial - name five famous anaesthetists who are not in Maltby. That is the joy of this book - it is inexhaustible, one can go on and on! So buy it, and keep it in the anaesthetic room, for browsing, while waiting for the surgeon, or the patient, to turn up.
The book should be available through bookshops, or can be ordered directly from the publisher, Sessions of York, Ebor Press, York YO31 9HS, tel. 01904 659224, at a cost of £20 including inland p&p, £21 overseas.