The Harvey Cushing Collection of Books and Manuscripts

Abstract

WHEN Prof. Cushing bequeathed his remarkable library to his old University of Yale, he set aside a fund to be used in cataloguing portions of the collection. The advisory board of the historical library, however, decided to employ this fund in preparing a short-title list of the entire collection. Whether it was advisable to do this, instead of concentrating on a list of only the rarer and more important items, with full collations, was doubtless considered. Cushing's bio-bibliography of Andreas Vesalius, published posthumously, does indeed include such collations of the relevant Vesaliana, and this to some extent favours the decision of the members of the advisory board, who were not in a position to ignore considerations of expense, or to indulge in duplication. Prof. J. F. Fulton, who is devoted to the memory of Cushing, and is himself a learned and experienced bibliographer, favoured the solution adopted, and it will be wise to respect his judgment, although a volume comparable in plan with the Bibliotheca Osleriana would have been most welcome.

The Harvey Cushing Collection of Books and Manuscripts

(Publication No. 1. Historical Library, Yale Medical Library.) Pp. xvi + 207. (New York: Schuman's, 1943.) 8.50 dollars.