The cover illustration shows Dr. Georg Haas supervising one of the first dialysis treatments, in 1926 (from p.399 of the book)

The contributors

Andras Gedeon (author) obtained his M.Sc. in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University in New Haven, Conn. and his D.Sc. in physics from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Having spent twenty-five years directing R&D projects in the medical equipment industry, both in major corporations and more recently in companies that he has cofounded, Dr Gedeon has been instrumental in the development of new equipment and methods in anaesthesiology, intensive care and cardio-pulmonary diagnostics. A member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, he is a keen book collector with a focus on his long-standing interest in the history of science, technology and medicine.

Jeremy M Norman (introduction) received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in history with emphasis on the history of science. He is the author of the fifth edition of Morton’s Medical Bibliography and co-author with Diana Hook of The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine and the more recently published Origins of Cyberspace. A Library on the History of Computing, Networking, and Telecommunications.
  In 1970 he started Jeremy Norman & Co., Inc. in San Francisco and he is now considered to be one of the world’s leading specialists in rare books and manuscripts on the history of medicine, science, and technology.

Leslie A Geddes (foreword) ME, PhD, is Showater Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Bioengineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. He has conducted research in electromyography, cardiac output, cardiac pacing, ventricular defibrillation and blood pressure. Dr Geddes has written or co-authored more than twenty books, published over seven hundred scientific papers and holds twenty-two patents. He has received numerous awards and is a member of many scientific societies, including the National Academy of Engineering, the American College of Cardiology and the Royal Society of Medicine.

Paul U Unschuld (foreword) Prof. Dr. phil. is Director of the Institute of the History of Medicine of the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. He is the author of more than twenty-five books and over one hundred papers covering topics such as the history of medicine in China, the history of prerepublican Chinese medical literature and the comparative history of Chinese and European medical history. Dr Unschuld is a member of the editorial board of several international journals and his research takes him regularly both to the United States and to China where he is a honorary consultant to the Library of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Peking.

Ove Hagelin (bibliography) MDhc. is curator at The Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. A highly regarded expert and previously for many years an antiquarian bookseller specialising in old and rare books in medicine and natural history, Mr Hagelin is internationally recognised for his illustrated and annotated catalogues of rare books from important Swedish collections and libraries.