Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Order Out of Chaos: John Shaw Billings and America's Coming of Age

Order Out of Chaos: John Shaw Billings and America's Coming of Age

CB Chapman. 420 pages. Nantucket, MA: Watson Publishing; 1994. $28.95.

Billings was a remarkable man. This detailed autobiography chronicles the aspects of his life that are generally less well-known than, but as important as, his role in the development of the National Library of Medicine. For example, Billings was director of the New York Public Library during its formative years; advisor to Johns Hopkins University during the building phase of its medical institutions; and an original proposer of Osler as professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. The book's title comes from a letter that Billings wrote to his wife while he was a Civil War army surgeon. Endnotes, index, and photographs.