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Review by Choice Review

Thomas Hodgkin, a practicing physician, medical educator, and anatomic pathologist,

is famous for his original description of the enlarged spleen and lymph nodes in

lymphoma that has come to bear his name. A physician by training, Hodgkin was a

philanthropist and reformer by nature, a trait that gradually alienated his superiors atGuy's Hospital in London, and led to his falling out of practice to devote the rest of

his life to philanthropic endeavors. Hence, the title of the book: Perfecting the World.

To a great extent the book is based on Hodgkin's letters and papers, and it provides

original and new information on this unconventional and concerned figure of the early

19th century, as well as considerable insight into the practice, education, and social

concerns of medicine in Victorian England. The authors are exceptionally qualified to

write such a volume. A. M. Kass, a medical historian and educator, and E. H. Kass, a

near-legendary figure in American medicine, have brought to bear their background,

training, and insight in preparing this erudite biography. Selectively illustrated and

extensively annotated in a 90-page appendix. This is a jewel of a book, prepared with

considerable love, care, and intellectual effort. Bound to become a classic, it belongson the shelf of any library with the remotest interest in the history of medicine or life

in Victorian England. -G. Eknoyan, Baylor College of Medicine

Review by Booklist Review

Hodgkin's disease-lymphadenoma-is now the only link that most people have with the

English physician Thomas Hodgkin. However, Amalie and Edward Kass, with this

thorough and readable biography, show Hodgkin to have been a man of broad

interests and abilities. In addition to the work on ``his'' disease, the authors also

describe Hodgkin's pioneering labors in tissue pathology and aortic insufficiency.

Then they investigate his forward-looking efforts to abolish slavery, improve social

conditions in England, promote civilizing influences in Africa, and better the lot of

downtrodden minorities (e.g., the Indians in North America and the Maoris in New

Zealand). Throughout, the Kasses relate Hodgkin's life and work in the context of his

dedication to the Society of Friends. This excellent biography clearly documents the

many facets of a complex medical figure who deserves wider recognition. Chapter

notes; to be indexed. WKB. 610'.92 Hodgkin, Thomas / Physicians-Great Britain-

Biography [CIP] 87-26239

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The brilliant and controversial English physician and Quaker who identified the

lymph-nodes disease that bears his name is the subject of this richly detailed

biography by Edward Kass, Harvard Medical School professor, and his wife, amedical-research librarian. Hodgkin was not only known as an innovative clinician

and anatomic pathologist but also as an eminent ethnologist and anthropologist, as

well as an energetic philanthropist. When politics drove him from the staff at

London's Guy Hospital, he continued to exercise influence as a scientist, teacher and

medical-education reformer, and as a member of numerous professional and

charitable organizations. This champion of the poor and oppressed, whether

Australian aborigines, North American Indians or former slaves seeking resettlement

in Africa, died in Jaffa during a mission on behalf of persecuted Jews in the Mideast.

(May)

Review by Kirkus Book Review

A meticulously researched but overly detailed biography of one of 19th-century

Britain's most eminent physicians and social reformers, from husband-and-wife

Kasses (he: Medicine/Harvard Medical School; she: a medical historian). Although

the authors do an admirable job of pulling together every known fact about Hodgkin's

life and medical career, they unfortunately tell us everything they know. The result is

one of those ""laundry list"" biographies where the subject is obscured by the

minutiae that have been dredged up to give meaning to his or her life. Admittedly,

Hodgkin is a tough subject to bring to compelling life. A decidedly un-Byronic figure,

he was a small, unprepossessing man, a devout Quaker whose life was almost entirely

devoted to medicine and to philanthropic activities involving oppressed peoples such

as the Jews, American blacks, and Indians. His life is of main interest to physicians,

for it was Hodgkin, in 1832, who first described seven fatal cases of a rare disease,

resembling both cancer and inflammation, that involved enlargement of the lymph

nodes. The Kasses' writing is most vivid when they describe this and other medical

discoveries--Hodgkin also described several cardiac conditions and appendicitis.

Sadly, the rest of the book, which contains laborious accounts of hospital politics, of

which Hodgkin was the victim, does not measure up. Doctors with time to spare will

undoubtedly glean much interesting historical information about their profession from

this massive biography; others with an urge to learn about Hogdkin would do better to

check the encyclopedia. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.