In 1912 Garrison was Assistant Librarian of the Surgeon General's Office, U.S. Army.  At the suggestion of Sir William Osler, Garrison prepared this classified listing of medical classics across the full range of the history of medicine. It occupied pp. 89-178 of a volume in the Index-Catalogue. The listing included very few annotations, and those published were exceedingly brief. This listing was the origin of the medical bibliography you are reading today.

Digital facsimile of the separate "reprint" from Google Books at this link.

One of the best single-volume histories of medicine from the bibliographical point of view, mainly for 19th century and earlier material. A rather compressed work with much detail, this is really more of a reference work than something to read from cover to cover. Garrison had a special gift for distilling the complex lifetime achievements of great physicians into a few paragraphs. In his time he was the leading American authority on the subject and wrote many papers on various aspects of medical history. Those published in Bull. N. Y. Acad. Med., 1925-35 were collected under the title of Contributions to the history of medicine, New York, Hafner, 1966. Garrison saw his so-called Introduction through four editions, the last of which appeared in 1929. That edition was frequently reprinted. See the biography by S.R. Kagan, Boston, 1948. See also "Fielding H. Garrison: the man and his book," by G. H. Brieger, Trans. Stud. Coll. Phycns. Philad., Med. Sci., 1981, 3, 1-21.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Prepared for William Osler's seventieth birthday but not completed in time. Selections were approved by Osler, and the anthology was in publication when Osler died. Osler looked forward to the volume. Less than a month before he died, Osler wrote to Garrison, "Nothing yet from Milford - I suppose the manuscript is in process of purification! There are still many things in it I wish to see. The Press will follow your wishes as to format. I am sure the entire Volume will be most attractive. I think I have sent a letter since my illness - Still in bed" (Cushing, Life of Sir William Osler, 2, 677.)

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Re-issued separately with an appendix on the history of pediatrics in recent times by A. F. Abt, Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders, 1965.

An excellent short paper on the subject, with references to the more important previous work.

Includes a valuable bibliography of sources of medical biography.

An expansion of Garrison's original list which appeared in the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office, Washington, 1912, 2 ser. 17, 89-178. Garrison was inspired to draft the 1912 list by a suggestion from Sir William Osler. Garrison's 1933 check-list formed the starting point for L.T. Morton’s first edition of the bibliography you are reading now, published in 1943.

Addenda and corrigenda by D.A. Kronick, Bull. Hist. Med. 1958, 32, 456-74.

A useful collection of Garrison's numerous historical articles published in this journal.