Human Medical Experimentation: From Smallpox Vaccines to Secret Government Programs. Edited by Frances R. Frankenburg. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2017. 322 pages. Acid free. $89.00. (ISBN 978-1-61069-897-9). E-book available (978-1-61069-898-6). Call for pricing.

Tests involving the living human body is a topic with a long and troubling history, yet without these trials, we would all still be living in medical dark ages. In her “Preface,” editor Frankenburg states that “This encyclopedia covers some of the key events and people involved in the history of experimentation on humans. The goal is to provide a readable reference for those wanting to learn more about the experiments themselves as well as the researchers who explore health and illness by carrying out tests on human subjects” (xi).

Taking a chronological approach, the editor divides the text into six historical eras: Pre-nineteenth century, nineteenth century, twentieth century to World War II, World War II, Cold War, and post-Cold War to the present. Each section opens with an “Introduction,” which provides historical context and background information. This is followed by a “Timeline” of important dates covering medical discoveries, publications, and the like. The bulk of each section is comprised of alphabetically arranged entries concerning physicians/scientists (William Harvey, who first accurately described the circulation of the human bloodstream), documents (Declaration of Helsinki, “the first attempt of the international research community to regulate itself” [185]), events (polio vaccine trials), and organizations (Institutional Review Boards). “Documents” presents a smattering of excerpts from books, diaries, and other primary sources that offer the reader a firsthand account of what has been previously discussed. Lastly, “Further Reading” concludes each section with a bibliography of relevant sources.

It should be noted that Frankenburg is evenhanded in her coverage of personalities and occurrences. There are the expected entries on such well-known incidents as the Tuskegee Institute studies of untreated syphilis in black men and the German experimentation on prisoners-of-war during World War II. However, there are also entries on men such as John Scott Haldane, a Scottish physiologist who would “expose himself to different gases and monitor his responses, at times relying on his children to see if he was still breathing” (38). Many researchers throughout history risked death by experimenting on themselves to advance medical knowledge.

Writing style is clear and direct with a minimum of medical jargon. Editor Frankenburg holds a medical doctor degree from University of Toronto. She is currently a professor of psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine and chief of inpatient psychiatry at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts. She has been ably assisted here by nine contributors, all of whom hold doctoral degrees, although only one, Jack McCallum, MD., has a background in medicine. The others, interestingly enough, are historians.

This title fills a void in the reference literature. Multi-volume works such as Bioethics, 4th ed., (previously titled Encyclopedia of Bioethics [Macmillan, 2014]), are bulky, expensive and have a much broader scope than the work under review here. On the other hand, a WORLDCAT search using LCSH “Human Experimentation in Medicine,” yields a plethora or narrative works, but no other compact encyclopedic publications.

Overall, this is an engaging, informative book that is well written and well researched. It is recommenced for purchase by all public libraries and should be a core collection item for medical libraries and academic institutions having strong ethics/medical collections.—Michael F. Bemis, Independent Reference Book Reviewer, Oakdale, Minnesota