Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary

Abstract

Samuel Johnson, who certainly should have known, stated: "No dictionary of a living tongue ever can be perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding and some falling away.... Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true." Since its debut 75 years ago, this lexicon has had 25 editions. I must confess that I have used the 22nd edition for the past 23 years without being aware that I was out of step with the times. Maybe we keep our old dictionaries because we feel comfortable with them, as we do with old friends, and perhaps we have a reluctance to discard them because we do not wish to admit the passing of time. How can a reviewer assess a new dictionary? I am not sure, but I put it to some tests in

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