摘要：1HE National Library of Medicine differs from other medical libraries in that it is a national library. As such, it is responsible for preserving the record of medicine for the nation, and it must serve as the ultimate recourse for all other medical libraries in the country. The uses made of the medical literature are not entirely predictable: the unorthodox medical literature may mirror for the historian the ideas and beliefs of a particular age or the social and religious customs of a certain group or serve some other purpose we cannot now anticipate. In an address at the dedication of the Boston Medical Library, Oliver Wendell Holmes said: "'We must accept the conjuring ultra-ritualist, the dreamy second adventist, the erratic spiritualist, the fantastic homoeopathist, as not unworthy of philosophic study; not more unworthy of it than the squarers of the circle and the inventors of perpetual motion, and ... other whimsical visionaries" (1). And he counselled the library to make room for their writings on its shelves.
