DorLands.com offers a companion resource to Dorland's medical dictionary.
Title
Dorlands.com
Description
History
The first dictionary in the Dorland's line, the American Pocket Medical Dictionary, edited by W.A. Newman Dorland, AM, MD, was first published in 1898 and was a small volume just over 500 pages long. It was followed two years later by the American Illustrated Medical Dictionary. Both sprang from the fertile mind of Ryland W. Green, the illustrious longtime editor-in-chief at the W.B. Saunders Company, who remained intimately involved in their writing until he died in 1949 while at work on the 22nd edition of the big dictionary.
Dr. Dorland died in 1956, at which time the dictionaries were retitled to incorporate his name, which was how they had generally come to be known. Over the years, the list of consultants and contributors to the Dorland's dictionaries has included a large number of the most eminent names in medicine. The dictionaries themselves have grown in size to nearly 1000 pages for the 26th edition of Dorland's Pocket and over 2200 for the 30th edition of Dorland's Illustrated (from 770 in the first edition). And the maintenance of the entire line of Dorland's references now requires the full-time efforts of four lexicographers.
The information contained in the dictionaries has, of course, changed considerably since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. No longer are dosages for drugs given (especially not in drams!). Nor does the new 30th edition contain an entry for Keeley cure ("a proprietary method of treatment for the alcohol and opium habits by means of gold chlorid"-and yes, "chlorid" was the correct spelling at the time). The first edition contains no entry for the just developing specialty "immunology." Moreover, as the content has changed, so has the means of keeping it, moving from the time-honored card files to a full-fledged electronic content management system that allows us to update huge amounts of material across multiple print and electronic products with a minimum of effort.
Languages
English
