THE DOCTORS WARREN OF BOSTON

A little like the Flexners of Kentucky, the Warrens of Boston dominated early New England medicine, and along with the first name John, handed down the Aesculapian tradition. There were six in five generations harking back to the Revolution: Joseph Warren, who died at Bunker Hill, more radical in politics than in medicine; his brother John, who went to teach at the newly formed Harvard Medical School; his son John, co-founder of Massachusetts General who performed the first operation with other; his son Mason, who pioneered in plastic surgery; his son John Collins Warren, the most successful; and finally, his son John, anatomist and teacher. Their story inevitably parallels the march of medicine (Jenner and vaccination; Lister and antisepsis, the subject of one of the author's earlier books) and provides a collateral picture of the times in all their sturdy sobriety. Worthy, to be sure, but the tableau is not so vivant.