Medical communication: the old and new. The development of medical journals in Britain.

The development of printing and the publication of books formed an integral part of the Renaissance. During the sub- sequent scientific revolution it was initially in published books that the new breed of scientists brought their work before the public, and for the most part they published in Latin, the lingua franca of their time. In England, however, it was some time before medical matters were published even as books, particu- larly if their authors were promulgating ideas which challenged contemporary thought. In 1628, for example, William Harvey published De Motu Cordis in Frankfurt in Latin, no suitable vehicle for publication being available to him in England. The increase in publication that occurred during the century and a half that followed Harvey's death in 1657, however, brought an increasing amount of medical material before the public, and by the end of the eighteenth century Latin had been virtually replaced by English as the language of medical communication.