Index Medicus

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Abstract
IN ITS initial year of publication,Index Medicus, which purported to catalog "all current medical journals and transactions of value," listed some 20,000 medical articles from around the world. One hundred years later, it is expected to list more than 250,000 articles—mute testimony to the impressive growth in medical science during the past century, growth thatIndex Medicushas helped to stimulate as well as to chronicle. When its principal founder, John Shaw Billings, MD, died in 1913, William H. Welch of Johns Hopkins includedIndex Medicuswith Billings' other bibliographic achievements as America's "greatest contribution to medicine."1 Today, judging from the prestige of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and its best known publication, theIndex Medicushas maintained its premiere position. Despite its parallel growth with American medical discoveries and continued international acclaim, the future ofIndex Medicushas not always been bright. More than once it has

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