Book Review

摘要

The history and legacy of institutions, though immensely important, is a tricky subject to write about – almost inevitably so, for the more scholarly and comprehensive the writer aspires to be, the greater the risk of asphyxiating the readers’ interest. Mindful no doubt of this danger, Simon Shorvon and Alastair Compston have produced a truly outstanding account of the Mecca of neurology, from its founding in 1859 as the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic to the recent past. It would have been a formidable challenge weaving together its several themes into a coherent narrative – encompassing, , the hospital’s prodigious contribution to the evolution of neurology as a scientific discipline, the tensions in fulfilling its tripartite function of providing a clinical service while also maintaining its preeminent position as a centre of teaching research and the recurring financial and organisational threats to its independence.