The gold-headed cane.

This charming “autobiography” tells of the adventures of the famous gold-headed cane, successively in the possession of Radcliffe, Mead, Askew, William and David Pitcairn, and Baillie, and then retired to a glass case in the library of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Besides good biographies of the several owners of the cane, the book gives interesting information on the condition of medicine in England in the 18th century. Several good reprints of the book are available; in particular may be mentioned that of 1915 which has an introduction by Osler and a preface by F. R. Packard, and one edited by H.S. Robinson, 1932; facsimile of author’s own copy of the 1827 edition published by the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1968.