Great Medical Encyclopedia

Great Medical Encyclopedia, arose as an additional form of physician improvement and a practical handbook in his daily work. The insufficient possibility of obtaining the necessary qualification, the absence of the latest major scientific guides in the Russian language, and, finally, the ideological inconsistency in the interpretation of a whole number of medical-biological questions, as well as their insufficiently clear orientation in the direction of Soviet medicine, to a significant extent caused the sooner realization of the publication of the Great Med. Encyclopedia. Taking into account that the matter of publishing the Great Soviet and Technical Encyclopedias was already being handled by the Joint Stock Company 'Soviet Encyclopedia', and wishing to avoid parallelism in such publications, the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR entered into an agreement with the Joint Stock Company and together with the Presidium of the BSE established the basic principles of publication. On May 15, 1927, work began on the organization of the GME, which, in its structure, consists of an Editorial Bureau, an Editorial Council, and a Secretariat, uniting the work of the secretaries of 12 editorial departments (see pp. 3-4). The main questions are preliminarily worked out in the corresponding editorial departments. Coordination in the Secretariat of all disputed and analysis of all principled questions, approval of the list of words to be placed as separate articles, as well as the sizes of the latter, make it possible to construct the Great Med. Encyclopedia according to a definite plan. Disagreements between the Secretariat and the editorial departments are analyzed in the Editorial Council and receive a final resolution in the Editorial Bureau, which is the guiding body of the GME. Compilation of the list of words for which separate articles are to be given, words to be illuminated in the text of other articles, distribution of words between departments, as well as preliminary determination of the sizes of articles lie with the Department of Compilation of the Word List (Planning Department). Articles in the process of development pass through the department secretary, co-editor for the given specialty, department editor, Technical Editor (summarizing all remarks, checking bibliography and giving the article appropriate external design), through the Illustration Department (working out illustrations in essence and designing them), members of the Editorial Bureau and are approved by the Chief Editor. The participation of the largest scientists of the whole Union in the GME has been attracted as editors, co-editors, and authors. On September 15, 1927, the prospectus of the GME was issued, containing a number of sample articles and types of articles on various disciplines, also furnished with sample illustrations. As the organization of the GME crystallizes, diverse questions of purely principled and technical significance arise: questions of nomenclature, transcription, bibliography, artistic design of drawings, etc. On February 29, 1928, the first volume of the GME was issued, in the preface to which the Editorial Board characterizes its tasks and all the difficulties in their realization. Subjecting the undertaken publication to wide public criticism, the discussion of which is conducted in the press and at wide scientific-medical assemblies, the Editorial Board simultaneously works out instructions for authors and establishes standards of articles in order to give the GME a consistent type of scientific-practical publication. From the contents of the first volumes, issued in the first half of 1928, the direction and difference of the GME from past encyclopedias is clear. The publication of the GME is calculated, approximately, for 5 years, in the amount of 20-22 volumes, with print runs of 20,000. Each volume is accompanied by a subject index, transcription explanations, and an independent list of the largest articles and illustrations. At the end of the publication a subject index will be given for all volumes of the GME, into which will enter the list of all placed in it articles, as well as words that received illumination or definition in the articles. The GME will be furnished, moreover, with a name index.

L. Brushevskaya.