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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), the founder of the Wellcome Trust, left at his death a superb collection of oriental materials relating to medicine which is now housed in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London.1 Although he had a keen interest in China, which is reflected in the substantial collection of Chinese materials, he never made any systematic effort to acquire Japanese materials. Nevertheless, the Japanese collection contains a number of rarities and items of bibliographical or medical interest, and the most significant are described below.
1 Allan, Nigel, ‘The Oriental Collections of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1981, 10–25.Google Scholar
2 Halén, Widar, Christopher Dresser (Oxford: Phaidon Christie's, 1990), 34.Google Scholar
3 See Halén, 33–66, and Dresser, , Japan: its architecture, art and art manufactures (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1882), passim.Google Scholar
4 Hayashi, Nozomu and Kornicki, Peter, Early Japanese books in Cambridge University Library: a catalogue of the Aston, Satow and von Siebold collections (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).Google Scholar
5 Walravens, Hartmut, Catalogue of Chinese books and manuscripts in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1994)Google Scholar.
