Medical "publishing societies" in eighteenth-century Britain.

This article reviews the relationship between medical journals and publishing societies in eighteenth-century Great Britain. The importance of the perception that these journals were being issued under the auspices of societies is revealed by the number of times this kind of sponsorship was invoked by new medical journals. This kind of endorsement was projected even when a society so designated exercised only a nominal responsibility for the journal and, even when, in some instances, no organization can be said to have existed.