The modern history of sports medicine is chronicled in a discussion of the first writings in English on sports medicine. What may have been the first writing in English is a section on first aid in the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SPORT, published in England in 1898. It describes injuries commonly sustained in angling, boxing, cricket, cycling, football, hunting, lawn tennis, mountaineering, rowing, and shooting. Several other books were published in Europe in other languages during the years before the first World War, including the first comprehensive work on sports injuries in a single volume by one author. In 1931, two books on sports medicine appeared in English--INJURIES AND SPORT, A GENERAL GUIDE FOR THE PRACTITIONER and TRAINING, CONDITIONING, AND THE CARE OF INJURIES. INJURIES AND SPORT by Charles Brehmer Heald is divided into two parts. The first deals with the process of the repair of injuries, the general principles of diagnosis, first aid, electrotherapeutics, physio-therapeutics, factors modifying recovery, and complications of injuries. He advocates one method of treatment throughout--anodal galvanism, the application of mild direct currents to the injury. The second part of the book deals with the injuries classified according to the body parts affected. Walter Meanwell's book, TRAINING, CONDITIONING, AND CARE, is brief, more oriented to training, and not comprehensive in its discussion of injuries. He devotes considerable space to diet, and particularly to debunking many beliefs commonly held by coaches and athletes at the time. In 1939, Dr. August Thorndike, Jr., published ATHLETIC INJURIES: PREVENTION, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT, thought by most to be the pioneer publication in the field, in the United States. (MM)