Of all the important investigation that Christopher Bird performed during his career, The Life and Trials of Gaston Naessens is probably his most important work. I first became aware of Bird's book in 1990, and I have bought numerous copies over the years to give them to cancer and AIDS patients. His book is not a monumental piece of scholarship, but it tells one more story about what happens to medical pioneers. I have taken Bird's work much further, and I write at length about Naessens and the professional lineage that he is a marvelous part of. The story of Naessens work is probably the most important one in medicine today.