Prior to the nineteenth century, the practice of medicine in the Western world was as much art as science. But, argues W. F. Bynum, 'modern' medicine as practiced today is built upon foundations that were firmly established between 1800 and the beginning of World War I. He demonstrates this in terms of concepts, institutions, and professional structures that evolved during this crucial period, applying both a more traditional intellectual approach to the subject and the newer social perspectives developed by recent historians of science and medicine. In a wide-ranging survey, Bynum examines the parallel development of biomedical sciences such as physiology, pathology, bacteriology, and immunology, and of clinical practice and preventive medicine in nineteenth-century Europe and North America. Focusing on medicine in the hospitals, the community, and the laboratory, Bynum contends that the impact of science was more striking on the public face of medicine and the diagnostic skills of doctors than it was on their actual therapeutic capacities.
He shows how even doctors who had little time for the claims of science within medicine benefited from the public status and credibility that science gave them and argues that by the end of the century, most were quite happy to be seen as marching in the steps of Welch and Osler, Lister and Virchow, Pasteur and Koch. And through the work of these and other prominent researchers, both the conceptual foundations and the practice of medicine were slowly transformed into a modern cast that still characterizes the profession today, even with the vast changes that further discoveries have wrought.
Industry Reviews
"...a very fine and important book that will doubtless be judged as definitive. It is wonderfully written, well organized and witty, and rests on impeccable scholarship resulting from an exhaustive examination of the literature." Kenneth Kiple, Nature "This is an excellent history of medicine, placing a familiar story in a wider context and doing justice to its genuine excitements." Anne Crowther, Times Literary Supplement "...This important piece of scholarship enriches the understanding of the evolution of medicine and the process of translating scientific knowledge into effective curative and preventive measures." G. Eknoyan, Science & Technology "...brings together and makes accessible a vast amount of recent research. Discussions are lucid and often illuminating. The book moreover is available in a relatively inexpensive paperback format that should make it more attractive for teaching purposes. Anyone interested in the modern history of medicine will find this to be a valuable introduction to the field." George Weisz, JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association "...well-written scholarly study..." Advances: The Journal of Mind-Body Health "...a well-crafted survey of nineteenth-century medical science. It contains lots of interesting material, and it tackles the subject from a variety of angles that, if they lend the book a certain looseness, also make it useful for introducing students to a variety of topics." Thomas Broman, Journal of the History of Medicine "Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century is a text that is highly recommended as an introduction to history of medicine for undergraduates. It should also be read by all historians of medicine for its thoughtful and original analysis of a major historiographical issue." Tony A. Appel, ISIS "A particular strength of the study is the description of how technology began to work its way into medical practice...This superb and masterful synthesis will be useful to all who read it." Howard Markel, Technology and Culture "...the book...is both a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the subject, and the strength of the book for the specialist reader is as a work in comparative history." Victorian Studies
