Science and the ante-bellum American college

book is the last period which covers their own professional lifetimes, 1946 to 1976. In the first two sections the material is divided into more general topics such as medical education, medical practice, research, preventive medicine, and governmental control, whereas the third although dealing with some of these is devoted mainly to special subjects: drugs, cardiology, genetics, biochemistry, etc. However, the accounts of these specialties tend to be reviews of the literature. And this seems to be the main criticism of the book, that not enough consideration has been given to what Professor Richard Shryock, probably the most outstanding of American historians of medicine, termed the "external factors", called collectively "social". Nevertheless the book achieves its authors' purpose, and for excellent surveys of the American contributions to various aspects of medicine it can be warmly recommended.