Reviews and Notes: Medicine and Western Civilization

DJ Rothman, S Marcus, and SA Kiceluk; eds. 443 pages. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ Pr; 1995. $22.95, paperback; $50.00, hardcover. ISBN 0-8135-2189-4. Order phone 800-446-9323.

Few medical schools in the United States teach the history of medicine—no wonder! Why should medical history have a place within their walls? It would take time away from the marvels of molecular biology and the complex modern technology used in diagnosis and treatment. Even the proponents of medical history would probably concede its irrelevance to today's curriculum if it were to focus, as it often has, primarily on persons, dates, and places. How would knowing who first described cretinism help treat thyroid disease today? How would grasping the concepts …