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Previous Volume 355:2497 December 7, 2006 Number 23 Next

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Edited by Roy Porter. 408 pp. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2006. $55 (cloth); $22.99 (paper). ISBN 0-521-86426-7 (cloth); 0-521-68289-4 (paper).

This book traces the story of medicine, covering the subjects of disease, pharmacology, hospitals, therapy, and state involvement, all in about 400 pages. Its late editor, Roy Porter, succeeded in tying these and more subjects addressed by multiple authors into a seamless, accessible narrative.

The book begins by speculating on the history of disease among our hominid ancestors and then documents disease in Homo sapiens. The authors tell us that with the development of urban settlements 12,000 years ago, and the change from groups of hunter–gatherers to an agricultural economy, exposure to communicable diseases changed. Communal living increased opportunities . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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