By Joel D. Howell. 341 pp. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. $47.50. ISBN 0-8018-5020-7.
For anyone interested in the history of medicine, and the historyof hospitals in particular, this is an intriguing and entertainingbook. Reflecting on hospital care at the turn of the century,we tend to envision long wards with many beds and nurses instarched uniforms with picturesque caps. Medical technologywas sparse and primitive. The hallmarks of a "modern hospital"in the early 1900s were the laundry room, the kitchen, and possiblythe telephone system. Diagnostic devices such as x-ray machineswere not particularly important in classifying a hospital asmodern or advanced. In this book, Howell carefully examines. . . [Full Text of this Article]
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