The College of Physicians of Philadelphia : a bicentennial history /

This volume, by a preeminent scholar of the history of medicine, offers a testimonial to the 200th anniversary of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. In spite of its lucid prose and some fascinating vignettes (e.g., descriptions of the yellow fever epidemic and a city caught between preserving its commercial vigor and public health; a medical society tending to a botanical garden, the 18th-century equivalent of a pharmacy; puerperal fever and doctors' sincere disbelief that those who risked so much could be the killer's cause), the book suffers from a lack of thematic unity and will attract few general readers. Although many of the book's topical divisions provide insight into medicine's evolution from art to science and its particular development in American, too much trivial material, better left in the society's archives, is include. A novice to the area will find no narrative overview to guide progress. Compared to the bold syntheses by Charles Rosenberg, Morris Vogel Regina Morantz Sanchez, Judith Walzer Leavitt, and David Rosner, to name a few recent historians of medicine, this study borders on the quaint. Bell's mastery of fact, his attention to detail, and his biographical sketches of Philadelphia's medical elite are impressive and may best serve the research goals of scholars.-J.P. Brickmnan, United States Merchant Marine Academy