Originally published in 1946, this book presents Sir Lionel Whitby's lecture upon taking up the position of Regius Chair of Physic at Cambridge University.

Dr. Moon is physician to the National hospital for diseases of the heart in London, and the first three chapters of the book were originally published in theBritish Medical Journal. Its object is “to show by taking various important epochs in the history of the world, how intimately medicine has been bound up with the current thought and philosophy of the day; how medicine no more than art can work away by itself uninfluenced by the intellectual milieu in which it finds itself" (p. vii). Both in his Preface and at the end of the book, the author, however, refers to a more practical object, which he believes that a study of the interrelations between philosophy and medicine should help to bring about. This is to afford to the physician a broader and truer conception of the purpose of his art, as not merely contributing to the preservation of life, but as furthering the intellectual and moral conditions that make life saner and more satisfying. “The function of the poet, Goethe tells us somewhere, is so to represent things that we may find life tolerable; and the physician, in providing for the health of the body as a sort of indispensable prerequisite, must ever have before his mind that wider outlook which shall enable him to cope with the tædium vitæ, Weltschmerz, maladie de l'infini, or by whatever name we like to call those ills which seem inseparable from the travail of an advanced civilization struggling to a new birth" (p. xi). The book covers practically the whole field of the history of medicine and is consequently sometimes scrappy and disconnected. Its main service is in bringing together from the standard histories of medicine. and thus making more generally accessible to English readers, the main facts regarding the development of medical theory and practice in their relation to the science and philosophy of the different historical periods. The author does not profess to base his work on original research, but he writes pleasantly and clearly; and although he emphasizes the advantages that have come to medicine through turning away from general theories and occupying itself with detailed researches, he yet looks forward to a return to philosophy, a renewal of the sense of the unity of all the rational pursuits of life. —The Philosophical Review, Volume 19 [1910]

In 'The Body of Compassion', Joel Shuman presents an important new theological treatment of contemporary bioethics, weaving together personal experience, a critical treatise on bioethics, and an exploration of a Christian theological alternative. The author first draws the reader toward a consideration of the current state of his grandfather, a hardworking man with deep attachments to family and land who died a solitary death, unaccompanied by loved ones, in the unfamiliar and sterile world of a hospital. Troubled by the way his grandfather died, Shuman takes the reader along as he explores how modern medicine has distanced itself from dealing with people as living beings beyond their immediate physicality. He examines how various approaches to bioethics over the past twenty years have tried to remedy this problem by prescribing certain standards for treatment and how each of these ultimately has fallen short due to the lack of a Òteleological concern for the bodyÓ - i.e., a concern for what the body is actually for in a larger context. From this point, Shuman deftly moves to a discussion of the centrality of the body to Christianity, focusing on how baptism, participation in the liturgy, and the partaking of the Eucharist all serve to unite Christians as one in the body of Christ. For Christians, the author argues, the body does not just belong to the individual but rather is one with the community of the Church. With this in mind, Shuman proposes a new kind of bioethics for Christians, where care for the body of Christ becomes the model of how we should care for and receive care from each other. This fresh and thought-provoking book is sure to be of interest to ethicists, medical professionals, and everyone who is troubled by the conflicts between science and religion.

Preeminent historian of medicine Owsei Temkin brought to his writing an awesome range of scholarship, for he was at home in the classical, the medieval, and the modern eras. The essays gathered in this volume deal with all the topics that Temkin considered most important in his work. They were widely commended for their originality, intelligent analysis, and impressive continuity of thought. Temkin explores the history of basic medical sciences, of health and disease, and of surgery and drug therapy, as well as general questions concerning the historical and philosophical approach to medicine from antiquity to the early twentieth century. In a retrospective introduction which gives the book its name, Temkin relates his writings to his career as a scholar in Germany and the United States. He situates the writings against the background of the development of the study of medical history and provides recollections of such prominent figures as Karl Sudhoff, Henry E. Sigerist, William H. Welch, and Richard H. Shryock.

Employing the logical tools of contemporary analytic philosophy, this book places the pseudo-Hippocratic treatise On the Art of Medicine in its proper philosophical, rhetorical, and medical contexts through a new translation and commentary on the Greek text.