In three chapters covering the period 1660?1820 and one covering 1820?1860, Shryock lucidly describes medical thought and practice, the composition of the profession, as well as its education, regulation, research (or lack of it), institutions, organizations, and publications. He discusses health conditions among the general population and the efforts made to improve these conditions by public and private measures. These topics are carefully related to one another, to the general background of American society, and to their European origins or counterparts. This book offers, in compact form, a sound and readable synthesis of many aspects of American medical history, which is based on the author's years of brilliant and productive research in the field.