MODERN medicine found its feet around the turn of the 19th century. To illustrate the associated paradigm shift in medical thinking, Michael Bliss turns to historical fact: his examples include a devastating smallpox epidemic in Montreal, Canada; the growth of leading medical schools in North America; and the discovery of insulin.
Bliss’s focus is patriotically Canadian, and I can’t help but wonder whether the story would follow the same course if told by a different author. But whatever the book may lack in depth and breadth, it conveys an illuminating meta-narrative that recounts society’s shift from a fear of medicine, compounded by ingrained religious fatalism, to…
