The man in the street would not, perhaps, recognize all the names of the brilliant scientists whose careers and personalities animate this book, but doctors know them. Morgan, who founded the first medical school in America and, fighting beside Washington, was ruined by the petty politics of the Revolution; McDowell, who, although on the fringe of the wilderness, dared the operation that prepared the way for all abdominal surgery; Rush, the equivocal personality who, for better or worse, dominated American medicine for more than fifty years; Beaumont, who, saving a life, won a living laboratory; Drake, who brought modern medicine to the new West; Long and Morton, who banished pain from surgery and earned it for themselves - these men are honored in their profession today.
Mr. Flexner approaches his subject with authority, sympathy, and humor. The bitter antagonisms, personal jealousies, tragic misconceptions which inevitably arose are given their place in the story, but always the reader is conscious that these men were making lasting contributions to their profession and to their country. The book is one that will have immediate appeal for those who enjoy being behind the scenes of the scientific world, and for those who like to wander through the by ways of history.
