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Excerpt Physicians and surgeons who study the history of the profession, whether as an avocation or as a more serious pursuit, often feel pressed to justify their commitment of time and effort to the endeavor. The "basic research" held in such high esteem at academic centers, garnering the lion's share of verbal and financial support, refers to experimental, laboratory work—perhaps an occasional clinical epidemiologic study—and certainly not to works of medical historiography. I suggest to all those who harbor feelings of this sort about medical history to read this great, expansive, often hilarious book—a tribute to intellectual curiosity of all kinds....
Guido Majno (Sat,) studied this question.