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About Medicine

What happens when medicine's reputation for scientific authority exceeds the science behind its practice? Written during a transformative period in American medicine, Medicine is a provocative and fiercely skeptical examination of doctors, medical science, public health, and the rapidly changing business of healthcare. The author challenges the assumption that the practice of medicine and the science of disease are one and the same. From the traditional family physician to the rise of specialists, surgeons, medical groups, laboratories, and organized public-health campaigns, the essay examines how scientific discovery, human credulity, commercial interests, professional authority, and moral beliefs became intertwined in American medicine. Along the way, Medicine questions contemporary medical theories and treatments, scrutinizes the growing commercialization of the profession, and argues for a more rigorous distinction between genuine experimental science and medical practice based upon assumption, tradition, or incomplete evidence. Originally published anonymously in 1922, the essay was later attributed to bacteriologist and science writer Paul de Kruif. More than a century later, it offers listeners a fascinating—and often startling—window into an era when modern American medicine was still defining its relationship with science. Narrated by John Riddle, Medicine is a provocative historical document about science, skepticism, professional authority, and the evolution of American healthcare.