Medical Lives and Scientific Medicine at Michigan, 1891–1969 ed. by Joel D. Howell

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 729 The remainder of the book (indeed, its beginning) is given over to essays about the philosophical or theoretical, technical, and social practice of chemistry in the past, written by distinguished historians of chemistry Mary Jo Nye, Alan Rocke, Frederic Holmes, and Pnina Abir-Am, and will doubtless be of interest chiefly to professional his­ torians and sociologists of chemistry. Robert Kohler’s “Systems of Production: Drosophila, Neurospora, and Biochemical Genetics” should find a wide audience. His demonstration of how Drosophila and Neurospora became laboratory instruments and systems for the production of knowledge merits special attention. June Z. Fullmer Dr. Fullmer, professor emerita of history, Ohio State University, is especially inter­ ested in the development of 19th- and 20th-century chemistry and in scientific biog­ raphy. Medical Lives and Scientific Medicine at Michigan, 1891-1969. Edited by Joel D. Howell. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993. Pp. 199; illustrations, notes, index. $37.50. In his introduction, editor Joel Howell offers this collection as both a “glimpse into an area of the country that has been relatively over­ looked” (p. 2) and a history of a school that played “an important, albeit often unappreciated role in the history of American medicine” (p. 3). The volume succeeds in both tasks. The essays, which origi­ nated as papers presented during the Department of Internal Medi­ cine’s weekly Grand Rounds conferences, sketch the lives and work of men who were honored by having inpatient services at the univer­ sity’s new hospital named for them in 1986. These clear and readable papers demonstrate the power of collective biography to map changes both in the microcosm of the University of Michigan and in medicine as a whole. The essays provide a coherent chronological study of how facilities, funding, administration, and personality interacted to shape the Uni­ versity of Michigan’s dynamic medical school. Through the lens of Michigan, the reader traces the rise of clinical training, the introduc­ tion of the pathology laboratory, the emergence (and acquisition) of new medical technologies, and the incorporation of clinical epidemi­ ology into the medical field. The collection places developments at Michigan within the context of European and American research by exploring the education, travels, and employment histories of these medical men. The authors not only ground their narratives within the history of science and medicine but demonstrate the relationship between medical research, national crises, including two world wars and the Depression, and the development of federal grant programs. The first three essays stress the importance of individual physicians 730 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE and administrators in guiding Michigan medicine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Kenneth M. Ludmerer’s paper details Michi­ gan’s leadership in curricular reforms, medical research, and clinical training by focusing on the work of James B. Angell and Victor Vaughan. This essay also provides a framework for the two that fol­ low. Horace W. Davenport’s piece shows how George Dock worked to improve clinical education at Michigan while W. Bruce Fye’s article reveals how Albion Walter Hewlett succeeded in integrating “patho­ logic physiology” into the curriculum and in strengthening postgrad­ uate training. The balance of the book focuses on the mid-20th century. Steven C. Martin artfully uses Cyrus Cressey Sturgis’s career as chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine (1928-57) to illustrate the growing importance of federal wartime projects, careful administra­ tion, and philanthropic and pharmaceutical industry funding to the success of academic researchers. In addition, Martin points out de­ bates between academic internal medicine physicians over the relative importance of the clinic and the laboratory. Joel D. Howell’s careful examination of Frank Norman Wilson’s work in electrocardiography and Steven J. Peitzman’s thorough exploration of Louis Harry New­ burgh’s studies of metabolism both reveal how medical research flourished under Sturgis’s competent administration. While Howell’s and Peitzman’s works contain significant medical detail that may be difficult for a general audience, these two essays successfully show how scientists convinced the university to purchase new equipment and how they used these technological innovations to enhance their research. Alexander Leaf adds color to the volume...