The double face of Janus and other essays in the history of medicine

Preeminent historian of medicine Owsei Temkin has brought to his writing over the past 40 years an awesome range of scholarship. The essays gathered in this volume deal with all the topics that he considers most important in his work. They have been widely commended for their originality, intelligent analysis, and impressive continuity of thought. The essays deal with the history of basic medical sciences, of health and disease, and of surgery and drug therapy, as well as with general questions concerning the historical and philosophical approach to medicine from antiquity to the early twentieth century. -- from Book Jacket.