Abstract
IT is always a pleasure to read a book which combines the logic of scientific thought with the warmth of human understanding. In a series of essays, the author defines his subject as "the medicine and the pathology of families, groups, societies or larger populations". This includes the study of health in its many variations—because a knowledge of the normal is necessary for recognizing the abnormal—and the social causes and remedies of disease As professor of social medicine in the University of Oxford and director of the Oxford Institute of Social Medicine—the first of its kind in Great Britain—Prof. J. A. Ryle is engaged in pioneering work in a field which, in a more restricted sense, used to be known under the name of ‘public health'.
Changing Disciplines
Lectures on the History, Method and Motives of Social Pathology. By Prof. John A. Ryle. (Oxford Medical Publications.) Pp. xv + 124. (London : Oxford University Press, 1948.) 12s. 6d. net.
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FITZGERALD, H. Changing Disciplines. Nature 163, 45 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163045a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163045a0