Abstract
PREVENTIVE medicine is the offspring of clinical medicine. Thomas Sydenham re-interpreted the Hippocratic conception of epidemics and led the way to the domain of modern epidemiology. The science of preventive medicine began in the eighteenth century, through the work of medical practitioners, like Huxham, Mead, Heberden, Fothergill, Haygarth, Willis and Withering, observers of the clinical features of epidemic disease, the influences of external environment, the paths of contagion and infection, and the effects of climate and season. University education in preventive medicine was initiated in 1768 by Johann Peter Frank, director of public health in Austrian Lombardy, and his international fame led to the creation of the first chair of public health in the University of Edinburgh.
Preventive Medicine and Public Health
By Prof. Wilson G. Smillie. Pp. xvi + 607). (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1946.) 6 dollars; 30s. net.
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MACNALTY, A. Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Nature 159, 758 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159758a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159758a0