Changing perception

I thought The Social Transformation of American Medicine very comprehensively described how the medicine has changed in the past two hundred years. I found it particularly interesting how the prestige placed on doctors has grown over the years, just as our understanding of medicine has significantly increased. I was surprised how William Buchan in 1769 tried to promote medicine as something that anyone can practice simply and successfully, stating that his readers “trust too little to their own endeavors (33).” This remark I find particularly interesting when compared to the journal entry of a medical student who in the 1950s wrote that “Medicine is so large not that a doctor doesn’t feel confident unless he knows at least one field extremely well, rather than a little about all subjects (355).” As the understanding of medicine became more complex the prestige of those who practiced it increased.