Social Medicine: Its Derivations and Objectives

By sponsoring an Institute on Social Medicine in connection with its Centennial Celebration in 1947, the New York Academy of Medicine courageously advanced into a vast territory badly needing thorough exploration through teamwork. The papers read at that time, together with introductory remarks by the three physicians primarily responsible for the organization of the institute, form the content of this notable book.

The rapid advance of scientific medicine and the profound socioeconomic changes that have taken place since the nineteenth century have led not only to the rediscovery of old modes of thought and their reappraisal in the light of modern concepts but also to the study of long-known methods of social action and the evaluation of their merits and applicability under present conditions. Social medicine is aliving concept, but its objectives, content, place among the scientific disciplines, methodology and relationship to such fields as preventive medicine and public health