ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses histories of medical practice, science, and technology. It proposes various models of practice. They include: an ideal based in the reciprocal duties of patient and doctor; a clinic-based one, arising out of a duality of mind and body; a scientific medicine limited by a contrast between its quantitative style and the other purposes of medicine; and, participatory and Classical medicine. The Medical Act of 1858 ratified the trends towards increased competence, status, formality' and joinder of function. It is argued that the actual legal forms adopted in Britain give reality to the classical theory of medical practice and that they recognize the ideal-typical gentleman in medicine as an occupational group. It is necessary to examine the way in which the bureaucratic organization of medicine copes with untoward events.
