Four Centuries of Clinical Chemistry (review)

In this valuable book, Louis Rosenfeld traces the impact of the development of analytical chemistry and biochemical knowledge on the emergence of clinical chemistry as an important adjunct of medical practice. He recounts the work of the many chemists, physiologists, and physicians whose contributions from the sixteenth century to the recent past have laid the groundwork of the present state of this discipline. He also describes the succession of methods and instruments they developed for the detection and quantitative analysis of a great variety of the chemical constituents of bodily fluids and tissues. During the course of this effort, the pioneer clinical chemists had to overcome the skepticism of leading physicians, and to establish strict standards for the performance and reporting of analytical measurements--a matter also well treated in this book

Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Medical laboratory · Pathology · Skepticism · Variety (cybernetics) · Artificial Intelligence · Chemistry · Clinical Laboratory Practices and Quality Control · Computer Science · Engineering · Medicine · Philosophy