The book's historical scholar ship, scientific insight and perspective, and archival completeness and ingenuity are due to the superb qualifications of the authors—Saul Benison, professor of history at the University of Cincinatti; A. Clifford Barger, professor of physiology and one of Cannon's successors as chairman of the department of physiology at Harvard Medical School; and Elm L. Wolfe, archivist and associate editor of the W.B. Cannon Project at the Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
The central figure in the drama is of course Walter B. Cannon, a pioneer in the modern approach to medical education, and contributor to the development of physiology in terms of both new concepts and their applications to human health. In fact the key to the drama is the multidimensional quality of Can non's personality. His brilliantly creative but methodical approach to scientific problems, his generosity to students and colleagues, his scrupulous attention to detail in ...
