This wide-ranging and imaginative book examines the social and scientific role of the French Academy of Medicine from its creation in 1820 to the outbreak of the Second World War. Weisz traces the Academy's history, and argues that it was gradually transformed from a low-status public institution that was central to French medical science in the nineteenth century, to an 'establishment' institution largely irrelevant to medical science, but playing a key role in public health policy.

The second part of the book looks at broader issues of medical history, and shows how a scientific study of mineral waters led to the formation of disciplines within medical science. The final part examines the place and role of the medical elite - the Medical Mandarins - within French bourgeoisie.

This book utilizes academic activities and sources to explore such major questions in the social and scientific history of medicine as the nature of therapeutic reasoning, the scientific specificity of French medicine, and the consequences for the medical profession of hierarchical centralization.