The Sociology of Medicine is a collection of essays and research findings representing the work of medical sociologists in several different countries which focus on current ideas, concepts and issues in medical sociology. The selections provide a contemporary overview of the field in the following areas: sociological theory and health, social factors and disease, social demography, social stress, health and illness behaviour, alternative forms of medicine, health professions and occupations, hospitals, and health care delivery and social change.Although many of the papers are written by medical sociologists in Great Britain and North America, the work of their counterparts in Germany, France, Singapore and Japan is also included. The articles provide both an overview and international focus on the relationship between health and society.