title: Focus: between and beyond "histories of science" and "histories of medicine". Introduction.
abstract: Historians tend to treat science and medicine as having developed in parallel, and we maintain separate societies and journals, often giving primacy to science, at least for intellectual history. Yet much of "science" before circa 1800 was dependent on the organizations of medicine, and much of science now is promoted for the improvement of medical diagnoses and therapies. This Focus section unpicks some of the historical and historiographical relationships, recognizing the present prominence of biomedicine and the diminishing utility of distinctions between science, medicine, and technology.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (CHSTM), Simon Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom. John.Pickstone@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: John V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Pickstone
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Worboys
mesh_terms: D001690:Biological Science Disciplines / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century