'Complete freedom from disease and from struggle is almost incompatible with the process of living, ' Rene Dubos asserted in this classic essay on ecology and health. All the accomplishments of science and technology, he argued, will not bring the utopian dream of universal well-being, because they ignore the dynamic process of adaptation to a constantly changing environment that every living organism must face.

"An exceptional book - plain, lucid, elegant, lively. It draws its facts and illustrates not only from the corpus of medicine but from authors from Lao-tzu to Proust. It is logical and persuasive... a confession of faith and humility by a great scientist." - Lancet

"This book will be a treat for readers, and it will make them think." - Science

"A learned, well-written, and delightful introduction to medicine as a social science. It must be read particularly by the new generation of doctors, the human biologists as yet unencumbered by the pile of facts and loose thinking that is curative medicine today." - Nature