Book Review

Sport and Exercise Science: Essays in the History of Sports Medicine

N Engl J Med 1993; 329:367July 29, 1993

Article

Sport and Exercise Science: Essays in the History of Sports Medicine
Edited by Jack W. Berryman and Roberta J. Park. 372 pp., illustrated. Urbana, Ill., University of Illinois Press, 1992. $44.95 (cloth); $18.95 (paper). ISBN: 0-252-01896-6

Unique and fascinating: these are the two words that best describe this book of essays. In this unique and fascinating addition to the literature on sports and exercise science, the editors have given us a chance to peek at the history of a rapidly emerging field. As often happens, the contemplation of past ideas, and the application of scientific principles to those ideas, allows the reader to understand the origins of present-day misconceptions. The whole matrix of medical thought seems to come into sharper, clearer focus after an examination of what our forebears thought about exercise and its role in medicine. From the “athlete's heart” to the “eternally wounded woman,” we are able to look at the evolution of something that is curiously referred to as “non-natural science.” As Berryman states in a postscript to one of his essays, “After this review of the literature of the non-naturals, their place in the history of medicine, and the dominant position exercise had in that structure, it should be evident that the contemporary discussions of wellness, preventive medicine, and exercise prescription are simply the latest flowering of a tradition dating to antiquity.” The blending of old and new, as examined in this book, is almost shocking. The use of ergogenics is anything but recent, though “body humours” have been replaced by bee pollen and anabolic steroids.

On a personal note, I chuckled when my perception that the acceptance of circumstantial medical evidence as fact was a new phenomenon turned out to be entirely false. Because so much of today's medicine, and specifically today's sports medicine, is laced with what many consider to be quackery, my favorite chapter was that dealing with “the scientific quest for physical culture, and the persistent appeal of quackery.” As the author of this essay correctly claims, “Genuine medicine and faddish quackery are often remarkably close and disturbingly similar.”

I found this book refreshing to read, and I recommend it, not so much as a reference book but rather as an after-dinner drink -- something to be consumed after contemplating the more “serious, important, and heavy” science of today. I certainly recommend it to anyone with an interest in exercise science who would like to gain some perspective on the literature in this area. My congratulations to the editors.

Douglas B. McKeag, M.D.
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824