To answer this question, the author has let the "great ones" of medicine's past address the reader directly. Flexner divided MDs into two groups: those in academic medicine and those in private practice and concluded that the two groups are inherently at war with one another. And, Flexner observed: without the faculty controlling patient beds, "the school cannot even organize a clinical faculty in any proper sense of the term." The author humorously discusses problems encountered in pursuing these lofty goals. Stories of growing up in South Alabama--getting a medial education--hospital work--a tour of duty at NIH--and thirty years in the Texas Medical Center spice these fascinating life-experiences.