Here’s an interesting item from the New England Journal of Medicine on the “changing task of medicine”. It looks back at NEJM’s pages from a century ago and more to see how both the technical and social aspects of medicine have changed. (The article cites hopeful remarks, for example, about how eugenics would someday supersede evolution in the “elimination of the unfit”.)
Be sure to look at the excellent interactive charts along the side, illustrating how causes of death have varied over time.