Synopses & Reviews
From ancient religious rituals and magical incantations, to Renaissance practices such as purging, bleeding, and trepanning, to modern day miracles such as antibiotics, CAT scans, and organ transplants, the advance of Western medicine has been nothing short of astonishing. This richly illustrated volume provides a wide-ranging history of Western medicine, charting the great milestones of medical progress--from the birth of rational medicine in the classical world right up to the present day.
The history begins in ancient Greece, where medical practice, under the auspices of Hippocrates and others, first looked past supernatural explanations and began to understand disease as a product of natural causes. It chronicles the slow growth of medical knowledge through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, illuminating the work of figures such as Paracelsus, Vesalius, and William Harvey (who explained how blood circulates through the body). And it provides portraits of more modern figures like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch (the fathers of bacteriology), Wilhelm Roentgen (the discoverer of x-rays), and Paul Ehrlich (who pioneered the use of chemicals to destroy disease-causing organisms).
Authoritative, informative, and beautifully designed, this volume offers a truly fascinating introduction to medicine in the West.
Review
"Medical historians will find good, brief summaries of recent work in these essays....the authors have done an admirable job of compressing large amounts of material into a small space. The illustrations, often striking, do provide a welcome accompaniment to the text."--
IsisSynopsis
Authoritative, informative, and beautifully designed, this volume offe rs a fascinating introduction to medicine in the West. In addition to its generous illustrations, the volume includes a glossary, an extende d list of suggested further reading, a chronology, and a full index, m aking it an indispensable reference for anyone interested in medical h istory.
Synopsis
From ancient religious rituals and magical incantations, to Renaissance practices such as purging, bleeding, and trepanning, to modern day miracles such as antibiotics, CAT scans, and organ transplants, the advance of Western medicine has been nothing short of astonishing. This richly illustrated volume provides a wide-ranging history of Western medicine, charting the great milestones of medical progress--from the birth of rational medicine in the classical world right up to the present day.
The history begins in ancient Greece, where medical practice, under the auspices of Hippocrates and others, first looked past supernatural explanations and began to understand disease as a product of natural causes. It chronicles the slow growth of medical knowledge through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, illuminating the work of figures such as Paracelsus, Vesalius, and William Harvey (who explained how blood circulates through the body). And it provides portraits of more modern figures like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch (the fathers of bacteriology), Wilhelm Roentgen (the discoverer of x-rays), and Paul Ehrlich (who pioneered the use of chemicals to destroy disease-causing organisms).
Authoritative, informative, and beautifully designed, this volume offers a truly fascinating introduction to medicine in the West.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-315) and index.
About the Author
Irving Loudon was formerly a General Practitioner and a Research Fellow of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford.
Table of Contents
List of Colour Illustrations; List of Contributors
I. FROM THE HIPPOCRATIC CORPUS TO TWENTIETH-CENTURY MEDICINE
1. Medicine in View: Art and Visual Representation, Martin Kemp
2. Medicine in the Classical World, James Longrigg
3. Europe and Islam, Emilie Savage-Smith
4. Medicine in the Middle Ages c.500-1350, Michael McVaugh
5. Medicine and the Renaissance, Katherine Park
6. From the Scientific Revolution to Germ Theory, Harold Cook
7. From Germ Theory to 1945, E. M. Tansey
8. From 1950 to the Present, Stephen Lock
II. MEDICINE IN CONTEXT
9. The Growth of Medical Education and the Medical Profession, Lisa Rosner
10. The Rise of the Modern Hospital, Ulrich Trohler and Cay-Rudiger Prull
11. Epidemics and the Geography of Disease, Mary Dobson
12. Nurses and Ancilliaries in the Christian Era, Anne Summers
13. Childbirth, Irvine Loudon
14. Children in Hospital 1850-1990, J. A. Walker-Smith
15. Medicine and the Mind, Michael Neve
16. The Spread of Western Medicine, Michael Worboys
17. Unofficial and Unorthodox Medicine, Margaret Pelling
18. Medicine, Politics, and the State, Jane Lewis
19. The Patient's View, Anne Digby
Glossary; Chronology; Index