Physicians, Plagues and Progress: The History of Western Medicine from Antiquity to Antibiotics

Synopsis

Since The Dawn Of Time, Man Has Sought To Improve His Health And That Of His Neighbour. The Human Race, Around The World, Has Been On A Long And Complex Journey, Seeking To Find Out How Our Bodies Work, And What Heals Them. Embarking On A Four-thousand-year Odyssey, Science Historian Allan Chapman Brings To Life The Origin And Development Of Medicine And Surgery. Writing With Pace And Rigorous Accuracy, He Investigates How We Have Battled Against Injury And Disease, And Provides A Gripping And Highly Readable Account Of The Various Victories And Discoveries Along The Way. Drawing On Sources From Across Europe And Beyond, Chapman Discusses The Huge Contributions To Medicine Made By The Greeks, The Romans, The Early Medieval Arabs, And Above All By Western Christendom, Looking At How Experiment, Discovery, And Improving Technology Impact Upon One Another To Produce Progress. This Is A Fascinating, Insightful Read, Enlivened With Many Colourful Characters And Memorable Stories Of Inspired Experimenters, Theatrical Surgeons, Student Pranks, Body-snatchers, 'mad-doctors', Quacks, And Charitable Benefactors.--publisher's Web Site. Physicians, Priests, And Folk Healers -- Galen: Surgeon To The Gladiators -- Arabia: The First Fruits Of Medieval Medicine -- Divine Light: Seeing And Perceiving In The Middle Ages -- Rahere The Jester Meets St Bartholomew -- Spiritual Inspiration, Miracle, Possession, Mental Illness, And The Brain -- In Time Of Plague -- Medicine And Surgery In High Medieval Europe, 1200-1500, Part 1: Medicine And Anatomy In Europe's Medieval Universities And Beyond -- Medicine And Surgery In High Medieval Europe, 1200-1500, Part 2: Guy De Chauliac And The Great Surgery Of 1363 -- Prince Hal And The Surgeons: The Rise Of Medical Professionalism In England After 1300 -- Antiquity Found Wanting In Renaissance Italy: Andreas Vesalius And His Influence -- William Harvey And The Circulation Of Blood -- The Neurologist And The Archbishop Of Canterbury, Part 1: The Oxford Experimental Club -- The Neurologist And The Archbishop Of Canterbury, Part 2: Brains, Minds, And Souls In Seventeenth-century England -- Breathing And Burning: Cardiology, Chemistry, And Combustion -- John Wesley's Primitive Physick And The British Priest-physician -- The Duty Of Care: New Hospitals, Charities, And Medical Innovation Int He Eighteenth Century -- Remember Poor Tom 'o Bedlam: Dealing With The Mad -- Charismatics, Quacks, And Folk Healers Into The Early Industrial Age -- Sewers, Soap, And Salvation: The Origins Of Public Health -- Them Damn'd Murderin' Anatomists: The Expanding Medical Schools And The Supply Of Cadavers -- The Miracle Of The Microscope -- Chemistry And The Control Of Pain: Anaesthesia And Beyond -- Glasgow, 1865: Young Jimmy Greenlees Meets Professor Lister: Antiseptic Surgery And Beyond -- The New Professional Healer: The Medical And Nursing Professions Take Shape -- The Wonderful Century -- Cataract Operation Performed By A Traditional Shaman Surgeon In A Village To The East Of Agra, Northern India, C. 2010. Allan Chapman. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 470-504) And Index.