The Western Medical Tradition
800 BC to AD 1800

This book, first published in 1995, provides a much-needed account of scholarship on the history of Western medicine.

Lawrence I. Conrad (Author), Michael Neve (Author), Vivian Nutton (Author), Roy Porter (Author), Andrew Wear (Author)

9780521475648, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 August 1995

574 pages, 71 b/w illus. 4 maps 20 tables
24.4 x 17 x 3.3 cm, 0.968 kg

' … for all those who now seek an authoritative account of the western tradition, who want to read a series of subtle essays, or who wish to look up answers to key questions, this book is invaluable. The authors, publishers and the Wellcome Trust are to be congratulated on a timely, attractive and inexpensive contribution towards a public understanding of medicine's deeper past'. J. V. Pickstone, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine

This text, written by members of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and first published in 1995, is designed to cover the history of western medicine from classical antiquity to 1800. As one guiding thread it takes, as its title suggests, the system of medical ideas that in large part went back to the Greeks of the eighth century BC, and played a major role in the understanding and treatment of health and disease. Its influence spread from the Aegean basin to the rest of the Mediterranean region, to Europe, and then to European settlements overseas. By the nineteenth century, however, this tradition no longer carried the same force or occupied so central a position within medicine. This book charts the influence of this tradition, examining it in its social and historical context. It is essential reading as a synthesis for all students of the history of medicine.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Medicine in the Greek world, 800–50 BC
2. Roman medicine, 250 BC–200 AD
3. Medicine in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages
4. The Arab-Islamic medical tradition
5. Medicine in medieval western Europe, 1000–1500
6. Medicine in early modern Europe, 1500–1700
7. The eighteenth century
8. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]