1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780068303321

Autore

Wear A (Andrew), <1946->

Titolo

Knowledge and practice in early modern English medicine, 1550-1680 / / Andrew Wear [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2000

ISBN

1-107-11279-6

1-280-15194-3

9786610151943

0-511-11629-2

0-511-15375-9

0-511-32805-2

0-511-61276-1

0-511-05326-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (viii, 496 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

610/.942/09032

Soggetti

Medicine - England - History - 17th century

Medicine - England - History - 16th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; CHAPTER 1 Setting the scene; CHAPTER 2 Remedies; CHAPTER 3 Diseases; CHAPTER 4 Preventive medicine: healthy lifestyles and healthy environments; CHAPTER 5 Surgery: the hand work of medicine; CHAPTER 6 Plague and medical knowledge; CHAPTER 7 The prevention and cure of the plague; CHAPTER 8 Conflict and revolution in medicine - the Helmontians; CHAPTER 9 The failure of the Helmontian revolution in practical medicine; CHAPTER 10 Changes and continuities; Index

Sommario/riassunto

This is a major synthesis of the knowledge and practice of early modern English medicine in its social and cultural contexts. The book vividly maps out some central areas: remedies (and how they were made credible), notions of disease, advice on preventive medicine and on healthy living, and how surgeons worked upon the body and their



understanding of what they were doing. The structures of practice and knowledge examined in the first part of the book came to be challenged in the later seventeenth century, when the 'new science' began to overturn the foundation of established knowledge. However, as the second part of the book shows, traditional medical practice was so well entrenched in English culture that much of it continued into the eighteenth century. Various changes did however occur, which set the agenda for later medical treatment and which are discussed in the final chapter.