1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9911008458303321

Autore

Mortimer Ian <1967->

Titolo

The dying and the doctors : the medical revolution in seventeenth-century England / / Ian Mortimer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Suffolk : , : Boydell & Brewer, , 2009

ISBN

1-282-98758-5

9786612987588

1-84615-715-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (232 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Studies in history. New series, , 0269-2244

Classificazione

XB 3688

Disciplina

610.94209032

Soggetti

Medicine - England - History - 17th century

Medical care - England - History - 17th century

Public health - Social aspects - England - History

England Social conditions 17th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-221) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The medicalisation of East Kent -- The medicalisation of central southern England -- The availability and nature of medical assistance -- Medical practices -- The nature and availability of nursing care -- Plague and smallpox.

Sommario/riassunto

A survey of the changes in medical care for those approaching death in the early  modern period. From the sixteenth century onwards, medical strategies adopted by the seriously ill and dying changed radically, decade by decade, from the Elizabethan age of astrological medicine to the emergence of the general practitioner in the early eighteenth century. It is this profound revolution, in both medical and religious terms, as whole communities'  hopes for physical survival shifted from God to the doctor, that this book charts. Drawing on more than eighteen thousand probate accounts, it identifies massive increases in the consumption of medicines and medical advice by all social groups and in almost all areas. Most importantly, it examines the role of the towns in providing medical services to rural areas and hinterlands [using the diocese of Canterbury as a particular focus], and demonstrates the extending ranges of physicians', surgeons' and



apothecaries' businesses. It also identifies a comparable revolution in community nursing, from its unskilled status in 1600 to a more exclusive one by 1700. IAN MORTIMER is an independent historian and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.