Kate Kelly

"The History of Medicine: The Middle Ages: 500-1450 "
Facts on File | English | | ISBN: 081607206X | 177 pages


During the Middle Ages (ca. 529-1100), the rise of Christianity had a definite effect on the practice of medicine. Pope Gregory (ca. 540-604) stressed the importance of prayer over medicine, and over time that sentiment became pervasive. Each time a person was healed, it was considered a miracle. The church taught that since God sometimes sent illness as punishment, that prayer and repentance could lead to recovery. When Christians used herbal remedies, the church wanted the magic spells to be replaced with prayers of devotion. Eventually, as different schools of thought emerged, tension developed between church-related cures and folk medicine. "The Middle Ages" illuminates what occurred during medieval times that affected future developments in medicine. Featuring a chronology, a glossary, and an array of historical and current sources for further research, this insightful new volume provides readers with a better understanding of the accomplishments of the time, explaining how and why scientific understanding was poised for the breakthrough of the Renaissance period. "The Middle Ages" is especially helpful for readers who need additional information on specific terms, topics, and developments in medical science. The chapters include: Medical Beliefs in Medieval Times; Medieval Healers and Hospitals; Diagnosis and Treatment Methods; Surgery in the Middle Ages; Women Practitioners and What Was Known About Women's Health; Public Health in the Middle Ages; Terrifying Illnesses of Medieval Times; and, The Golden Age of Islamic Medicine.

Kate Kelly
"Medicine Becomes a Science: 1840-1999"
Facts on File | 2010 | ISBN: 0816072094 | 168 pages

Scientists did not know what made people sick more than 150 years ago. There were many theories of how and why illness spread, but none of them were accurate. Though very primitive microscopes had permitted the examination of bacteria as early as the 1660s, it was not until the mid-19th century that bacteria's contribution to the spread of illness was understood. It was during this time that surgeons routinely examined patients in the morning and then performed surgeries in the afternoon - without wearing gloves or washing their hands first. Physician Ignaz Semmelweis made the connection between the lack of cleanliness and the spread of infection, which eventually drove Scottish physician Joseph Lister to push for greater sanitation in hospitals. "Medicine Becomes a Science" provides readers with a solid grounding for understanding medicine today. Spanning 160 years, this new volume offers illuminating information about medical knowledge, describing the historic events, scientific principles, and technical breakthroughs that have led to rapid advancement in combating disease. During this period, scientists and physicians finally realized the cause of disease, and with this discovery, medical progress began to go forward. Examining the works of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Louis Pasteur, and Robert Koch, this book features a chronology, a glossary, and an array of historical and current sources for further research. The chapters include: Medical Science Finally Advances; Women and Modern Medicine; Science Moves Forward in Diagnosis and Treatment; Advances in Medications; An Answer to Polio and Other Changes in Medicine; More Changes Brought About by War; The Science of the Heart; and, DNA Changes the Medical Knowledge Base.

Chapters include:
Medical Science Finally Advances
Women and Modern Medicine
Science Moves Forward in Diagnosis and Treatment
Advances in Medications
An Answer to Polio and Other Changes in Medicine
More Changes Brought About by War
The Science of the Heart
DNA Changes the Medical Knowledge Base.

Daniel Todes, "Ivan Pavlov: Exploring the Animal Machine (Oxford Portraits in Science)"
Publisher: Oxfоrd University Press | 2000 | ISBN: 0195105141 | 112 pages

Hailed as the "Prince of World Physiology," Ivan Pavlov continues to influence scientists today. His pioneering research on digestion, the brain, and behavior still provides important insights into the minds of animals--including humans--and is an inspiring example of imaginative experimental technique. Pavlov graduated from the theological seminary in his native Ryazan, Russia, in 1869 but almost immediately switched to medicine and enrolled at St. Petersburg University. He became interested in the physiology of circulation and digestion, which led him to the study of conditional and unconditional reflexes. He conducted thousands of experiments with dogs, developing a way to use a dogs salivary glands as a window through which to observe the workings of its brain.
Pavlov lived through the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed it. Lenin himself recognized his genius and provided financial backing for his research; the new Soviet government built a research complex dedicated exclusively to his experiments. Pavlov was honored for his contributions to science with the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1904.
Oxford Portraits in Science is an ongoing series of scientific biographies for young adults. Written by top scholars and writers, each biography examines the personality of its subject as well as the thought process leading to his or her discoveries. These illustrated biographies combine accessible technical information with compelling personal stories to portray the scientists whose work has shaped our understanding of the natural world.

Professor Daniel P. Todes, "Pavlov's Physiology Factory: Experiment, Interpretation, Laboratory Enterprise"
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press | ISBN 10: 0801866901 | 2001 |  512 pages

Russian physiologist and Nobel Prize winner Ivan Pavlov is most famous for his development of the concept of the conditional reflex and the classic experiment in which he trained a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell. In Pavlov's Physiology Factory: Experiment, Interpretation, Laboratory Enterprise, Daniel P. Todes explores Pavlov's early work in digestive physiology through the structures and practices of his landmark laboratory—the physiology department of the Imperial Institute for Experimental Medicine.

In Lectures on the Work of the Main Digestive Glands, for which Pavlov won the Nobel Prize in 1904, the scientist frequently referred to the experiments of his coworkers and stated that his conclusions reflected "the deed of the entire laboratory." This novel claim caused the prize committee some consternation. Was he alone deserving of the prize? Examining the fascinating content of Pavlov's scientific notes and correspondence, unpublished memoirs, and laboratory publications, Pavlov's Physiology Factory explores the importance of Pavlov's directorship of what the author calls a "physiology factory" and illuminates its relationship to Pavlov's Nobel Prize-winning work and the research on conditional reflexes that followed it.

Todes looks at Pavlov's performance in his various roles as laboratory manager, experimentalist, entrepreneur, and scientific visionary. He discusses changes wrought by government and commercial interests in science and sheds light on the pathways of scientific development in Russia—making clear Pavlov's personal achievements while also examining his style of laboratory management. Pavlov's Physiology Factory thus addresses issues of importance to historians of science and scientists today: "big" versus "small" science, the dynamics of experiment and interpretation, and the development of research cultures.

John Aberth
"Plagues in World History"
English | ISBN: 0742557057 | 2011 | 256 pages

Plagues in World History provides a concise, comparative world history of catastrophic infectious diseases, including plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, and AIDS. Geographically, these diseases have spread across the entire globe; temporally, they stretch from the sixth century to the present. John Aberth considers not only the varied impact that disease has had upon human history but also the many ways in which people have been able to influence diseases simply through their cultural attitudes toward them. The author argues that the ability of humans to alter disease, even without the modern wonders of antibiotic drugs and other medical treatments, is an even more crucial lesson to learn now that AIDS, swine flu, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and other seemingly incurable illnesses have raged worldwide. Aberth's comparative analysis of how different societies have responded in the past to disease illuminates what cultural approaches have been and may continue to be most effective in combating the plagues of today.

Asthma: The Biography (Biographies of Diseases) By Mark Jackson
Publisher: Oxford University Press 2009 | 256 Pages | ISBN: 0199237956



Asthma is a familiar and growing disease today, but its story goes back to the ancient world, as we know from accounts in ancient texts from China, India, Greece and Rome. It was treated with acupuncture and Ayurveda. As Western medicine developed, the nature of asthma became clearer, and its basis in the lungs recognized. But cultural perceptions of the disease shifted too. By the 18th century, with recognition that the disease was centred on the lungs, the idea of environmental triggers such as dust and smoke first became recognized. And with that, asthma also became identified as a disease of artisans. Things changed again in the 19th century, as medical understanding grew with the advent of the stethoscope and new techniques such as percussion of the chest. New treatments included the promotion of mountain spas, for asthma now rose in social status, and became associated with the upper classes and the literati. For Marcel Proust and Charles Dickens, asthma shaped their lives and their creativity. From early in the 20th century, the idea of asthma as an allergic disease became established, and the search for environmental causes was on. Hay fever was closely linked, and pharmaceutical companies began to make antihistamines, anti-inflammatories and bronchodilators. Asthma sufferers were warned to beware of pets, simplify their furnishings, and take holidays by the sea far from pollens. But a newly emerging concept was that attacks could be triggered by stress and psychological factors. With musicians such as Schoenberg and Berg as celebrity sufferers, the idea of asthma as an elite disease persisted. In recent years, attitudes have changed again, as incidences of asthma grew dramatically across the world, especially among the young. The disease has now become closely linked to modern lifestyles and the many products of civilization. The battle against house-dust mites began, and whole new lines of anti-allergenic products and foods were launched - asthma has proved highly lucrative over the years. But the disease has remained fashionable, even becoming the theme of several pop songs. Asthma: the biography is part of the Oxford series, Biographies of Diseases, edited by William and Helen Bynum. In each individual volume an expert historian of medicine tells the story of a particular disease or condition throughout history - not only in terms of growing medical understanding of its nature and cure, but also shifting social and cultural attitudes, and changes in the meaning of the name of the disease itself.

"Western Medicine: An Illustrated History"
Irvine Loudon
Oxford University Press | 1997 | ISBN: 0198205090 | 347 pages

What is medical history, and who are medical historians? Even those who are familiar with such subdivisions of history as social, political, economic, and military may be unaware that medical history has expanded so rapidly that it has now become a new and firmly established branch of history, attracting researchers fr om a wide variety of backgrounds.
The history begins in ancient Greece, wh ere 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.

The book examines the contributions of the great Islamic physicians, such as Rhazes (Al-Razi) and Avicenna (Ibn-Sina), who had a profound impact on the practice of medieval medicine, and 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). But it has been in the last two centuries that medical practice has made its greatest strides, and Western Medicine provides informative portraits of figures as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch (the fathers of bacteriology), Wilhelm Roentgen (discoverer of x-rays), and Paul Ehrlich (who pioneered the use of chemicals to destroy disease-causing organisms), and many others. And as the contributors highlight the great medical discoveries, they also cover broader medical and social themes, examining for instance the rise of medical training in universities (beginning around 1200 AD), the relationship in the Renaissance between medicine and art, and the tension between the church and an increasingly secularized medical professional class, tension that continues to this day.

The book also explores nursing, midwifery, and the rise of the hospital, traces our slow understanding of the patterns of epidemics and the geography of disease (tracking for example the devastating effects of disease brought about through colonization and the slave trade), and charts our changing attitudes towards child birth, mental disease, and the doctor-patient relationship.

Permeable Walls: Historical Perspectives on Hospital and Asylum Visiting
Rodopi | 2009-06-20 | ISBN: 9042025999 | 370 pages

Visiting relatives and friends in medical institutions is a common practice in all corners of the world. People probably go into hospitals as a visitor more frequently than they do as a patient. Permeable Walls is the first book devoted to the history of hospital and asylum visiting and deflects attention from medical history's more traditionally studied constituencies, patients and doctors. Covering the eighteenth to the late twentieth centuries, and taking case studies from around the globe, the authors demonstrate that hospitals and asylums could be remarkably permeable institutions. However, policies towards visitors have varied from outright exclusion, as in the case of some isolation hospitals in Victorian Britain, to near open access in the first Chinese missionary hospitals. Historical studies of visitors and visiting, as a result, tell us much about the changing relationship between healthcare institutions and the communities they serve. These histories are particularly relevant at a time when service providers seek ways to involve patients' representatives in healthcare decision making; to control hospital super-bugs; and to make the hospital environment accessible yet safe and secure. With the re-emergence of restricted visiting, the subject remains one of the most emotive topics in the history of institutional medicine. Adopting a wide-ranging definition of visitors, from official inquirers to family members, Permeable Walls provides an innovative perspective on hospitals and asylums historically and will interest historians of medicine, charity and governance, as well as healthcare policy-makers.

Keir Waddington

"Medical Education at St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1123-1995"
Publisher: Boydell Press | 2003 | ISBN 0851159192 | 480 pages

Medical Education at St Bartholomew's Hospital traces the evolution of medical education at Barts from its foundation in 1123 to the college's merger with The London and Queen Mary & Westfield College in 1995. Drawing on the hospital's rich archives, it investigates how training was institutionalised and organised at Barts to explore the shifting nature of medical education between the eighteenth and late-twentieth century.Medical Education at St Bartholomew's Hospital, in analysing the history of the medical college at Barts, explores the relationship between clinical study, science and the institution to look at the rise of the hospital student, the growth of laboratory medicine, and the evolution of a research culture. It places the changing nature of training at Barts in the context of metropolitan and national developments to analyse the structure of medical training, the University of London and its impact on medical education, and the experiences of the students and staff. Questions are asked about how academic medicine developed and about the relationship between training, the bedside, teaching hospitals and the politics of healthcare and higher education. In looking at these areas, existing notions of the 'development' of medical education are problematised to provide a study that explores the nature of medical education at Barts and in London. KEIR WADDINGTON is lecturer in history at Cardiff University.

Briony Hudson, Raymond C. Rowe

"Popular Medicines: An Illustrated History"
Pharmaceutical Press | 2007-12-05 | ISBN: 0853697280 | 182 pages

The aim of this book is to provide a history of c20 popular branded medicines. Some will be familiar household names from the twentieth century, some are still on sale in some form today, and some data back to the earliest proprietary medicines in the eighteenth century.Each pictorial history will include biographical details of the inventor, the origins of the medicine and its subsequent history, and details of the medicine's formula and intended purpose. Each entry will be highly illustrated including colourful historical adverts, portraits, photographs and images of the medicines themselves.Aimed at pharmacy and social historians, medical libraries, archives and museums, practising pharmacists and the general public, this will be a fascinating and colourful history of well-known medicines.

Hearts Exposed: Transplants and the Media in 1960s Britain (Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern History)
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan | ISBN: 1403987300 | edition 2009 |272 pages

This book examines the relationship between medicine and the media in 1960s Britain, when the first wave of heart transplants were as much media as medical events and marked a decisive period in post-war history. Public trust in their doctors was significantly undermined, and medicine was held publicly to account as never before.
In 1968, a year not short of news, a story from within the traditionally reticent medical profession kept making headlines: transplantation of the human heart. Following the pioneering South African operation the previous year, over 100 cardiac transplants were performed worldwide, three of them in Britain. But with most recipients dead within weeks, the procedure was all but abandoned for a decade. Hearts Exposed offers the first analysis of the media involvement in the early heart-transplant operations in Britain, understanding this as an integral part of a critical period in medical history, and a turning point in medical-media relations. Using a wealth of newly available sources, it demonstrates how unprecedented media attention reshaped professional ethics and, by threatening public trust in doctors, profoundly affected the course of transplant surgery.