Main description:

In The Story of Medicine, esteemed medical historian Mary Dobson charts the ways in which we have fought with disease and injury over several millennia - from the 'humours' of Hippocrates to Edward Jenner and the eradication of smallpox; and from Florence Nightingale's nursing reforms to Crick and Watson's DNA chain. Richly illustrated with paintings, illustrations and photographs, this volume is filled with the trauma as well as the triumph of medical science: including the pain of the surgeon's knife in the centuries before anaesthetics, the body-snatchers of the nineteenth century and the realities of battlefield surgery. Moving and revealing, here is a fascinating study of the glorious - and sometimes dangerous - pursuit of medical science.

Contents:

Preface. CONCEPTS AND THEORIES OF DISEASE: Bad Blood and Bad Airs; Bones and Bodies; Germs and Genes. PRACTITIONERS AND PATIENTS: Physicians and Healers; Hospitals and Nursing Care; Barbers and Surgeons; Tooth-drawers and Dentists. TREATMENTS AND THERAPIES: Bloodletting and Purging; Opium, Morphine and Heroin; Pharmacy and Patent Medicines; Complementary and Alternative Medicine. MODERN MEDICINES AND VACCINES: New Drugs from Old Remedies; Magic Bullets and Blockbuster Drugs; Testing Treatments and Clinical Trials; Vaccination and Preventive Medicine. Timeline. Further reading. Index. Author acknowledgements. Picture acknowledgements.