Health and Healing in Early Modern England Studies in Social and Intellectual History

The opening studies in this volume, on the revival of Galenic medicine in Continental Europe, provide the context for its focus - England in the 17th century. The author covers the discovery of the circulation of the blood, but it is the underlying components of health and medicine that form the subjects of this book. It deals, notably, with the strong link then perceived between health and the environment, perhaps even more present in people’s minds than today, with the relationship between medicine and religion, and with medical ethics. Further studies discuss the provision made for the sick poor, the popularisation of medicine, and the epistemological basis of learned or university based medicine. A theme throughout is the range of treatments available in the ’medical marketplace’ of the 17th century, from wise women to learned physicians.

Contents: Galen in the Renaissance; Explorations in Renaissance writings on the practice of medicine; William Harvey and the ’Way of the Anatomists’ ; Making sense of health and the environment in early modern England; Religious beliefs and medicine in early modern England; Puritan perceptions of illness in 17th-century England; Medical ethics in early modern England; Caring for the sick poor in St Bartholomew Exchange, 1580-1676; The popularization of medicine in early modern England; Medical practice in late 17th-century and early 18th-century England: continuity and union; Epistemology and learned medicine in early modern England; Index.