The Western Medical Tradition 800 BC to AD 1800

It provides a much-needed account of the very latest historical scholarship.

This text, written by members of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and first published in 1995, is designed to cover the history of western medicine from classical antiquity to 1800. As one guiding thread it takes, as its title suggests, the system of medical ideas that in large part went back to the Greeks of the eighth century BC, and played a major role in the understanding and treatment of health and disease. Its influence spread from the Aegean basin to the rest of the Mediterranean region, to Europe, and then to European settlements overseas. By the nineteenth century, however, this tradition no longer carried the same force or occupied so central a position within medicine. This book charts the influence of this tradition, examining it in its social and historical context. It is essential reading as a synthesis for all students of the history of medicine.

List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Medicine in the Greek world, 800–50 BC; 2. Roman medicine, 250 BC–200 AD; 3. Medicine in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages; 4. The Arab-Islamic medical tradition; 5. Medicine in medieval western Europe, 1000–1500; 6. Medicine in early modern Europe, 1500–1700; 7. The eighteenth century; 8. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

This book is a new and original summary of work on the history of medicine from the Greeks to the nineteenth century designed for a student and general readership. It provides a much-needed account of the very latest historical scholarship in a field that has seen considerable development over the last two decades.