Contagionism catches on : medical ideology in Britain, 1730-1800 /
This book shows how contagionism evolved in eighteenth century Britain and describes the consequences of this evolution. By the late eighteenth century, the British medical profession was divided between traditionalists, who attributed acute diseases to the interaction of internal imbalances with ex...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Palgrave MacMillan,
[2017]
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| Summary: | This book shows how contagionism evolved in eighteenth century Britain and describes the consequences of this evolution. By the late eighteenth century, the British medical profession was divided between traditionalists, who attributed acute diseases to the interaction of internal imbalances with external factors such as weather, and reformers, who blamed contagious pathogens. The reformers, who were often outsiders, English Nonconformists or men born outside England, emerged from three coincidental transformations, transformation in medical ideas, in the nature and content of medical education and in the sort of men who became physicians. Adopting contagionism led them to see acute diseases as separate entities, spurring a process that reoriented medical research, changed communities and established new medical institutions that continues to the present day. |
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| Physical Description: | ix, 347 pages ; 22 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-326) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9783319509587 3319509586 |