Maladies and Medicine offers a lively exploration of health and medical
cures in early modern England. The introduction sets out the background
in which the body was understood, covering the theory of the four humors
and the ways that male and female bodies were conceptualized. It also
explains the hierarchy of healers from university trained physicians, to
the itinerant women healers who traveled the country offering cures
based on inherited knowledge of homemade remedies. It covers the print
explosion of medical health guides, which began to appear in the
sixteenth century from more academic medical text books to cheap
almanacs.
The book has twenty chapters covering attitudes towards, and
explanations of some of, the most common diseases and medical conditions
in the period and the ways people understood them, along with the steps
people took to get better. It explores the body from head to toe, from
migraines to gout. It was an era when tooth cavities were thought to be
caused by tiny worms and smallpox by an inflammation of the blood, and
cures ranged from herbal potions, cooling cordials, blistering the skin,
and of course letting blood.
Case studies and personal anecdotes taken from doctors notes, personal
journals, diaries, letters and even court records show the reactions of
individuals to their illnesses and treatments, bringing the reader into
close proximity with people who lived around 400 years ago. This
fascinating and richly illustrated study will appeal to anyone curious
about the history of the body and the way our ancestors lived.
