Full Description
Examining a 300-year period that encompasses the Scientific Revolution, this engrossing book offers a fresh and clearly organized discussion of the human experience of health, medicine, and health care, from the Age of Discovery to the era of the French Revolution.
Health and Wellness in the Renaissance and Enlightenment compares and contrasts health care practices of various cultures from around the world during the vital period from 1500 to 1800. These years, which include the Age of Discovery and the Scientific Revolution, were a period of rapid advance of both science and medicine. New drugs were developed and new practices, some of which stemmed from increasingly frequent contact between various cultures, were initiated.
Examining the medical systems of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the colonial world, this comprehensive study covers a wide array of topics including education and training of medical professionals and the interaction of faith, religion, and medicine. The book looks specifically at issues related to women's health and the health of infants and children, at infectious diseases and occupational and environmental hazards, and at brain and mental disorders. Chapters also focus on advances in surgery, dentistry, and orthopedics, and on the apothecary and his pharmacopoeia.
Contents
Series Foreword
1. Factors in Early Modern Health and Medicine
Factors in Individual Health and Well-Being
The Early Modern World
Societal Factors in Health and Medicine
2. Education and Training: Learned and Nonlearned
Western Traditions
Early Modern Mexicans
African Slaves in the Caribbean
The Chinese
3. Religion and Medicine
The Expanding Christian World
Africans at Home and Enslaved
Religion and Medicine among the Aztecs
Ming and Qing China
4. Women's Health and Medicine
The Aztecs
Caribbean Slaves
The Chinese
The Europeans
5. Infants and Children
They Are Born: Neonatal and Infant Health
Hazards to Older Children's Health and Lives
European Institutions of Child Care
6. Infectious Diseases
Background
The Continuing Saga: Fleas, Rats, and Plague
Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Yellow Fever
Filth and Parasites: Typhus and Dysentery
When the Air Is Deadly: Smallpox, Influenza, and Measles
Waterborne Diseases: Cholera and Typhoid Fever
When Sex Needed Drugs: Syphilis and Other Venereal Diseases
7. Environmental and Occupational Hazards
Environmental Hazards
Occupational Hazards
8. Surgeons and Surgery
The Aztecs
The Chinese
The Islamic World
The Europeans
9. Mental and Emotional Health and Disorders
The Aztecs
Caribbean Slaves
The Chinese
The Turks and Persians
The Europeans
10. Apothecaries and Their Pharmacopeias
Types of Materia Medica
Early Modern Dispensers of Medicinal Materials and Their Sources
The Worldwide Pharmacopeia
11. War, Health, and Medicine
The Aztec Way of War
Europeans at War
Care for the Wounded and Veterans
War within the House of Islam
12. Medical Institutions
The Chinese
The Islamic World
The Europeans
European Institutions Abroad
13. Healing and the Arts
The Visual Arts
Doctors in Dramas and Novels
Medicine in Poetry
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
