A volume exploring the history of medicine across continents and countries from ancient to modern times, examining the changing systems of medicine in Eastern and Western traditions, comparing alternative medical practices, and introducing readers to how historians have captured the multiple approaches to healing adopted by different cultures.

Disease and Medicine in World History is a concise introduction to diverse ideas about diseases and their treatment throughout the world. Drawing on case studies from ancient Egypt to present-day America, Asia and Europe, this survey discusses concepts of sickness and forms of treatment in many cultures. Sheldon Watts shows that many medical practices in the past were shaped as much by philosophers and metaphysicians as by university-trained doctors and other practitioners. Subjects covered include: Pharaonic Egypt and the pre-conquest New World the evolution of medical systems in the Middle East health and healing on the Indian subcontinent medicine and disease in China the globalization of disease in the modern world the birth and evolution of modern scientific medicine. This volume is a landmark contribution to the field of world history. It covers the principal medical systems known in the world, based on extensive original research. Watts raises questions about globalization in medicine and the potential impact of infectious diseases in the present day.

In three sections, the Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine celebrates the richness and variety of medical history around the world. It explore medical developments and trends in writing history according to period, place, and theme.

Medicine, health, and healing have been central to Buddhism since its origins. Long before the global popularity of mindfulness and meditation, Buddhism provided cultures around the world with conceptual tools to understand illness as well as a range of therapies and interventions for care of the sick. Today, Buddhist traditions, healers, and institutions continue to exert a tangible influence on medical care in societies both inside and outside Asia, including in the areas of mental health, biomedicine, and even in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the global history of the relationship between Buddhism and medicine remains largely untold. This book is a wide-ranging and accessible account of the interplay between Buddhism and medicine over the past two and a half millennia. C. Pierce Salguero traces the intertwining threads linking ideas, practices, and texts from many different times and places. He shows that Buddhism has played a crucial role in cross-cultural medical exchange globally and that Buddhist knowledge formed the nucleus for many types of traditional practices that still thrive today throughout Asia. Although Buddhist medicine has always been embedded in local contexts and differs markedly across cultures, Salguero identifies key patterns that have persisted throughout this long history. This book will be informative and invaluable for scholars, students, and practitioners of both Buddhism and complementary and alternative medicine.

From its earliest days, Buddhism has been closely intertwined with medicine. Buddhism and Medicine is a singular collection showcasing the generative relationship and mutual influence between these fields across premodern Asia. The anthology combines dozens of English-language translations of premodern Buddhist texts with contextualizing introductions by leading international scholars in Buddhist studies, the history of medicine, and a range of other fields. These sources explore in detail medical topics ranging from the development of fetal anatomy in the womb to nursing, hospice, dietary regimen, magical powers, visualization, and other healing knowledge. Works translated here include meditation guides, popular narratives, ritual manuals, spells texts, monastic disciplinary codes, recipe inscriptions, philosophical treatises, poetry, works by physicians, and other genres. All together, these selections and their introductions provide a comprehensive overview of Buddhist healing throughout Asia. They also demonstrate the central place of healing in Buddhist practice and in the daily life of the premodern world. This anthology is a companion volume to Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources (Columbia, 2019).

This book provides a panoramic overview of the history of malaria from Paleolithic times up to the present.

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, after which the word "psychedelic" was coined to describe it. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples. Mescaline was isolated in 1897 from the peyote cactus, first encountered by Europeans during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the twentieth century it was used by psychologists investigating the secrets of consciousness, spiritual seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, artists exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to cure schizophrenia. Meanwhile peyote played a vital role in preserving and shaping Native American identity. Drawing on botany, pharmacology, ethnography, and the mind sciences and examining the mescaline experiences of figures from William James to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline's many lives.

The History of Medicine is a six-volume chronological account of the development of biology and chemistry and the economic and policy issues associated with public health. The interdisciplinary set begins with an exploration of the medical practices of early humans and concludes with a volume presenting readers with the vital information they need to answer questions concerning the future, from understanding personal risks associated with certain diseases to the ethical questions concerning organ transplants and the preservation of life. Old World and New: Early Medical Care, 1700-1840 discusses the concerns and advances in medicine that occurred during the Enlightenment, a time of significant progress in specific scientific fields. The book puts medical issues of the period into perspective and focuses on the unique accomplishments of the time, such as the scientific documentation of the anatomy. Though physicians of the period did not yet know the cause of disease, theirs was the hope that scientific knowledge would continue to grow so rapidly that disease would be eradicated. The volume includes information on advancements in surgery digesticin and respiration early American medical care the importance of public health midwifery military medicine popular healing methods smallpox, typhus, and yellow fever The book contains more than 40 color photographs and line illustrations, sidebars, a translation of the Hippocratic Oath, a chronology, a glossary, a detailed list of print and Internet resources, and an index. The History of Medicine is essential for high school students, teachers, and general readers who wish to learn about how and when various medical discoveries were made and how those discoveries affected health care at the time. The History of Medicine Set Medicine Becomes a Science Medicine Today The Middle Ages Old World and New The Scientific Revolution and Medicine Book jacket.

A Social History of Medicine traces the development of medical practice from the Industrial Revolution right through to the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide range of source material, it charts the changing relationship between patients and practitioners over this period, exploring the impact made by institutional care, government intervention and scientific discovery. The study illuminates the extent to which medical assistance really was available to patients over the period, by focusing on provincial areas and using local sources. It introduces a variety of contemporary medical practitioners, some of them hitherto unknown and with fascinating intricate details of their work. The text offers an extensive thematic survey, including coverage of: * institutions such as hospitals, dispensaries, asylums and prisons * midwifery and nursing * infections and how changes in science have affected disease control * contraception, war, and the NHS.

Describes the history of medicine, from the earliest practices and supernatural traditions to the development of modern medicine, including the advancement of surgery, the creation of vaccines, and the advent of psychiatry.