British Medicine in an Age of Reform, charts the nature and dynamics of the radical changes which occurred between 1780 and 1850 - a great turning point in British medicine. Medicine was reformed just as politics was being reformed. It became a recognizable profession, and at the same time there was an impetus from within to base the subject upon science. By the end of the 1850's medicine had become perceptibly `modern'. Contributions by acknowledged experts cover subjects from Apothecaries' Act of 1815 to froensic medicine, and the effect of scientific medicine on the doctor-patient relationship. Fascinating and detailed, British Medicine in an Age of Reform provides a rich source of information for students of social history, the history of medicine and science, and for those working in the medical profession.

Between 1780 and 1850 was one of the great turning points in British medicine. Medicine was reformed just as politics was being reformed, and many of the characteristics of modern medicine emerged. British Medicine in an Age of Reform charts the nature and dynamics of the radical changes which occurred in this period. With the help of the state, medicine became a recognizable profession. At the same time there was a push from within medicine to base the subject on science and to develop a career structure that did not depend upon social connections but instead worked as a meritocracy. By the end of the 1850s, medicine had become perceptibly modern. It lacked only germ theory which was to follow a few years later. The details of the Apothecaries' Act, the use of the rhetoric of science for the purpose of medical reform, and the ways in which post-revolutionary French medicine was used as an example in British reforms are documented by the contributors. Other contributions include discussions of forensic medicine as a paradigm of reform, the teaching of chemistry to medical students, and how scientific medicine affected the doctor-patient relationship.

This book takes a look at the 'age of reform', from 1780 when reform became a common object of aspiration, to the 1830s - the era of the 'Reform Ministry' and of the Great Reform Act of 1832 - and beyond, when such aspirations were realized more frequently. It pays close attention to what contemporaries termed 'reform', identifying two strands, institutional and moral, which interacted in complex ways. Particular reforming initiatives singled out for attention include those targeting parliament, government, the law, the Church, medicine, slavery, regimens of self-care, opera, theatre, and art institutions, while later chapters situate British reform in its imperial and European contexts. An extended introduction provides a point of entry to the history and historiography of the period. The book will therefore stimulate fresh thinking about this formative period of British history.

A revisionist account of the story of the foundations of public health in industrial revolution Britain.

Sir Charles Bell (1774–1842) was a medical reformer in a great age of reform—an occasional and reluctant vivisectionist, a theistic popularizer of natural science, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a surgeon, an artist, and a teacher. He was among the last of a generation of medical men who strove to fashion a particularly British science of medicine; who formed their careers, their research, and their publications through the private classrooms of nineteenth-century London; and whose politics were shaped by the exigencies of developing a living through patronage in a time when careers in medical science simply did not exist. A decade after Bell’s death, that world was gone, replaced by professionalism, standardized education, and regular career paths. In Charles Bell and the Anatomy of Reform, Carin Berkowitz takes readers into Bell’s world, helping us understand the life of medicine before the modern separation of classroom, laboratory, and clinic. Through Bell’s story, we witness the age when modern medical science, with its practical universities, set curricula, and medical professionals, was born.

Professional education forms a key element in the transmission of medical learning and skills, in occupational solidarity and in creating and recreating the very image of the practitioner. Yet the history of British medical education has hitherto been surprisingly neglected. Building upon papers contributed to two conferences on the history of medical education in the early 1990s, this volume presents new research and original synthesis on key aspects of medical instruction, theoretical and practical, from early medieval times into the present century. Academic and practical aspects are equally examined, and balanced attention is given to different sites of instruction, be it the university or the hospital. The crucial role of education in medical qualifications and professional licensing is also examined as is the part it has played in the regulation of the entry of women to the profession. Contributors are Juanita Burnby, W.F. Bynum, Laurence M. Geary, Faye Getz, Johanna Geyer-Kordesch, S.W.F. Holloway, Stephen Jacyna, Peter Murray Jones, Helen King, Susan C. Lawrence, Irvine Loudon, Margaret Pelling, Godelieve Van Heteren, and John Harley Warner.