Designed for survey courses in the field A History of Medicine presents a wide-ranging overview for those seeking a solid grounding in the medical history of Western and non-Western cultures. Invaluable to instructors promoting the history of medicine in pre-professional training, and stressing major themes in the history of medicine, this third edition continues to stimulate further exploration of the events, methodologies, and theories that have shaped medical practices in decades past and continue to do so today.

Against the backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of health care, this i Very Short Introduction/i surveys the history of medicine from classical times to the present. Focussing on the key turning points in the history of Western medicine - such as the advent of hospitals and the rise of experimental medicine - but also offering reflections on alternative traditions such as Chinese medicine, Bill Bynum offers insights into medicine's past, while at the same time engaging with contemporary issues, discoveries, and controversies.

Includes: Inspired geniuses, such as Paracelsus, the father of medical chemistry, and Edward Jenner, who discovered the smallpox vaccination; Cuthroat competition, as during the 'Gas Wars' over who'd invented the anaesthetic, Scientific endeavour, such as the discovery of X-rays; Mistakes both fortunate and fatal, Anatomy,.

From surgery to vaccines, man has made great strides in the field of medicine. Quality of life has improved dramatically in the last few decades alone, and the future is bright. But students must not forget that God provided humans with minds and resources to bring about these advances. A biblical perspective of healing and the use of medicine provides the best foundation for treating diseases and injury. In Exploring the World of Medicine, author John Hudson Tiner reveals the spectacular discoveries that started with men and women who used their abilities to better mankind and give glory to God. The fascinating history of medicine comes alive in this book, providing students with a healthy dose of facts, mini-biographies, and vintage illustrations. Includes chapter tests and index.

Written as a key introductory textbook for students, this work explores the reasons behind the expansion of the field of the history of medicine and health.

A bestselling history of medicine, enriched with a new foreword, concluding essay, and bibliographic essay. Erwin H. Ackerknecht’s A Short History of Medicine is a concise narrative, long appreciated by students in the history of medicine, medical students, historians, and medical professionals as well as all those seeking to understand the history of medicine. Covering the broad sweep of discoveries from parasitic worms to bacilli and x-rays, and highlighting physicians and scientists from Hippocrates and Galen to Pasteur, Koch, and Roentgen, Ackerknecht narrates Western and Eastern civilization’s work at identifying and curing disease. He follows these discoveries from the library to the bedside, hospital, and laboratory, illuminating how basic biological sciences interacted with clinical practice over time. But his story is more than one of laudable scientific and therapeutic achievement. Ackerknecht also points toward the social, ecological, economic, and political conditions that shape the incidence of disease. Improvements in health, Ackerknecht argues, depend on more than laboratory knowledge: they also require that we improve the lives of ordinary men and women by altering social conditions such as poverty and hunger. This revised and expanded edition includes a new foreword and concluding biographical essay by Charles E. Rosenberg, Ackerknecht’s former student and a distinguished historian of medicine. A new bibliographic essay by Lisa Haushofer explores recent scholarship in the history of medicine.

Jacalyn Duffin's History of Medicine is one of the leading texts used to teach the history of the medical profession. Emphasizing broad concepts rather than names and dates, it has also been widely appreciated by general readers for more than twenty years. Based on sound scholarship and meticulous research, History of Medicine incorporates pithy examples from a range of periods and places and is infused with the author’s characteristic wit. The third edition has been completely revised to highlight new scholarship on the past and incorporate significant medical events of the most recent decade – including new technologies, drug shortages, medical assistance in dying, and recent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, H1N1, Zika, and COVID-19. The book is organized around themes of scientific and clinical interest, such as anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, surgery, obstetrics, medical education, health-care delivery, and public health. It includes a chapter on how to approach research in medical history, updated with new resources. History of Medicine is sensitive to the power of historical research to inform current health-care practice and enhance cultural understanding.