List of figures and tables
Chronology
Who’s who
Part I
1. Introduction
Part II: Narrative
2. Disease in modern Britain
Disease and death
The epidemiological transition
Measuring morbidity
Why did patterns of disease change?
3. Medical ideas
The emergence of hospital medicine
Laboratory medicine
Laboratory and clinic
Beyond the biological
Heterodox medicine
4. Medical practices
The pursuit of health
Domestic medicine
Medical practitioners
Consuming medicine
5. Medical care in institutions
Voluntary hospitals and dispensaries
Poor Law hospitals
Fever hospitals and tuberculosis sanatoria
Hospitals and dispensaries in Ireland
Asylums
6. Medical practitioners
Making a medical living
Excluding competitors
Nursing
7. Health and the state
Sanitary reform
Public health
Welfare
Government medical care
Part Three: Assessment
8. Medicine in modern Britain: change, continuity, variation
Part Four: Documents
Document 1. Description of fevers
Document 2. Victims of cholera
Document 3. The Spanish Flu
Document 4. The increase in cancer
Document 5. Variations in mortality
Document 6. The health of working class women
Document 7. The action of fever
Document 8. Pathological changes in the lung
Document 9. The technical language of medicine
Document 10. The physiology of the kidney
Document 11: The benefits of physiological research
Document 12. A holistic view of the body
Document 13: The benefits of exercise
Document 14. Health and sunlight
Document 15: Domestic remedies
Document 16: Patent medicines
Document 17. Hydropathic treatment
Document 18: Treatment of heart disease
Document 19. The experience of surgery
Document 20. An appeal for funds
Document 21. Rules from Huddersfield Infirmary
Document 22. Hospital design
Document 23. The patient’s experience
Document 24. Asylum design
Document 25: Medical training in London
Document 26. Setting up in practice
Document 27. Unity in the profession
Document 28. Opposition to the Colleges
Document 29. Opposition to homeopaths
Document 30. Opposition to women doctors
Document 31. Nurse training
Document 32. Insanitary conditions in cities
Document 33. Public health in central and local government
Document 34. Health education
Document 35 The work of the Medical Officer of Health
Document 36. The cause of infant mortality
Document 37. The new National Health Service
References
Glossary
Further Reading
Index
Biography
Deborah Brunton was a senior lecturer in the History of Medicine at The Open University. Her previous publications include Health and Wellness in the Nineteenth Century (2014), The Politics of Vaccination. Practice and Policy in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, 1800–1874 (2008), Medicine Transformed: Health, Disease and Society in Europe 1800–1930 (2004) and Health, Disease and Society in Europe 1800–1930: A Sourcebook (2004).
'This easy to read and engaging book offers a comprehensive overview of the history of medicine in modern Britain, including the various approaches, sources and terminology used by medical historians. I enthusiastically recommend this book to students as an up-to-date introduction to the history of medicine that identifies geographical variations in British experiences of health and medicine, and that touches upon recent research themes such as ‘health’ and ‘domestic’ medicine'.
Kathryn Woods, University of Warwick, UK
