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The practice of medicine in the days before the development of anaesthetics could often be a brutal and painful experience. Many procedures, especially those involving surgery, must have proved almost as distressing to the doctor as to the patient. Yet in order to cure, the medical practitioner was often required to inflict pain and the patient to endure it. Some level of detachment has always been required of the doctor and especially, of the surgeon. It is the construction of this detachment, or dispassion, in early modern England, with which this work is concerned. The book explores the idea of medical dispassion and shows how practitioners developed the intellectual, verbal and manual skill of being able to replace passion with equanimity and distance. As the skill of 'dispassion' became more widespread it was both enthusiastically promoted and vehemently attacked by scientific and literary writers throughout the early modern period. To explain why the practice was so controversial and aroused such furor, this study takes into account not only patterns of medical education and clinical practice but wider debates concerning social, philosophical and religious ideas.
"An Historical Narrative of the Great and Terrible Fire of London, Sept. 2nd 1666" by Gideon Harvey is a compilation of contemporary accounts of the London fire. Through these notes, it is a good contrast to the Continental thought process for rebuilding industrialized and residential areas after disasters. Though prior knowledge about the fire is good for context, you can be a novice as well and still be entertained.
The narrative presented here is a rare, detailed autobiographical account of one woman's experience of mental disorder in seventeenth-century England. Katharine Hodgkin presents in modern typography an annotated edition of the author's manuscript of this unusual and compelling text. Also included are prefaces to the narrative written by Fitzherbert and others, and letters written shortly after her mental crisis, which develop her account of the episode.
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A groundbreaking, revisionist account of the importance of the history of philosophy to intellectual change - scientific, philosophical and religious - in seventeenth-century England.
An investigation into aphrodisiacs challenges pre-conceived ideas about sexuality during this period.
What was medicine like in the time of Shakespeare and Oliver Cromwell? How did Charles I cure a headache, or Samuel Pepys get rid of kidney stones? Katherine Knight opens up the delights of the Stuart medicine cabinet in this fascinating romp through seventeenth-century medicine and cosmetics. Documenting the all-important use of household substances and do-it-yourself remedies, this book looks at the emergence of modern medicine from everyday cures such as herbs, oils and foods. Offering solutions for all sorts of nasty afflictions, from digestive disturbances to sexually transmitted diseases, it also describes how our seventeenth-century counterparts enjoyed the benefits of soap, moisturiser and toothpaste. With insights into the lives of those who lived in this remarkable period, Secrets of the 17th Century Medicine Cabinet is more than a medical history - it is an intimate investigation into the private lives of the spirited Stuarts.