Dr. Thomas Addison 1795-1860


Book Description

Dr. Thomas Addison (17951860): Agitating the Whole Medical World presents Dr. Addisons life story, considers his reception during his lifetime, and recognizes his profound contributions to modern medicine. Dr. Addison weathered five years of scorching criticism from peers for asserting that the adrenal glands were essential to life and that diseased adrenal glands could darken a white persons skin to mulatto hues. History validated his discoveries, which led other investigators to isolate and identify epinephrine, the adrenocortical steroids, and even vitamin B12.




A Life of Ernest Starling


Book Description

Ernest Starling (1866-1927) was pre-eminent in the golden age of British Physiology. His name is usually associated with his "Law of the Heart,” but his discovery of secretin (the first hormone whose mode of action was explained) and his work on capillaries were more important contributions. He coined the word 'hormone' one hundred years ago. His analysis of capillary function demonstrated that equal and opposite forces move across the capillary wall--an outward (hydrostatic) force and an inward (osmotic) force derived from plasma proteins.







Drink in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries


Book Description

This collection of essays covers the representation and practice of drinking a variety of beverages across eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain and North America. The case studies in this volume cover drinking culture from a variety of perspectives, including literature, history, anthropology and the history of medicine.




Fantasy Surgery, 1880-1930


Book Description

In the late nineteenth century, for the first time in history, major surgery became reasonably safe. A mortality of up to 30% was considered reasonable. The living abdomen, hitherto a region as unexplored as darkest Africa, was opened up to light and to the knife in explorations not unlike those of Africa — bold, dramatic, often not too well thought out, and dangerous. Surgeons became enthusiastic — some of them wildly so. The subsequent period has been called 'the adolescence of surgery'. It included major surgery, often on the abdomen, done for psychiatric symptoms. Ovaries and wombs were removed and other organs hitched up higher inside the abdomen in an attempt to cure hysteria, neurasthenia or depression. This book is about the development and effect of some of these operations and about one of the period's most distinguished surgeons, Sir William Arbuthnot Lane. He was internationally famous in three fields of surgery (facial, mastoid and abdominal), then became deeply involved in removing colons — thought to be the 'sink' of the body and the source of dangerous infection.




Doctors who Followed Christ


Book Description

Examines the lives and accomplishments of thirty-two physicians from throughout history whose Christian faith has influenced their work.




Medical Education at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 1123-1995


Book Description

Traces the evolution of medical education at Barts from its foundation in 1123 to the college's merger with The London Hospital and Queen Mary & Westfield College in 1995. Medical Education at St Bartholomew's Hospital traces the evolution of medical education at Barts from its foundation in 1123 to the college's merger with The London and Queen Mary & Westfield College in 1995. Drawing on the hospital's rich archives, it investigates how training was institutionalised and organised at Barts to explore the shifting nature of medical education between the eighteenth and late-twentieth century. Medical Education at St Bartholomew's Hospital, in analysing the history of the medical college at Barts, explores the relationship between clinical study, science and the institution to look at the rise of the hospital student, the growth of laboratory medicine, and the evolution of a research culture. It places the changing nature of training at Barts in the context of metropolitan and national developments to analyse the structure of medical training, the University of London and its impact on medical education, and the experiences of the students and staff. Questions are asked about how academic medicine developed and about the relationship between training, the bedside, teaching hospitals and the politics of healthcare and higher education. In looking at these areas, existing notions of the "development" of medical education are problematised to provide a study that explores the nature of medical education at Barts and in London. KEIR WADDINGTON is lecturer in history at Cardiff University.







A Bibliography of British History, 1914-1989


Book Description

Containing over 25,000 entries, this unique volume will be absolutely indispensable for all those with an interest in Britain in the twentieth century. Accessibly arranged by theme, with helpful introductions to each chapter, a huge range of topics is covered. There is a comprehensiveindex.