Roy Porter was until his retirement Professor in the Social History of Medicine at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. He last book ENLIGHTENMENT won a 2001 Wolfson Prize. Roy Porter died March 3rd 2002.

'Nobody will be able to put down this short history of medicine... without counting their blessings. Never have I read a book which made me so glad not to have been born before the mid-20th century.' Daily Mail

• Disease; doctors; the body; the laboratory; therapies; surgery; the hospital; medicine in modern society.

Roy Porter was until his retirement Professor in the Social History of Medicine at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. He last book ENLIGHTENMENT won a 2001 Wolfson Prize. Roy Porter died March 3rd 2002.

'Nobody will be able to put down this short history of medicine... without counting their blessings. Never have I read a book which made me so glad not to have been born before the mid-20th century.' Daily Mail

• Disease; doctors; the body; the laboratory; therapies; surgery; the hospital; medicine in modern society.

Roy Porter was until his retirement Professor in the Social History of Medicine at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. He last book ENLIGHTENMENT won a 2001 Wolfson Prize. Roy Porter died March 3rd 2002.

'Nobody will be able to put down this short history of medicine... without counting their blessings. Never have I read a book which made me so glad not to have been born before the mid-20th century.' Daily Mail

• Disease; doctors; the body; the laboratory; therapies; surgery; the hospital; medicine in modern society.