Physicians, Plagues and Progress

Dr Allan Chapman is a historian of science at Oxford University, with special interests in the history of astronomy and of medicine and the relationship between science and Christianity. As well as University teaching, he lectures widely, has written a dozen books and numerous academic articles, and written and presented two TV series, Gods in the Sky and Great Scientists, besides taking part in many other history of science TV documentaries and in The Sky at Night with Sir Patrick Moore. He has received honorary doctorates and awards from the Universities of Central Lancashire, Salford, and Lancaster, and in 2015 was presented with the Jackson-Gwilt Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society. Among his books are Slaying the Dragons. Destroying Myths in the History of Science and Faith (Lion Hudson, 2013), Stargazers: Copernicus, Galileo, the Telescope, and the Church. The Astronomical Renaissance, 1500-1700 (Lion, 2014), and Physicians, Plagues, and Progress. The History of Western Medicine from Antiquity to Antibiotics (Lion, 2016). He is also the author of the scientific biographies England's Leonardo. Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-Century Scientific Revolution (Institute of Physics, 2005), Mary Somerville and the World of Science (Canopus, 2004; Springer, 2015), and The Victorian Amateur Astronomer. Independent Astronomical Research in Britain, 1820-1920 (Wiley-Praxis, 1998; revised edn. Gracewing, 2017).

• ContentsList of illustrations XVIIAcknowledgments XXIPreface XXVI1 Physicians, Priests, and Folk Healers 1Ancient doctors 2Medicine in Egypt and other ancient cultures 5Moses and the lepers: A saga from Sinai to Scandinavia 9Hippocrates of Cos: Rational medicine, ethics, and the Oathof c. 430 BC 12Aristotle (384–322 BC) and the nature of living things 152 Galen: Surgeon to the Gladiators 19Aelius Claudius Galenus of Pergamum: Surgeon, showman,and public anatomist, AD 129–200/216 20Galen the anatomist and physiologist 22Galen’s physiology 24Roman surgery 27Celsus and his Encyclopedia of c. AD 30 31Galen’s infl uence: Medicine, ethics, religion, and teachingacross fi fteen centuries 353 Arabia: The First Fruits of Medieval Medicine 38Baghdad and The House of Wisdom 39Fire and water: Transformative forces 40Jabir (Geber) and Rhazes: Chemistry and medicine 41“I suppose that Avycen /Wroot nevere in no canon…”(Chaucer) 47Albucasis and Arabic surgery 49Arabic medicine in retrospect 524 Divine Light: Seeing and Perceiving in theMiddle Ages 55The anatomy of perception: What was “seeing”believed to be? 56Rainbows, colours, and perspective: Medieval Europe’snew key to physics 61Unravelling the colours of the rainbow: MedievalEurope’s great discovery 64Spectacles: The invention that changed the world 67Couching for cataract: Albucasis and medieval eye surgery 69The eye as an optical projector 725 Rahere the Jester Meets St Bartholomew 73Early medieval care: Leech books and herbals 74Salerno, near Naples: Europe’s fi rst hospital andmedical school 77The founding of St Bartholomew’s Hospital intwelfth-century London 82Cure of body and cure of soul: How clean weremedieval people? 896 Spiritual Inspiration, Miracle, Possession,Mental Illness, and the Brain 94Discerning clinical illness from spiritual states 94Epilepsy and the Hippocratic tradition in medieval Europe 98Cells, chambers, and fl uid fl ows: The medieval explanationfor brain function 102Margery Kempe (née Burnham or Brunham) andreligious visionaries 108“Bedlam”: A place of asylum for the distressed? 1117 In Time of Plague 113Epidemics: Sin, nature, and the plague of the Philistines 114The Black Death of 1347 and beyond 115A miscellany of medieval maladies 1248 Medicine and Surgery in High Medieval Europe,1200–1500, Part 1: Medicine and Anatomy in Europe’sMedieval Universities and Beyond 129Population growth, prosperity, and innovation 130Teaching anatomy, challenging myth, and the status ofexperimental knowledge 132Pus: Laudable or a liability? 135Theodoric Borgognoni of Lucca: Surgeon, hygienist,friar, and bishop 136The fi rst academic medical schools: A Europeaninnovation 138Mondino de Liuzzi of Bologna and his Anathomia 1409 Medicine and Surgery in High Medieval Europe,1200–1500, Part 2: Guy de Chauliac and theGreat Surgery of 1363 147A scientifi c physician at the papal court in Avignon 147Chirurgia Magna, or the “Great Surgery”: A medicalencyclopedia for future ages 149Guy de Chauliac: Victim, survivor, and student ofthe bubonic plague 154So was medieval surgery barbaric? 15410 Prince Hal and the Surgeons: The Rise of MedicalProfessionalism in England after 1300 158John of Arderne: Master surgeon of the age of Chaucer 159An unfortunate incident of an arrow in the face 161Towton Man: Sophisticated facial repair surgery inearly fi fteenth-century England 163The anonymous surgeon of HMS Mary Rose in 1545 165Gunpowder, God, and Europe’s surgical renaissance 167The Royal College of Physicians and the WorshipfulCompany of Barbers and Surgeons 17011 Antiquity Found Wanting in Renaissance Italy:Andreas Vesalius and His Infl uence 174Renaissance Italy and the “lesser circulation” of the blood:Andreas Vesalius, Padua, and the new anatomy ofthe Renaissance 176The art of the anatomical illustrator 178Vesalius and his De Fabrica of 1543 181Realdo Colombo, the Vesalian tradition, and the secretsof the heart 189Ambrose Paré: Renaissance master surgeon 19112 William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood 195Origins and education 197Harvey establishes his professional career in London 199Of hearts, paradoxes, and purposes: Harvey’s road tothe blood circulation 201Announcing the whole-body circulation of the bloodin 1628 205Therapeutic innovations around Harvey’s time 21213 The Neurologist and the Archbishop of Canterbury,Part 1: The Oxford Experimental Club 217The hanging of Anne Greene 218Dr Thomas Willis of Oxford: Pioneer of neurology 222Fermentation, fevers, and chemistry 228Arthur Coga and the sheep: Experiments with blood andcirculation 23214 The Neurologist and the Archbishop of Canterbury,Part 2: Brains, Minds, and Souls in Seventeenth-Century England 236The Reverend Robert Burton: Anatomist of Melancholy 236Thomas Willis and his “circle” 240Death by lightning in 1666 246Fathoming the working of the mind in seventeenthcenturyEngland 249Archbishop Gilbert Sheldon, Doctor Willis, and the soul 25415 Breathing and Burning: Cardiology, Chemistry,and Combustion 258The breath of life 258Dr John Mayow: Air, fi re, blood, and life testedin the laboratory 263Robert Hooke and the dog 266Richard Lower, Tractatus de Corde, and the foundation ofcardiology 267Oxford’s enterprising apothecaries 27116 John Wesley’s Primitive Physick and the BritishPriest–Physician 274The Reverend John Ward, MA: Experimentalist andShakespeare anecdote collector 275John Wesley and simple medicine for the common man 279The country vicar who paved the way for aspirin 283Stephen Hales, Sydney Smith, and other medicalclergymen 28517 The Duty of Care: New Hospitals, Charities, andMedical Innovation in the Eighteenth Century 289A new tide of hospitals: London 290New hospitals across Great Britain 294The hospital as a “museum” of disease 298Teachers and discoverers in the eighteenth-centuryhospitals 301John Hunter FRS 30418 “Remember Poor Tom ’o Bedlam”: Dealing withthe “Mad” 307“Poor Tom’s a-cold”: Helping the insane in Stuart andGeorgian England 308Mad-doctors and madhouses 310The beginnings of compassionate care 311The Reverend Dr Francis Willis and King George III 314From scandal to care in York, and the rise of humanetreatment 31719 Charismatics, Quacks, and Folk Healers into theEarly Industrial Age 322Valentine Greatrakes: Irish gentleman faith healer 323Bartholomew Fair and other fairground quacks 324Learned quackery 327Quacks, showmen, and doctors 329Dover’s Powders and nostrums galore 336Mesmerism and phrenology 33720 Sewers, Soap, and Salvation: The Origins ofPublic Health 339The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus, FRS 340From cow to human: Dr Edward Jenner and the impactof vaccination 342Cholera 345Sanitation, statistics, and the Broad Street pump 348Dr John Snow and breakthrough at last 349Sanitation, civil engineers, and salvation 35021 “Them Damn’d Murderin’ Anatomists”: TheExpanding Medical Schools and the Supply ofCadavers 354The trade in “things” 355How to snatch a “thing”: The practicalities of“resurrecting” 357Edinburgh: The medical lion of the north 360“True Murderin’ Anatomists”: The Burke and Hare scandal,Edinburgh, 1828 363Dr Andrew Ure of Glasgow tries to raise the dead, 1818 365Bishop and Head, the London “Burkers”, and theAnatomy Act 367St Bernard’s, the Romance of a Medical Student, 1888 368Finding bones: A postscript 37122 The Miracle of the Microscope 372Joseph Jackson Lister, FRS: Quaker, microscopist, andgentleman of science 375Cells: Professor Virchow identifi es life’s building blocks 380Understanding cancer 383The French chemist and the German physician 38623 Chemistry and the Control of Pain: Anaesthesiaand Beyond 394Chemical anaesthesia: 16 October 1846, Boston, USA 395Chloroform: The Scottish wonder drug 401Anaesthesia, childbirth, and the Bible 403Dr John Snow: Founder of scientifi c anaesthesiology 404Morphine, cocaine, and the hypodermic 405Peaceful slumbers: New drugs to comfort and calm 40724 Glasgow, 1865: Young Jimmy Greenlees MeetsProfessor Lister: Antiseptic Surgery and Beyond 410Prelude: Vienna, 1847 411Glasgow, August 1865 413From antiseptic to aseptic surgery 416The new surgery 417The new operations 41925 The New Professional Healer: The Medical andNursing Professions Take Shape 424The Medical Act of 1858 425Homeopaths, water-curers, and Victorian alternativemedicine 426Nursing, the new medical profession: Sarah Podger,Mary Seacole, and Florence Nightingale 429Sir William Osler on the new physicians 43526 The Wonderful Century 437The drugs that hit the spot 437Penicillin and antibiotics 439Cancer: Radiology, chemotherapy, and body scans 442Adjusting the body’s own chemistry, physics, andengineering 446Who am I? Scientifi c medicine and the soul 450Conclusion: our modern duty of care 453Appendix 1: Cataract Operation Performed by aTraditional Shaman Surgeon in a Village to the Eastof Agra, Northern India, c. 2010 457Appendix 2: Stents and Tents 460Notes 462Further Reading 470Index 505