Publisher's Synopsis
This work traces the inception and development of ideas of health and sickness, of disease and its cure. The focus is principally on Western ideas from the Greek onwards, although there is some reference to "tribal" medicine and to other forms of learned medicine, such as the Chinese. In tracing the development of these ideas, the authors examine the philosophies - explicit and implicit - which lie at the root of individual perceptions of wellness and illness, and of the whole art and science of medicine. Roy Porter has also published "Patients and Practitioners: English Society in the Eighteenth Century" and "Mind-Forg'd Manacles: A History of Madness in England from the Restoration to the Regency". Dorothy Porter has published various articles on the history of medicine.
