The Dying and the Doctors: The Medical Revolution in Seventeenth-Century England(Royal Historical Society Studies in History New Series)

A survey of the changes in medical care for those approaching death in the early modern period. From the sixteenth century onwards, medical strategies adopted by the seriously ill and dying changed radically, decade by decade, from the Elizabethan age of astrological medicine to the emergence of the general practitioner in the early eighteenth century. It is this profound revolution, in both medical and religious terms, as whole communities' hopes for physical survival shifted from God to the doctor, that this book charts. Drawing on more than eighteen thousand probate accounts, it identifies massive increases in the consumption of medicines and medical advice by all social groups and in almost all areas. Most importantly, it examines the role of the towns in providing medical services to rural areas and hinterlands [using the diocese of Canterbury as a particular focus], and demonstrates the extending ranges of physicians', surgeons' and apothecaries' businesses. It also identifies a comparable revolution in community nursing, from its unskilled status in 1600 to a more exclusive one by 1700. IAN MORTIMER is an independent historian and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.

Table of Contents:
Introduction The medicalisation of East Kent The medicalisation of central southern England The availability and nature of medical assistance Medical practices The nature and availability of nursing care Plague and smallpox Conclusion Appendix: Medical indices for East Kent, West Sussex, Berkshire and Wiltshire Bibliography

About the Author :
Hon. Research Fellow, University of Exeter

Review :
An important book for the social history of medicine. Mortimer's description and conclusions must inform our understanding of seventeenth-century medical practice. Contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms, inspirations, and effects of an important paradigmatic shift which continues to shape societies across the globe today. Chart[s] a remarkable medical revolution taking place throughout seventeenth-century England. Historians of early modern medicine should thank him for that. The results of this meticulous and painstaking research are persuasive and have far-reaching implications for the social history of medical care of the dying. Mortimer's book is a feat of statistical organisation. He has deftly and meticulously analysed thousands of probate records, using complex and subtle quantities techniques. [...] It is a valuable contribution to the history of medicine, and succeeds in its aim to draw attention to the hitherto acknowledged rise in the employment of doctors at times of grave illness. A work of great clarity and elegance, and provides the bedrock on which social history must be based. A must for any studying the history of science or subjects related to the Renaissance and Industrial Revolutions.