Health and Wellness in the 19th Century

Medicine in the 19th century may strike us as primitive by today''s standards but widespread social change of the era brought about new ideas and practices in health and healingall described in this engaging book.Exploring the history of medicine in the 19th century around the world this book showcases the wide range of medical ideas practices institutions and patient experiences revealing how the exchanges of ideas and therapies between different systems of medicine resulted in patients enjoying a surprising degree of choice. The author offers a unique perspective that provides an introduction to 19th-century medicine on a global stage and places the advancement of medicine within the context of wider historical changes.Chapters examine areas of dramatic change such as the development of surgery as well as the fundamental continuities in the use of traditional forms of supernatural healing covering western Chinese unani ayurvedic and folk medicine-based understandings of the body and disease. Additionally the book describes how the culture of medicine reflected and responded to the challenges posed by urbanization industrialization and global movement.