Medicine & Disease

The problems of later life are always with us, writes Steven R. Smith. Among those who have studied them are both a famous philosopher and a renowned physician.

The great humanitarian organisation was founded on 29 October 1863.

Medicine in early modern Britain is commonly perceived as crude and ineffective. But for all its shortcomings, says Alun Withey, there was no shortage of medical practitioners.

Stephen Usherwood describes how an Asiatic flea, living as a parasite upon black rats, caused as many as 100,000 deaths during the summer and autumn of 1665.

As judge, patron, landowner and courtier-administrator, Caesar successfully pursued his own ambitions. By Alan Haynes.

R.W. Davies describes how the Romans were often suspicious of doctors; and contemporary satirists, including Martial, cracked many jokes at their expense. Medicine, however, was now beginning to be practised on strictly scientific lines.

Colin Davies introduces the Greek philosopher and physician who flourished in Sicily during the fifth century B.C.

‘Of all the arts, the art of medicine is the most distinguished,’ declared Hippocrates, who first released it from the shackles of magic and religion. 

Geoffrey Keynes describes how the reception accorded to Harvey’s great book in 1628 proved him to have a creative genius that could leap ahead of his contemporaries.

David Green describes how, during her long life, the Duchess of Marlborough ceaselessly sought for a panacea against illness and disease.