Review by Choice Review
The subtitle notwithstanding, this book focuses on doctoring rather than doctors and covers the period from the mid-17th to the mid-19th century (rather than the 18th), which is just prior to the advent of scientific laboratory-based medicine. The authors explore how the ill perceived sickness, attempted self-medication, sought help from the pooled medical knowledge of family groups, and ultimately entered into a relation with those who provided care. At a time when the marketplace for health delivery was free and the monopolistic professional control of medicine had not attained statutory authority, doctoring was done by physicians, apothecaries, midwives, traditional healers, and itinerant quacks. The authors' focus is the relation between patients and providers of health care, chiefly from the patients' point of view. Of the 12 chapters, 4 are dedicated to the medical profession; they examine the patient-physician relation from the perspective of the physician and the problems and opportunities of practitioners. The information presented is based on autobiographies, diaries, journals, and letters of the sick. The authors acknowledge that by so doing, they cover a selected segment of the sick--primarily the literate, rich, and learned, and of physicians--the relatively well known and prominent. They consider this collective experience representative of society as a whole--clearly an arguable point. Nevertheless, this scholarly work addresses an issue about which the available history of medicine is silent. Extensively annotated and referenced; thoroughly indexed. Academic and public library collections. -G. Eknoyan, Baylor College of Medicine
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
