Cambridge Library Collection - History of Medicine

The Cambridge Library Collection reissues milestone publications in the history of Western medicine as well as studies of other medical traditions. Its coverage ranges from Galen's work on anatomy to Florence Nightingale's advice to nurses, with a special focus on nineteenth-century developments. It is sobering to realise that as recently as the Victorian period, learned opinion was that diseases such as typhus and cholera were spread by a 'miasma' and suggestions that doctors should wash their hands before examining patients were greeted with mockery by the profession. The series includes colonial reports on tropical diseases, treatises on the effects of climate and diet, documents on public health and military medicine, early research into mental health and genetics and publications on spa culture and medicinal plants.