The Western Medical Tradition: 800 BC to AD 1800

Lawrence I Conrad, Michael Neve, Vivian Nutton, Roy Porter, Andrew Wear Cambridge University Press, pounds sterling24.95, pp 556 ISBN 0 521 47564 3 Covering 2600 years of Western medical history in less than 500 pages could be regarded as an accomplishment in itself—and the mere listing of the contents of The Western Medical Tradition would take up all of the space allotted to this review. I will therefore merely state that the book provides a survey of medical doctrines and practices; of medical and professional institutions and patients; of professional rivalries, achievements, and failures; of the beliefs concerning health and disease of those who could write …