British Medicine in an Age of Reform (Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine)

267 Pages·1991·2.39 MB·English

by  Roger French

BRITISH MEDICINE IN AN AGE OF
REFORM
THE WELLCOME INSTITUTE SERIES IN THE
HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Edited by W.F.Bynum and Roy Porter,
The Wellcome Institute
Medical Fringe and Medical Orthodoxy, 1750–1850
W.F.Bynum and Roy Porter
Florence Nightingale and the Nursing Legacy
Monica Baly
Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain
Greta Jones
Problems and Methods in the History of Medicine
Roy Porter and Andrew Wear
Vivisection in Historical Perspective
Nicolaas A.Rupke
(Now available in paperback)
Abortion in England, 1919–1967
Barbara Brookes
The Hospital in History
Edited by Lindsay Granshaw and Roy Porter
(Now available in paperback)
Women as Mothers in Pre-Industrial England
Edited by Valerie Fildes
Birth Control in Germany, 1871–1933
James Woycke
The Charitable Imperative
Colin Jones
Medicine at the Courts of Europe, 1500–1837
Edited by Dr Vivian Nutton
Mad Tales from the Raj
Waltraud Ernst
BRITISH MEDICINE IN
AN AGE OF REFORM
Edited by Roger French and Andrew
Wear
London and New York
First published in 1991
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
a division of Routledgc, Chapman and Hall Inc.
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016
© 1991 Roger French and Andrew Wear
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
British medicine in an age of reform.
1. Great Britain. Medicine, history
I. French, Roger II. Wear, Andrew III. Series
610.941
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
British medicine in an age of reform/edited by Roger French and Andrew Wear.
p. cm.—(The Wellcome series in the history of medicine)
Based on a conference held Sept. 1987 in London and sponsored by
the Royal Institution’s Centre for the History of Science and
Technology.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Medicine—Great Britain—History—18th century—Congresses.
2. Medicine—Great Britain—History—19th century—Congresses.
I. French, R.K (Roger Kenneth) II. Wear, A. (Andrew), 1946–
III Royal Institution Centre for the History of Science and
Technology. IV. Series.
[DNLM: 1. History of Medicine, 18th Century—Great Britain—
congresses. 2. History of Medicine, 19th Century—Great Britain—
congresses. WZ 70 FA1 B85 1987]
R487.B75 1991
610′.941′09033–dc20
DNLM/DLC
90–9163
CIP
ISBN 0-203-99129-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-05622-5 (Print Edition)
Contents
List of tables and figures vii
List of editors and contributors viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1. Reforming the patient in the age of reform: Thomas 9
Beddoes and medical practice
Roy Porter
2. Private enterprise and public interests: medical 45
education and the Apothecaries’ Act, 1780–1825
Susan C.Lawrence
3. ‘Trading assassins’ and the licensing of anatomy 74
Ruth Richardson
4. The disappearance of the patient’s narrative and the 92
invention of hospital medicine
Mary E.Fissell
5. Robert Carswell and William Thomson at the Hôtel- 110
Dieu of Lyons: Scottish views of French medicine
Stephen Jacyna
6. The idea of science in English medicine: the ‘decline 135
of science’ and the rhetoric of reform, 1815–45
John Harley Warner
7. Why were most medical heretics at their most 164
confident around the 1840s? (The other side of mid-
Victorian medicine)
Logie Barrow
8. William Brande and the chemical education of 184
medical students
Elizabeth Haigh
vi
9. A scientific profession: medical reform and forensic 201
medicine in British periodicals of the early
nineteenth century
Catherine Crawford
10. Religion, respectability and the origins of the modern 228
nurse
Perry Williams
Index 252
Tables and figures
Tables
2.1 Form used to enter the applicant’s qualifications at 53
Apothecaries’ Hall, 1 August 1815–31 July 1817
2.2 Apothecaries’ candidates: 1815–19 54
2.3 Apothecaries’ candidates: 1815–19: marginal and over- 55
qualified applicants
2.4 Apothecaries’ candidates: 1815–19: number of courses 57
taken
2.5 Apothecaries’ candidates: 1815–19: duration of medical 58
practice at hospitals, dispensaries, and infirmaries
5.1 William Thomson’s medical education prior to 1822 114
Figures
2.1 Apothecaries’ candidates: distribution of clinical 60
practice, 1815–19 and 1831–3
2.2 London hospital pupils and Apothecaries’ licences: 60
Guy’s, St. Thomas’s, St. Gcorge’s, and the Middlesex,
1812–25
Editors and contributors
Editors
Roger French is Director of the Wellcome Unit for the History
of Medicine, University of Cambridge.
Andrew Wear is Lecturer at the Wellcome Institute for the
History of Medicine, London.
Contributors
Logie Barrow is Professor of British Social History in the
department of Sprach-und Kulturwissenschaften, University of
Bremen, Germany.
Catherine Crawford is a Wellcome Research Lecturer in the
History department, University of Essex.
Mary Fissell is Research Associate at the Wellcome Unit for
the History of Medicine, University of Manchester.
Elizabeth Haigh is Professor of History at Saint Mary’s
University, Halifax, Canada.
Stephen Jacyna is Research Officer at the Wellcome Unit for
the History of Medicine, University of Manchester.
Susan Lawrence is in the department of History, University of
Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
Roy Porter is Senior Lecturer at the Wellcome Institute for the
History of Medicine, London.
Ruth Richardson is at the Institute of Historical Research,
University of London.
John Harley Warner is Associate Professor of the History of
Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Perry Williams is in the Wellcome Unit for the History of
Medicine, University of Cambridge.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Royal Institution’s Centre for the History
of Science and Technology, which was host to the conference
that gave rise to this book. We are also grateful for financial
support from the Wellcome Trust.