The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7205 p33
6 July 2002

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History of medicine

'Cambridge illustrated history of medicine', edited by Roy Porter. Pp 400. Price £19.95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2001. ISBN 0 521 00252 4

This book will already be familiar to some readers, having been first published in hardback in 1996 and now appearing in a paperback edition for the first time. The recent untimely death of its editor, Roy Porter, came as a shock to those who knew him and a great loss to the field in which he was so eminent, the history of medicine; particularly his specialty, the social history of medicine. The book offers a comprehensive review of its subject from ancient times to the present. Professor Porter himself contributed chapters on the nature of disease, the history of medical science, hospitals and surgery and the history of the treatment of mental illness.

Profusely illustrated, as the title suggests, this book seeks to go beyond a review of the history of disease and its treatment, and to subject medicine to historical analysis; the forces which have shaped it and controlled it, the extent to which it has served the needs of the sick and the role of the state in its finance and control, together with more recent concerns about over-treatment and interest in alternative therapies. Apart from the wealth of reading in the individual chapters, the book offers a valuable source of reference to all who are interested in the subject, or involved in teaching the history of medicine or of science in general. The volume is rounded off by a useful chronology, a glossary of major human diseases, extensive references and a valuable bibliography for further reading, together with the usual indexes. Readers will not be disappointed.

John Hunt