An Illustrated History of Medicine

Roberto Margotta

Uitg. Hamlyn, hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated

The fight to understand and combat disease has produced some of the greatest achievements in the history of man. The story of this struggle, from the primitive surgery and magical rites of prehistoric witch-doctors to the most advanced technology of modern medicine, is told here in a vivid text, keyed throughout to a background of the evolution of our civilization.

The study of medicine has always attracted the ablest minds of every period, so that this book, while presenting the main outlines of the growth of medical knowledge, inevitably features many portraits of doctors, surgeons and scientists whose individual efforts over the centuries have provided landmarks in this vital field of study. Giants like Hippocrates, whose famous Oath of professional conduct is still adhered to in principle by doctors throughout the world ; Galen, the Roman physician whose ideas remained unchallenged for centuries after his death; Leonardo da Vinci, famous artist, engineer, scientist and inventor, and one of the outstanding anatomists of all time.

Inseparable from the study of disease has been the development of knowledge about how our bodies are constructed and how they function. This history includes accounts of such important discoveries as the circulation of the blood, and of numerous inventions such as the microscope, which furnished for the first time direct evidence of the minute cells which make up all living tissue.

More recent times have been marked by developments which have dramatically changed the entire practice of medicine : anaesthesia, disinfection, X-rays, antibiotics. But it is a continuing story and this book concludes by looking at medicine today, at "spare part surgery", at mental disease, and at other problems for which solutions have yet to be found.

The whole book, illustrated with hundreds of pictures, most of them in colour, is written in language stripped as far as possible of technical expressions. It will undoubtedly appeal to laymen as well as to members of the medical profession providing a lively, concise and accurate picture of the evolution of medical knowledge.