Medicine & Disease

As judge, patron, landowner and courtier-administrator, Caesar successfully pursued his own ambitions. By Alan Haynes.

R.W. Davies describes how the Romans were often suspicious of doctors; and contemporary satirists, including Martial, cracked many jokes at their expense. Medicine, however, was now beginning to be practised on strictly scientific lines.

Colin Davies introduces the Greek philosopher and physician who flourished in Sicily during the fifth century B.C.

‘Of all the arts, the art of medicine is the most distinguished,’ declared Hippocrates, who first released it from the shackles of magic and religion. 

Geoffrey Keynes describes how the reception accorded to Harvey’s great book in 1628 proved him to have a creative genius that could leap ahead of his contemporaries.

David Green describes how, during her long life, the Duchess of Marlborough ceaselessly sought for a panacea against illness and disease.

Philip Ziegler describes how the devastating Plague reached South-west England in the summer of 1348.

Philip Ziegler describes how, in the mid-fourteenth century, about one third of the population of Western Europe perished from bubonic plague.

Ann Leighton explains how food, folklore, and tradition all influenced the pilgrims' battle against disease.

Malaria was one of the scourges of the British Indian Empire. William Gardener writes how a remedy was at last provided by the introduction of a South-American tree.