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Just as science, in general, was becoming a source of societal advancement and cultural awe during the Georgian and Victorian periods, so was medical science advancing alongside it. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the advent of some of the most important medical findings in history. The following is a list of books that examine these medical breakthroughs in a highly engaging way. I’ve arranged this list in order from the most popular, “fun” medical history books, to the more scholarly, academic books.
1. Rebecca Skloot: ''The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks'' – This book falls a bit out of this list’s timeframe, as it takes place during the mid-twentieth century, but Skloot’s book is, undoubtedly, one of the most important works on medical history and society ever published. It was awarded to National Academies' Best Book of the Year Award , and spent 75 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. The book deals primarily with ethical issues in medical research, and illustrates how lines were crossed that should’ve been left alone.
8. W.F. Bynum & Roy Porter: ''Medical Fringe and Medical Orthodoxy 1750-1850'' – During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was no consensus as to what constituted “accepted” medicine, and what constituted “alternative” medicine – they simply blended together. This work studies this important time when demarcations between scientifically-validated medicine, and holistic/alternative medicine were being made.
9. Mary Fissell: ''PaitentsPatients, Power, and the Poor in Eighteenth-Century Bristol'' – Fissell’s works work was one of the first academic medical history books to deal with medicine and sickness from a societal point of view, rather than from the purview of upper-class physicians and the like. During this the timethat Fissell deals with, there was no consensus on as to which type of medical practitioners were the most effective – this resulted in a medical marketplace full of questionable charactersand dubious remedies.
10. Mike Saks: ''Alternative Medicine in Britain'' – This book is a collection of essays on the place of “alternative” medicine in Britain , from the nineteenth century to the present day. In Victorian Britain, there was on no consensus on what constituted “real” medicine, and what constituted “alternative” medicine. This work deals with such practices as acupuncture, osteopathy, and spiritual healing, and it also focuses on the professionalization of medicine during the nineteenth century.
