Margaret Pelling Research Articles

History of Medicine Special Issue

In September 2013 the University of Saskatchewan hosted the bi-annual postgraduate conference for the Society for the Social History of Medicine in combination with the Manitoba-Ontario-Minnesota-Saskatchewan history of medicine meeting. This joint symposium was the first of its kind, and the only time the Social History of Medicine meeting has been held outside of Europe. We received financial support from the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, the University of Saskatchewan, the Society for the Social History of Medicine, and the Canada Research Chair in medical history to support a three-day long meeting involving thirty-two speakers, both historians and physicians, from five countries: Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Mexico. Topics ranged widely from early modern military nursing; to an analysis of advertisements for diet pills; to a study of victims of Nazi war crimes; accounts of life in asylums; and a panel on the historical and contemporary AIDS crises. Keynote addresses from Hannah Professor at Queen's University, Jacalyn Duffin, and Margaret Pelling, Professor of History at Oxford University, highlighted the intersections of medical education, medical humanities, and professionalization, with an overarching demonstration of the power of historical analysis to elucidate contemporary challenges in medicine. We are pleased the Canadian Journal of History agreed to showcase some of the excellent work that was presented at this meeting, and hope that CJH readers enjoy this special issue. The issue contains three articles of exceptional quality, which represent a small portion of the work that was on display at the meeting. In addition to the articles, we have eight book reviews of recent work in medical history, which help draw attention to the rich array of geographical, temporal, and methodological studies underway in this dynamic field. Duffin's keynote address, Historian as Activist: Tales from the Medical Trench, has been posted on ActiveHistory.ca, and can be viewed on their site at: http://activehistory.ca. Her article in this special issue is a separate examination of anti-Semitism and quotas within medical education at Queen's University. In her characteristically thorough exploration of archival evidence, Duffin looked at student records and administrative materials to expose the conflicts between stated quotas and more subtle elements of anti-Semitism that shaped the student body in the medical school at Queen's University. …

The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500-2000 (review)

Reviewed by: The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500-2000 Andrew Wear Margaret Pelling and Scott Mandelbrote, eds. The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500–2000. Essays for Charles Webster. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2005. xv + 376 pp. $99.95 (0-7546-3933-9). This Festschrift celebrates the work of Charles Webster, one of the outstanding medical historians of the past forty years. Webster ranges widely (I use the present tense as he is still active) from Paracelsus to the English Civil War reformers of science and medicine to the twentieth-century English National Health Service. His historical skills are eclectic and in combination formidable. Although he might not want to admit it, given the early fights in the late 1960s and in the 1970s against "internalist" or intellectual history, he has a great grasp of concepts and often focuses on the intellectual/philosophical background to medicine, on the social and political theories underlying change, and on the content of medicine. In addition to his conceptual skills, Webster also deploys the traditional armamentarium of the Oxford historian: one fact after another, together with listings of names, to build up a case or establish a prosopographical picture. Politically, he takes a broadly left-wing approach; hence the ever-present interest in reform. As to sociological theory, neither he nor his students, fortunately or, perhaps, unfortunately, have done anything to throw doubt on Karl Mannheim's observation that in England there was a "hatred of theory."1 [End Page 450] The different chapters in this book echo many of Webster's interests and approaches. Howard Hobson's chapter, "The Instauration of the Image of God, in Man," traces how the doctrine of theosis influenced the young Comenius, who was the inspiration for many of the actors in Webster's The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform, 1626–1660 (1976). Intellectually, this is the highlight of the book. Chapters on Paracelsianism and music, on magic as seen economically in early modern England, and on the relationship between chemical medicine and Paracelsianism in early modern Italy will interest early modernists as they foreground topics that have often been ignored. Margaret Pelling, who has been one of Webster's closest collaborators, looks at the links among politics, medicine, and masculinity from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century. She shows by an exhaustive trawl through the records that only a few doctors played a role in the public life of the country, whether in the cursus honorum of towns or as MPs. This absence, she argues, entailed a loss of masculine authority. It may have been so in a nominalist sense, but no evidence is presented as to whether it actually affected the perceptions of doctors. Chapters on faith healing and Henry More, on the politics surrounding the hanging and self-revival of Anne Green, and on the anatomical and ambassadorial career of John Finch in Italy between 1649 and 1671, though very disparate in subject, succeed in transporting the reader into worlds where philosophy, politics, and medicine came together. Mordechai Feingold, in an important chapter, shows how the prehistory of the Royal Society has been unduly influenced by John Wallis's accounts. These emphasized that London rather than Oxford was the place that gave birth to the society. Feingold makes a convincing case for reinstating Sprat's account, denigrated by Wallis, that in Oxford lay the origin of the Royal Society. Finally, to end the early modern strand of the book, Jonathan Barry shows that Puritanism, or rather militant Protestantism, had a long afterlife in his study of John Cary and Cary's plans for poor relief in Bristol. The eighteenth century gets short shrift, and this perhaps reflects Webster's dislike of the period noted by the book's editors. John Kidd looks perceptively at the mix of medicine, race, and radical politics in the late Scottish Enlightenment, which takes us nearly to the mid-nineteenth century and illustrates how anti-Celtic prejudices developed. Pietro Corsi throws light on the rapidly changing views in France as to what form the language of science should take in the period 1795–1802. We then jump to the twentieth century...

The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500 2000

Few historians have had as broad and fundamental an intellectual impact on their field as Charles Webster. Preparing a festschrift that reflects his range of interests and the extent of his contribution to the discipline is an almost impossible challenge. Despite this, Margaret Pelling and Scott Mandelbrote have achieved a worthy tribute in this very substantial collection of 18 essays by his students, friends and colleagues. Like Webster himself, the volume ranges freely through a wide swathe of the history of medicine and science from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, with a loose focus on the theme of reform in many guises. The quality is generally very high, and most of the pieces deserve to be widely read; several, particularly Clericuzio, Feingold and Lewis, should be standard items for reading lists. The first ten chapters explore aspects of early modern medicine and science. Howard Hotson discusses ideas of reform and education in Alsted and Comenius, showing the theological heterodoxy of their concept of restoration. Penelope Gouk seeks to explain music's place in Paracelsian medical thought, arguing that it was integrated, despite Paracelsus's own neglect of the subject, as part of the process of redefining his ideas into a form compatible with humanist and courtly traditions. Lauren Kassell extends her work on Forman to Lilly and Ashmole, to explore some of the paths of transmission of magical objects and knowledge in the seventeenth century and the transformations in value they underwent in the process.

Margaret Pelling and Scott Mandelbrote (eds), The practice of reform in health, medicine, and science, 1500–2000: essays for Charles Webster, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2005, pp. xv, 376 (hardback 0-7546-3933-9).

Published thirty years after The great instauration, Charles Webster's groundbreaking study of the seventeenth-century political and scientific revolution, The practice of reform is a tribute to Webster from his colleagues, former students and professional historians whom he has influenced and guided. Drawing their inspiration from the questions Webster's body of work has raised, the eighteen authors examine the effects that demands for social, political and religious reform had on medical and scientific theory and practice, and on the structure of healthcare. Following the main thrust of Webster's research, the volume spans the Renaissance to the present, although it is the early modern period and the twentieth century that dominate. Margaret Pelling's detailed essay on medical practitioners and office holding is the only chapter that straddles both periods in its examination of how medical practitioners were marginalized from the normal structures of male authority at a local, regional and national level. Other essays equally point to the importance of national, regional and local contexts or, as in the case of Linda Bryder in her comparative assessment of infant welfare services in New Zealand and England, Stefano Villani in his essay on the battle between innovators and conservatives in seventeenth-century Italy, and Anne Marie Rafferty in her essay on the Colonial Nursing Association (CNA), to international contexts and the exchange of knowledge.

The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500-2000 (review)

Reviewed by: The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500-2000 R. A. Houston The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500-2000. Edited by Margaret Pelling and Scott Mandelbrote. Pp. xv, 392. 2 b&w illustrations. ISBN 0 7546 3933 9. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2005. £55. This long and heterogeneous collection is a festschrift for Charles Webster. Most of the chapters are about England (except for one each on France, Italy and New Zealand); only two bear directly on Scotland, one being an incisive study in intellectual history by Colin Kidd (about racialism in the Scottish Enlightenment) and the other a useful piece by John Stewart on the Welfare State and Scottish hospital planning, though other chapters contain a British dimension (notably chapter 5 by Pelling and chapter 17 by Jane Lewis on the regulation of the medical profession). As an edited collection it works better than most. All the contributions deal with debates that Webster either initiated or contributed to, the volume's chronological span (two-thirds of the eighteen contributions cover the early modern period, one third the twentieth-century) a testament to his own remarkable range over a long and varied career in the history of medicine. The main theme that unites the volume is that scientific and medical developments cannot be understood outside their social and political context, an idea that Webster developed in The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform, 1626-1660 (1975) and continued into his later work on the National Health Service. Contributors engage more or less explicitly with Webster's vision and this lends coherence to the volume. The first chapter, by Howard Hotson, borrows from Webster's title and is perhaps the closest to his approach. However, the reader is won over to the mission more by the high quality of most of the contributions than by any adherence to form, the early modern offerings being especially praiseworthy. All offer very detailed analyses that lean towards the history of science and of ideas rather than the social history of medicine (as conventionally understood, rather than as defined at p. xi), which is, however, better served by the twentieth-century chapters. Most chapters are about policy makers and providers of, or thinkers about, care rather than about patients. Thus Pelling's chapter on 'Politics, medicine, and masculinity' is more about men than masculinity as it is understood by gender historians. Feingold's piece on the origins of the Royal Society is also a traditional approach that analyses the importance of clubs and associations. Lauren Kassell's apparently broad 'Economy of magic in early modern England' is in fact a fascinating case study of the astrologer Lilly's understanding of sigils (amulets 'in the form of a metal seal depicting images or words'), which bears on the social economy of magic in seventeenth-century England. Apparently curious contributions such as Penelope Gouk's on the way music helped to facilitate the reception of Paracelsian ideas also manage to fit into the scheme. The importance of political considerations to scientific and policy change is shown in most chapters, notably Pietro Corsi's on language and science in the Revolutionary/Napoleonic period in France. Religion too is an important component of the early modern chapters, for example in Jonathan Barry's revisiting of Bristol Puritanism. The twentieth-century chapters are all by significant figures in medical history and are again of good quality. However, without a work of the stature of The Great Instauration to act as a guide, they are less focused, reflecting the disparate interests shown in Webster's other main work, The Health Services since the War (1988; 1996). Chapters 13 to 16 deal with provision of healthcare and the final chapter by Virginia Berridge is on the early history of anti-tobacco activism in Britain. The editorial touch is light. There is no introduction, but a notably [End Page 368] personal four-page preface. Nor is there a conclusion and the volume ends with a selection of Charles Webster's prodigious output from 1963 to 2002. The length of contributions varies considerably, from Anne Marie Rafferty's eleven page offering on the international recruitment of nurses to...

Alison Bashford and Claire Hooker (eds), Contagion: historical and cultural studies, Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine, London and New York, Routledge, 2001, pp. xiii, 240, illus., £55.00 (hardback 0-415-24671-7).

Alison Bashford and Claire Hooker (eds), Contagion: historical and cultural studies, Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine, London and New York, Routledge, 2001, pp. xiii, 240, illus., £55.00 (hardback 0-415-24671-7). - Volume 49 Issue 1

Review: Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London: Patronage, Physicians, and Irregular Practitioners, 1550-1640

1Department of History, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London: Patronage, Physicians, and Irregular Practitioners, 1550–1640 Margaret Pelling (with Frances White) Oxford Oxford University Press 2003 xvi, 410 $ 95

Alexandra Shepard and Phil Withington, eds. Communities in Early Modern England-Networks, Place, Rhetoric. (Politics, Culture, and Society in Early Modern Britain.) Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press; dist. by Palgrave, New York, N.Y. 2000. Pp. xii, 276. $36.00 paper. ISBN 0-7190-5477-X.

Alexandra Shepard and Phil Withington, eds. Communities in Early Modern England-Networks, Place, Rhetoric. (Politics, Culture, and Society in Early Modern Britain.) Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press; dist. by Palgrave, New York, N.Y. 2000. Pp. xii, 276. $36.00 paper. ISBN 0-7190-5477-X. - Volume 34 Issue 4

Margaret Pelling, The common lot: sickness, medical occupations and the urban poor in early modern England, Harlow, Addison Wesley Longman, 1998, pp. xiv, 270, £42.00 (hardback 0-582-23183-3); £14.99 (paperback 0-582-23182-5).

Margaret Pelling, The common lot: sickness, medical occupations and the urban poor in early modern England, Harlow, Addison Wesley Longman, 1998, pp. xiv, 270, £42.00 (hardback 0-582-23183-3); £14.99 (paperback 0-582-23182-5).

:Widowhood in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. Part One: Defining Widowhood. 1. Introduction - Sandra Cavallo/Lyndan Warner. 2. Men, women, and widows: some implications of the terminology of widowhood in pre-Conquest England - Julia Crick. 3. Finding widowers: men without women in English towns before 1700 - Margaret Pelling. Part Two: Models and Paradoxes. 4. The widow's options in medieval southern Italy Patricia Skinner 5. The virtuous widow in Protestant England - Barbara Todd. 6. Widows, widowers and the problem of 'second marriages' in sixteenth-century France - Lyndan Warner. 7. Marrying the experienced widow in early modern England: the male perspective - Elizabeth Foyster. Part Three: Marital and Family Constraints. 8. Lineage strategies and the control of widows in Renaissance Florence - Isabelle Chabot. 9. Property and widowhood in England 1660-1840 - Amy Louise Erickson. 10. Religious difference and the experience of widowhood in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Germany - Dagmar Freist. Part Four: Self-constructions in Legal, Religious and Institutional Narratives. 11. Widowhood and religious expression in early modern Spain: the view from Avila - Jodi Bilinkoff. 12. Widows at law in Tudor and Stuart England - Tim Stretton. 13. Widows, the state and the custody of children in early modern Tuscany - Giulia Calvi. 14. Survival strategies and stories: poor widows and widowers in early industrial England - Pam Sharpe. Suggestions for reading on widowhood. Notes on contibutors. Index.

Margaret Pelling, The Common Lot. Sickness, Medical Occupations and the Urban Poor in Early Modern England. London: Longman, 1998. xiv + 270pp. 4 figures. 7 tables. £14.99 pbk; £42.00 hbk.

Margaret Pelling, <i>The Common Lot. Sickness, Medical Occupations and the Urban Poor in Early Modern England</i>. London: Longman, 1998. xiv + 270pp. 4 figures. 7 tables. £14.99 pbk; £42.00 hbk.

Book Reviews

Gender & HistoryVolume 12, Issue 1 p. 242-278 Book Reviews First published: 28 June 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.00181AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Books reviewed: Tjitske Akkerman and Siep Stuurman (eds), Perspectives on Feminist Political Thought in European History from the Middle Ages to the Present Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford, Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720 Lilian R. Furst (ed.), Women Healers and Physicians: Climbing a Long Hill Hilary Marland and Margaret Pelling (eds), The Task of Healing: Medicine, Religion and Gender in England and the Netherlands, 1450–1800 Lynette Hunter and Sarah Hutton (eds), Women, Science and Medicine 1500–1700: Mothers and Sisters of the Royal Society Brean S. Hammond, Professional Imaginative Writing in England, 1670–1740: ‘Hackney for Bread’ Paula McDowell, The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678–1730 Randolph Trumbach, Sex and the Gender Revolution, vol. 1, Heterosexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London Gwenda Morgan and Peter Rushton, Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law: The Problem of Law Enforcement in North-East England 1718–1800 Ulla Wikander, Von der Magd zur Angestellten: Macht, Geschlecht und Arbeitsteilung 1789–1950 Hilda Kean, Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain Since 1800 Shani D'Cruze, Crimes of Outrage: Sex, Violence and Victorian Working Women Elizabeth A. Wood, The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia Barbara Alpern Engel and Anastasia Posadskaya-Vanderbeck (eds), A Revolution of Their Own: Voices of Women in Soviet History Krassimira Daskalova (ed.), From the Shadow of History: Women in Bulgarian Society and Culture Sabrina P. Ramet (ed.), Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States Miriam B. Peskowitz, Spinning Fantasies: Rabbis, Gender, and History Miriam B. Peskowitz and Laura Levitt (eds), Judaism Since Gender Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896–1920 Consuelo Lopez Springfield (ed.), Daughters of Caliban: Caribbean Women in the Twentieth Century Paula L. Aymer, Uprooted Women: Migrant Domestics in the Caribbean Belinda Edmondson, Making Men: Gender, Literary Authority and Women's Writing in Caribbean Narrative Alison Bashford, Purity and Pollution: Gender, Embodiment and Victorian Medicine Diana Gittins, Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913–1997 Rosemary Pringle, Sex and Medicine: Gender, Power and Authority in the Medical Profession Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds), The Oral History Reader Mary Chamberlain and Paul Thompson (eds), Narrative and Genre Volume12, Issue1April 2000Pages 242-278 RelatedInformation

Margaret Pelling. The Common Lot: Sickness, Medical Occupations and the Urban Poor in Early Modern England. New York: Longman. 1998. Pp. xiv, 270. $14.99. ISBN 0-582-23182-5.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Early Modern

The Task of Healing: Medicine, Religion and Gender in England and the Netherlands, 1450–1800. Edited by Hilary Marland and Margaret Pelling Clandestine Marriage in England, 1500–1850. By R. B. Outhwaite Tudor Government: Structures of Authority in the Sixteenth Century. By David Loades Wales and the Reformation. By Glanmor Williams Reformation and Society in Guernsey. By D. M. Ogier Medicine and the Reformation. Edited by Ole Peter Grell and Andrew Cunningham Scottish Education since the Reformation. By R. D. Anderson Civic Agendas and Religious Passion: Châlons‐sur‐Marne during the French Wars of Religion, 1560–1594. By Mark W. Konnert The Town Finances of Elizabethan Ipswich: Select Treasurers' and Chamberlains' Accounts. Edited by John Webb Conforming to the Word: Herbert, Donne, and the English Church before Laud. By Daniel Doerksen Italy in the Seventeenth Century. By Domenico Sella Ethics and Politics in Seventeenth Century France: Essays in Honour of Derek A. Watts. Edited by Keith Cameron and Elizabeth Woodrough The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe, 1618–1648. By Ronald G. Asch Charles I. By Michael B. Young The Rise of Brandenburg Prussia. By Margaret Shennan The English Civil War. Edited by Richard Cust and Ann Hughes Popular Politics and Religion in Civil War London. By Keith Lindley Faction and Faith: Politics and Religion of the Cornish Gentry before the Civil War. By Anne Duffin Inventing a Republic: The Political Culture of the English Commonwealth, 1649–1653. By Sean Kelsey Violence and Religion: Attitudes towards Militancy in the French Civil Wars and the English Revolution. By Judy Sproxton John Locke. By W. M. Spellman Citizens without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670–1789. By Daniel Gordon The English Print 1688–1802. By Timothy Clayton The Long Eighteenth Century: British Political and Social History 1688–1832. By Frank O'Gorman Benjamin Collins and the Provincial Newspaper Trade in the Eighteenth Century. By C. Y. Ferdinand The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, Volume III: Party, Parliament, and the American War 1774–1780. Edited by W. M. Elofson and John A. Woods The Abolition of Feudalism: Peasants, Lords and Legislators in the French Revolution. By John Markoff Bolingbroke: Political Writings. Edited by David Armitage

Hilary Marland and Margaret Pelling (eds), The Task of Healing: Medicine, Religion and Gender in England and the Netherlands 1450–1800. Rotterdam: Erasmus Publishing, 1996. 371pp. 3 figures. 7 tables. 29 illustrations. No price stated.

Hilary Marland and Margaret Pelling (eds), The Task of Healing: Medicine, Religion and Gender in England and the Netherlands 1450–1800. Rotterdam: Erasmus Publishing, 1996. 371pp. 3 figures. 7 tables. 29 illustrations. No price stated.

Western medicine: an illustrated history

I From the hippocratic corpus to twentieth-century medicine: Martin Kemp, Medicine in View - Art and Visual Representation James Longrigg, Medicine in the Classical World Emilie Savage-Smith, Europe and Islam Michael McVaugh, Medicine in the Middle Ages c.500-1350 Katherine Park, Medicine and the Renaissance Harold Cook, From the Scientific Revolution to Germ Theory E.M. Tansey, From Germ Theory to 1945 Stephen Lock, From 1950 to the Present. II Medicine in context: Lisa Rosner, The Growth of Medical Education and the Medical Profession Ulrich Trohler, Cay-Rudiger Prull, The Rise of the Modern Hospital Mary Dobson, Epidemics and the Geography of Disease Anne Summers, Nurses and Ancilliaries in the Christian Era Irvine Loudon, Childbirth J.A. Walker-Smith, Children in Hospital 1850-1990 Michael Neve, Medicine and the Mind Michael Worboys, The Spread of Western Medicine Margaret Pelling, Unofficial and Unorthodox Medicine Jane Lewis, Medicine, Politics, and the State Anne Digby, The Patient's View.

John Snow, Anaesthetist to a Queen and Epidemiologist to a Nation: A Biography (review)

Reviewed by: John Snow, Anaesthetist to a Queen and Epidemiologist to a Nation: A Biography John M. Eyler David A. E. Shephard. John Snow, Anaesthetist to a Queen and Epidemiologist to a Nation: A Biography. Cornwall, Prince Edward Island, Canada: York Point Publishing, 1995. 373 pp. Ill. $24.00 (paperbound). Although this biography was not written to demonstrate how men without fortune or connection could rise to prominence in the Victorian medical profession, the career of its subject illustrates the channels for social and professional mobility that British historians such as Jeanne Peterson have described. John Snow, one of eight children of a Yorkshire carter turned farmer, exploited the multiple paths to medical training available in his age, first in the provinces and then in London—obtaining his M.R.C.S. and L.S.A. in 1837, his M.B. and B.S. in 1843, his M.D. in 1844, and at the age of thirty-seven becoming L.R.C.P. in 1850. Snow established his reputation within the profession by active participation in local medical societies and by frequent contributions to the medical press. Finally, while he maintained a general practice until his death, his professional success depended on his early adoption of and leadership in a new form of practice, the administration of anesthetics. When he died at the age of forty-five, he was a leader of his profession with a thriving specialty practice that included [End Page 716] attendance on the Queen, and past offices in some of London’s most important medical societies. But it is Snow’s contributions to anesthesiology and epidemiology that are remembered today, and it is those that this biography emphasizes. The first three chapters describe his early life, education, and general practice. There follow two chapters on his work with ether and chloroform and two more on his investigations of the transmission of cholera. Relying on Snow’s three surviving casebooks and on his clinical papers, the author provides an informative discussion of Snow’s general practice. An anesthesiologist himself, David Shephard is at his best describing Snow’s investigations and use of ether and chloroform. Snow was among the first British practitioners to adopt these two agents, but what set him apart were the careful experiments (using both animals and himself as subjects) that he undertook in order to determine their effects and mode of action, to relate the depth of anesthesia to the physical signs observable in patients, and to design inhalers that would permit him to administer these agents predictably and safely. Shephard explains the problems Snow faced, the research he undertook, and the clinical significance of that research. I know of no better discussion of this topic. There has been much historical analysis of the cholera debates, and Shepard’s handling of this aspect of Snow’s career is less distinguished. He does offer a fair and quite complete reading of Snow’s publications on cholera, but his discussion of their significance suffers in comparison to that of others such as Margaret Pelling. Shephard tries to draw too sharp a dichotomy between the strict contagionists like Snow and the rest of the medical profession. He also is preoccupied by the problem of trying to explain why it was Snow and not someone else who got the right answer. A second disappointment with this book is its final two chapters, one dealing with Snow’s publications and the second with Snow as “the compleat physician.” These are highly repetitive, both of themselves and of earlier chapters. What new insights they offer could easily have been incorporated into the earlier chapters; the result would have been a shorter and more focused account. These two reservations aside, this book has a good deal to offer. The picture it provides of general practice in Victorian London and its discussion of Snow and anesthesia are especially recommended. John M. Eyler University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Copyright © 1997 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Hilary Marland, Margaret Pelling (eds), The task ofhealing: medicine, religion and gender in England and the Netherlands, 1450–1800, Rotterdam, Erasmus Publishing, 1996, pp. 317, illus., Hlf. 84.50 (90-5235-096-5).

Hilary Marland, Margaret Pelling (eds), The task ofhealing: medicine, religion and gender in England and the Netherlands, 1450–1800, Rotterdam, Erasmus Publishing, 1996, pp. 317, illus., Hlf. 84.50 (90-5235-096-5). - Volume 41 Issue 2

Apprenticeship, Health and Social Cohesion in Early Modern London

Journal Article Apprenticeship, Health and Social Cohesion in Early Modern London Get access Margaret Pelling Margaret Pelling Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar History Workshop Journal, Volume 37, Issue 1, SPRING 1994, Pages 33–56, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/37.1.33 Published: 01 March 1994

Margaret Pelling and Richard M. Smith (eds), Life, death, and the elderly: historical perspectives, Studies in the Social History of Medicine, London and New York, Routledge, 1991, pp. xvi, 252, £45.00 (0-415-05742-6).

Margaret Pelling and Richard M. Smith (eds), Life, death, and the elderly: historical perspectives, Studies in the Social History of Medicine, London and New York, Routledge, 1991, pp. xvi, 252, £45.00 (0-415-05742-6). - Volume 36 Issue 4