Lotions, potions, pills, and magic : health care in early America / Elaine Breslaw.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Breslaw, Elaine G., 1932-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medicine--United States--History--18th century.

Medicine.

Medicine--United States--History--19th century.

Medical care--United States--History--18th century.

Medical care.

Medical care--United States--History--19th century.

Physicians--United States--History--18th century.

Physicians.

Physicians--United States--History--19th century.

Public health--United States--History--18th century.

Public health.

Public health--United States--History--19th century.

United States--Social conditions--To 1865.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (252 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Health in early America was generally good. The food was plentiful, the air and water were clean, and people tended to enjoy strong constitutions as a result of this environment. Practitioners of traditional forms of health care enjoyed high social status, and the cures they offered—from purging to mere palliatives—carried a powerful authority. Consequently, most American doctors felt little need to keep up with Europe’s medical advances relying heavily on their traditional depletion methods. However, in the years following the American Revolution as poverty increased and America’s water and air became more polluted, people grew sicker. Traditional medicine became increasingly ineffective. Instead, Americans sought out both older and newer forms of alternative medicine and people who embraced these methods: midwives, folk healers, Native American shamans, African obeahs and the new botanical and water cure advocates.In this overview of health and healing in early America, Elaine G. Breslaw describes the evolution of public health crises and solutions. Breslaw examines “ethnic borrowings” (of both disease and treatment) of early American medicine and the tension between trained doctors and the lay public. While orthodox medicine never fully lost its authority, Lotions, Potions, Pills, and Magic argues that their ascendance over other healers didn’t begin until the early twentieth century, as germ theory finally migrated from Europe to the United States and American medical education achieved professional standing.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Columbian Exchange

2. Epidemics

3. Tools of the Trade

4. Abundance

5. Wartime

6. New Nation

7. Giving Birth

8. The Face of Madness

9. Democratic Medicine

10. Public Health

Conclusion

Epilogue

Abbreviations

Bibliographic Essay

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jun 2020)

ISBN:

0-8147-3938-5

OCLC:

813286346