Medicine Before Science: The Business of Medicine from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

This book is an introduction to the history of university-trained physicians from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. While considered elite (in reputation and rewards) and successful, we know little of their clinical effectiveness. To modern eyes their theory and practice often seems bizarre. But historical evidence reveals that they were judged on other criteria, and this book asserts that these physicians helped to construct and meet the expectations of society.