A narrative history of Western European medical progress, the sources being 18th Century books for the most part (in German, French, and English; no footnotes but a good index). There is considerable discussion of the contributions of prominent surgeons, botanists, chemists, military surgeons, physiologists, etc. and of both hospitals and lying in hospitals. There was less specialization in the 18th Century. The foundations of public health are discernible in the chapters on the Time of the Reign of Terror, typhoid fever, and smallpox. Jenner tested innoculation using swine-pox matter on his own son and later repeated the innoculation to see if serious inflamation would result.

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