Ancient and modern knowledge in medical technologies
The Galenic tradition and responses to alternative medicine and new technology in
seventeenth century England
Lisa Jarman (Exeter, Centre for Medical History)
During the seventeenth century, the theory of the four humours provided the fundamental
theoretical framework through which the body and its workings were understood. The
Galenic origins of the theory were evident throughout the medical literature of this period,
and whilst other ancient authorities were significant, it is often Galen that appears at the
forefront.
Although ancient authority remained important throughout the seventeenth century,
challenges to traditional medical theory began to arise. This paper will look at the way in
which new theories could be incorporated into existing medical knowledge and the role of
the authority of different practitioners in this process. More specifically, it will examine the
response of Galenically trained practitioners to alternative theories of the body during this
period.
The paper will also explore the role of technology in changing theories and approaches to
the body. Technology affected both the types of affliction that practitioners were required
to address, as well as the way in which they approached ailments. For example, gunshot
wounds presented a new type of injury that needed to be treated, whilst new
pharmacological substances offered different treatments, not known to the ancients.
Technology also provided a greater insight into the body and its workings, allowing further
scope for criticism of ancient theories and practice.
Practical Resource or Social Currency? Manuscript Medical Recipes in Eighteenth-Century
England
Sally Osborn (Roehampton University)
Developments in mainstream medicine across the so-called scientific revolution and
Enlightenment led to greater numbers of physicians and apothecaries and to the widespread
availability of patent medicines. While many collections of household medical recipes from
this time have survived in manuscript form, it is often difficult to tell how much these were
really used, or whether they were being replaced by proprietary remedies and ready-made
ingredients.
This paper will report on an ongoing research project into the ingredients and methods in
and the usage of manuscript medical recipes, and how this changed over the course of the
eighteenth century. Based on evidence from the recipes themselves and from contemporary
letters and diaries, it will consider who collected such recipes, how and why, and what this
tells us about the role of domestic healthcare in the context of growing professionalisation.
It will address issues such as the use of recipes as a form of ‘social currency’, whether
proprietary medicines had an impact on the content of home remedies and vice versa, and
how domestic medical practices were shaped by changing notions of the domestic and
gendered behaviour within the household.
Sally Osborn is a PhD student at Roehampton University, researching the history and social
context of 18th-century manuscript medical recipes. She has an MA in Historical Research
from Roehampton and a BA in Humanities from the Open University. She also runs her own
business as a book editor and typesetter.
Secret Abortifacients? Treatments for Provoking the Menses in Early Modern Medical
Texts
Michelle Payne (Sussex)
In the early modern medical texts that deal with women’s physiological functions there is a
preoccupation with provoking menstruation. Good menstruation was seen to purge the
woman of excess humours and help her fluids flow freely through her body. Amenorrhea
was seen as potentially hazardous. If a woman did not menstruate properly then she was
susceptible to a range of symptoms that included pains in her head which could carry
towards her eyes, neck, shoulders and joints. She was vulnerable to dizziness, trembling, her
urine turning black or reddish, and a loathing of her meat. Ill humours would be kept in her
body, creating more ailments, and the unshed blood in her womb might turn into an
abnormal growth. Equally the blood might run back into her brain, causing her to become
overheated and troubled with melancholy which might even lead to suicide. Similarly she
could suffer from green sickness or suffocation of the mother. It is no wonder then that
medical practitioners wrote extensively on remedies for provoking the menses.
But is there something else going on here? In this paper I argue that many of the remedies
for provoking the menses were in fact disguised terminology for procuring an abortion. John
Riddle and Angus McClaren have shown how in the Ancient World, the knowledge of plants
and herbs to provoke abortion were freely available. Aristotle argued for termination to be
induced before sense and life had begun in the embryo, to limit the size of a family, whilst
Plato called for all women over the age of forty to have abortions as a matter of state policy.
Galen, Dioscorides and Soranus all wrote about herbs and suppositories to induce abortion.
In the later Middle Ages the Church officially detested and prohibited the practice, following
the teachings of Thomas Aquinas who taught that all life began at conception. Therefore
medical writers would have to be circumspect when putting into print treatments for
amenorrhoea that might deliberately or inadvertently lead to termination of pregnancy.
Recent work has shown that a substantial number of remedies for menstrual problems had
well known abortifacient properties. In this paper I claim that remedies for abortion were
readily available in the medical texts if one knew how to read between the lines. I argue
that there is a compelling case to be made that the wisdom of the ancients was not lost to
the early modern medical writers. Physicians and midwives had a vast pharmacopeia to deal
with unwanted pregnancies, written under the guise of provoking the menses.