The Germ of an Idea: Contagionism, Religion, and Society in Britain, 1660-1730

Author:   Margaret DeLacy
Publisher:   Palgrave Macmillan
Edition:   1st ed. 2016
ISBN:  

9781349575589


Pages:   305
Publication Date:   16 February 2016
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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The Germ of an Idea: Contagionism, Religion, and Society in Britain, 1660-1730


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Overview

Contagionism is an old idea, but gained new life in Restoration Britain.  The Germ of an Idea considers British contagionism in its religious, social, political and professional context from the Great Plague of London to the adoption of smallpox inoculation. It shows how ideas about contagion changed medicine and the understanding of acute diseases.

Full Product Details

Author:   Margaret DeLacy
Publisher:   Palgrave Macmillan
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
Edition:   1st ed. 2016
Weight:   0.504kg
ISBN:  

9781349575589


ISBN 10:   1349575585
Pages:   305
Publication Date:   16 February 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Preface 1. Introduction: Medical Theory In Early Modern Europe 2. Restoration Medicine And The Dissenters 3. Populist Writing On Diseases In The Late Seventeenth Century 4. The Search For Middle Ground: Disease Theory As Natural History 5. Animalcules And Animals 6. English Contagionism And Hans Sloane's Circle 7. An English Treatise On Living Contagion: Benjamin Marten's New Theory Of Consumptions, 1720 8. Smallpox Inoculation And The Royal Society, 1700-1723 9. Contagion And Plague In The Eighteenth Century Conclusion

Reviews

The book is a serious contribution to the study of Cartesian physiology in the seventeenth century and beyond. ... it certainly contains essential reading for scholars of Cartesianism. (Klaas van Berkel, ISIS, Vol. 109 (1), March, 2018) This review cannot do justice to the incredible level of detail displayed in this book ... It provides scholars of the history of early modern medicine and science, and of cultural and social history, with an excellent insight into London in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and in doing so draws our attention to the nexus linking religious and political beliefs, on the one hand, with medical ideas, on the other. (Sietske Fransen, ISIS, Vol. 108 (4), December, 2017) The Germ of an Idea provides a useful account, based on exhaustive research, of a fascinating moment in British medical history. Most striking is DeLaey's demonstration of how social and political factors underwrote both the articulation of contagionist theories and the opposition to them. (John Waller, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, October, 2017) Overall DeLacy accomplishes an amazingly comprehensive and succinct survey in fewer than two hundred pages. (Ann G. Carmichael, American Historical Review, Vol. 122 (3), June, 2017) Margaret DeLacy has been studying the early roots of contagion theory for many years and has now produced the most important book on the topic to appear for quite some time. (Kevin Siena, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 91 (2), 2017) The book's importance to historians of this era and medical historians especially is self-evident, because it occupies a lacuna in the scholarship. ... Although this book is written for scholarly audiences and densely packed, it is clear and accessible to general readers with avid interest in medical history. For Health Humanities professionals, this book underscores-with a twist-one of the primary lessons we hope to teach our medical students. (Sandra G. Weems, MedHum Daily Dose, medhumdailydose.com, June, 2016)


Author Information

Margaret DeLacy is an independent scholar. She received her Ph.D. in British history from Princeton University, USA. She is the author of Prison Reform in Lancashire, 1700-1850: A Study in County Administration and several articles on British medical history.

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