Social History of Medicine - Advance Access

The Secret Vice: Masturbation in Victorian Fiction and Medical Culture

Downing, L. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:47:51 PST

The Ottoman Army 1914-1918: Disease and Death on the Battlefield

Harrison, M. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:50:25 PST

Medical Refugees and the Modernisation of British Medicine, 1930-1960

Weindling, P. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:50:24 PST

This paper reappraises the position of medical refugees in Britain between the 1930s and 1950s. Advocates of reforming British medicine in terms of its knowledge base and social provision emerged as strongly supportive of the medical refugees. By way of contrast, an élite in the British Medical Association attempted to exercise a controlling regime through the Home Office Advisory Committee. The effects of these divisions are gauged by reconstructing the complete spectrum of refugees as a total population. Applying this methodology of population reconstruction provides a corrective to the notion of a cohesive ‘medical establishment’ exercising rigid and discriminatory controls.

Discovery and Management of Adverse Drug Reactions: The Nomifensine Hypersensitivity Syndrome, 1977-1986

Abraham, J., Davis, C. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:50:23 PST

Taking the antidepressant, nomifensine, this article focuses on the discovery and management of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) manifested in doctors' spontaneous post-marketing reports. Company-friendly experts, free-lancer research scientists, public servant physicians and regulatory scientists are shown to have made distinct contributions to ADR discovery. However, institutional and international fragmentation delayed synthesis of ADR reports into unambiguous discovery. Qualitative and quantitative interpretative standards of what counted as ADR discovery affected regulatory warning systems and decisions about when to withdraw a drug from the market. The timing and definition of an ADR as ‘irreversible’ or ‘rare’ was, in part, a function of the uncertainty and estimation criteria chosen by the party managing the discovery. UK regulators accepted relatively low levels of uncertainty, so the timing of discovery, warnings and regulatory action was relatively late, but US regulators chose higher thresholds of uncertainty about discovery when interpreting the need to warn of suspected serious ADRs. The implications of these practices for the founding ideals of a post-marketing ‘early warning system’ are considered.

The Quest for Public Health in Manchester: The Industrial City, the NHS and the Recent History

Rivett, G. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:46 PST

Their Footprints Remain: Biomedical Beginnings Across the Indo-Tibetan Frontier

Craig, S. R. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:44 PST

Brulures Profondes: Recit de Vie de Deux Grands Brules

Taylor, T. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:44 PST

Medical Lives in the Age of Surgical Revolution

Wall, R. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:44 PST

Happy Pills in America: From Miltown to Prozac

Healy, D. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:43 PST

Kinderen van hun Tijd: Zestig Jaar Kinder-en Jeugdpsychiatrie in Nederland, 1948-2008

Pols, H. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:43 PST

Cult of the Will: Nervousness and German Modernity

Lerner, P. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:42 PST

Artisans of the Body in Early Modern Italy: Identities, Families and Masculinities

Park, K. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:42 PST

A Surgeon in the Army of the Potomac

Allard, J. R. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:41 PST

British Military and Naval Medicine, 1600-1830

Charters, E. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:25:33 PST

War and Disease, Biomedical Research on Malaria in the Twentieth Century

Neushul, P. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:41 PST

Shattered Anzacs: Living with the Scars of War

Blackmore, K. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:40 PST

Childhood Sexuality, Normalization and the Social Hygiene Movement in the Anglophone West, 1900-1935

Egan, R. D., Hawkes, G. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:40 PST

Analysing primary materials from the USA, England and Australia, this paper explores the discursive production of childhood sexuality within the social hygiene movement. Attempts to shape and tame ‘the native capacities’ of impoverished children into socially acceptable, monogamous heterosexuals functioned as a central tenet of sexual hygiene reform. Habituation provided the pedagogical entry point for hygiene's normalising project. The paper concludes that the body of the child functioned as the rationale through which the proliferation of the increasing management of both the individual and the population was rendered credible within sexual hygiene narratives.

Psychosurgery, Industry and Personal Responsibility, 1940-1965

Raz, M. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:25:32 PST

Between 1935 and 1965, tens of thousands of lobotomies were performed in the United States in an attempt to alleviate psychiatric disorders. This article focuses on the role that employment and the capacity to work played in framing the results of lobotomy in a positive light. It argues that employment status was a key factor in evaluating patients' post-operative condition, and in determining the success of the operation. The article focuses on the publications and archive papers of Walter Freeman, the physician responsible for the widespread endorsement of lobotomy in the United States. The preoccupation of physicians and patients with the capacity to work, and the emphasis on productivity, industry and personal responsibility, were contributing factors to the success of lobotomy in the US. It is argued that the somatic intervention of lobotomy was based on, and reaffirmed, a social approach to mental illness.

European Refugee Physicians in Scotland, 1933-1945

Collins, K. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:38 PST

In the years following the Nazi seizure of power, several hundred refugee physicians, almost exclusively Jewish from Central Europe, obtained medical qualifications in Scotland. The study programmes, mainly in the extra-mural medical schools in Glasgow and Edinburgh, gave them access to the examinations of the Triple Qualification Board of the Scottish Royal Colleges of Medicine and Surgery which provided a licence to practise medicine in Britain. Many refugee psychiatrists, whose speciality was less well developed in Britain, began their new careers in Scotland, finding the atmosphere congenial despite the contemporary hardships of dislocation, anti-alien agitation and internment.

'The Most Important Problem in the Hospital': Nursing in the Development of the Intensive Care Unit, 1950-1965

Bulander, R. E. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:25:32 PST

Modern intensive care units (ICUs) have been described as unique spheres within the hospital environment, where advanced technology and specialised medical practice intersect in the care of physiologically unstable patients. Early ICUs in the United States, however, were a far more modest phenomenon. Faced with a mismatch of available nursing labour to growing demand for hospital services, hospital administrators in the 1950s seized upon the idea of the ICU as a means of concentrating the sickest patients in an area where they could be efficiently managed by a trained corps of specialist nurses. This article addresses the planning, staffing, and construction of ICUs in the United States during the 1950s.

What's Wrong with Early Medieval Medicine?

Horden, P. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:25:31 PST

The medical writings of early medieval western Europe c. 700 – c. 1000 have often been derided for their disorganised appearance, poor Latin, nebulous conceptual framework, admixtures of magic and folklore, and general lack of those positive features that historians attribute to ancient or later medieval medicine. This paper attempts to rescue the period from its negative image. It examines a number of superficially bizarre writings so as to place them in an intellectual and sociological context, and to suggest that the presumed contrast between them and their ancient and later medieval counterparts has been wrongly drawn.

Discovering 'The Secrets of Long and Healthy Life': John Dudgeon on Chinese Hygiene

Li, S.-J. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:16:37 PST

John Dudgeon, a Scottish physician practising medicine in China in the second half of the nineteenth century, wrote extensively on the diet, dress, housing and social customs of the Chinese and their implications for health. While Dudgeon's contemporaries were highly critical of Chinese sanitary conditions and personal hygiene, he argued that China's lifestyle and urban conditions were superior to those in Europe. Dudgeon's observations in China, combined with his views on deteriorating economic conditions and heightened social tensions in Scotland, resulted in his critical reflections on British metropolitan culture and lifestyle. His admiration of Chinese hygiene and his conception of the diseases of civilisation were closely connected to his nostalgic vision of a paternalistic society. It is the contention of this paper that Dudgeon's eccentric medical ideas manifested the interplay between metropolitan medical theories and the overseas experiences of a British physician in China.

Professional Identity across the Borders: Refugee Psychiatrists in Palestine, 1933-1945

Zalashik, R., Davidovitch, N. — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:48:18 PST

The article explores and contextualises the arrival of Jewish psychiatrists from Germany and Austria in Palestine and their absorption process during the 1930s and 1940s. We investigate the interaction between the refugees and a varied local population composed of Jews from different origins, Arabs and immigrants. We claim that the case of psychiatrist refugees from Europe in the 1930s was unique in comparison to the migration of Jewish psychiatrists to other countries and in comparison to the immigration of other medical professionals to Palestine during the period. The lack of a psychiatric community in Palestine before their arrival determined the nature of their unique absorption. It also created a special psychiatric discourse based on a mixture of the German medical model and the reality of the Jewish Zionist settlement that forged new perceptions of both mental health and Zionism.

The Anschluss and the Problem of Refugee Stomatologists

Zamet, J. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:32:20 PDT

Summary Some 360 Viennese stomatologists applied to the General Medical Council to be placed on the Dental Register to practise in Britain. Their dental training was different to that in Britain and the majority were denied by the 1878 Dental Act. This article examines the dilapidated state of British dental health and dentistry during the 1930s, when it functioned as a ‘cottage industry’, and compares this situation with the philosophy and dental training at the University of Vienna. Only 41 were allowed to stay and re-qualify over a six-month period and were then allowed to practise. Many of those rejected by the General Medical Council, despite their excellent training, probably died during the Holocaust.

At the Heart of Healing: Groote Schuur Hospital 1938-2008

Sweet, H. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:32:19 PDT

Shifting Boundaries of Public Health: Europe in the Twentieth Century

Hardy, A. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:32:19 PDT

Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine

Lederer, S. E. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:32:19 PDT

Mortal Coil: A Short History of Living Longer

Thane, P. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:32:18 PDT

Fatal Thirst: Diabetes in Britain until Insulin

Curth, L. H. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:32:18 PDT

The Making of Mr Gray's Anatomy

Lawrence, C. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:32:17 PDT

The Impact of Germanic Refugees on Twentieth-Century British Psychiatry

Shepherd, M. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:51:02 PDT

This paper examines the reception accorded to refugee psychiatrists in the United Kingdom. It evaluates the value placed on their qualifications and skills, as well as their influence. In addition, the paper traces the extent to which Jewish refugee psychiatrists were not made welcome by the British scientific elite. This prejudice was all too widespread in a profession claiming to have insight into human behaviour.

Medical Refugees in Britain and the Wider World, 1930-1960: Introduction

Weindling, P. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:51:00 PDT

The Collectors of Lost Souls: Turning Kuru Scientists into Whitemen

Kennedy, D. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:46:28 PDT

What Would You Do? Juggling Bioethics and Ethnography

Evans, J. H. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:46:27 PDT

Health Culture in the Heartland, 1880-1980: An Oral History

Coombs, J. G. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:46:26 PDT

Under the Radar: Cancer and the Cold War

Kutcher, G. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:46:25 PDT

So What? A Reply to Roger Cooter's 'After Death/After-"Life": The Social History of Medicine in Post-Postmodernity'

Toms, J. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:43:33 PDT

The Attitude of German Emigre Doctors Towards Medicine under National Socialism

Pross, C. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:43:33 PDT

Summary The attitudes of émigré doctors provide some insight into whether Nazi medical atrocities were something peculiar and unique or whether they were an extreme consequence of widespread thinking and scientific concepts in medicine at the time. Doctors of the sexual reform movement and the political left partly welcomed the Nazi sterilisation law as an implementation of their eugenic ideas. Some labelled Nazi medicine plainly as charlatanism which is a protective claim by those who dream the dream of the genetic improvement of humanity. Others saw in it a cold-blooded utilitarianism, symbolising the triumph of a soldierly spartan life over the intricacies and agonies of the human soul. For those, the most important lessons of the past lay in protecting the chronically ill, the handicapped, the psychologically ill and the poor from radical utopias aimed at ‘making the national body healthy’.

Binge Drinking: A Confused Concept and its Contemporary History

Berridge, V., Herring, R., Thom, B. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:15:37 PDT

Binge drinking is a matter of current social, political and media concern. It has a long-term, but also a recent, history. This paper discusses the contemporary history of the concept of binge drinking. In recent years there have been significant changes in how binge drinking is defined and conceptualised. Going on a ‘binge’ used to mean an extended period (days) of heavy drinking, while now it generally refers to a single drinking session leading to intoxication. We argue that the definitional change is related to the shifts in the focus of alcohol policy and alcohol science, in particular in the last two decades, and also in the role of the dominant interest groups. The paper is a case study in the relationship between science and policy. We explore key themes, raise questions and point to a possible agenda for future research.

Web 2.0: A Tool for the History of Medicine

Borghi, L. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:15:34 PDT

Capacity to Marry: Law, Medicine and Conceptions of Insanity

Hasson, E. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:59:07 PDT

Summary Historically, English law has not constructed insanity as intrinsic to the individual, but rather as something to be determined by his or her abilities within the context of a particular situation. The courtroom provides the most visible forum within which the discourses of law and medicine interact, and yet the civil law context has been left largely unexamined by historians of madness. This paper seeks to begin to address that gap, through an examination of court cases determining competency in marriage. Using primarily nineteenth-century cases—claiming nullity of marriage on the basis that one party was insane and thus unable to give valid consent to the marriage contract—it explores how this ‘compartment’ of insanity is conceptualised.

The Afterlife of Images: Translating the Pathological Body between China and the West

Chiang, H. H. — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:31:17 PST