What exactly is this blog? Another distraction for a recently former-PhD student to pull them away from applying for increasingly limited post-doctoral research positions? An attempt to cheer their mood in the face of an increasingly casualised knowledge economy? An act of rebellion against social norms in terms of study of the history of science? A grand attempt to bring some clarity into the online space around the history of medicine and science in Europe? In a sense, it is all of the above to one degree or another. So, what am I trying to achieve here?
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| A 14th Century Diagnostic diagram identifying links between a patient's age, temperament, the seasons and the elements, Such diagrams provide great insight to medieval medical thought and the interconnections between contemporary scientific concepts. |
What exactly am I trying to achieve here? In essence I am trying to provide, in an interconnected online form, a primer to medieval western medicine of a kind which would have been useful to myself at earlier points in my studies. The idea is that over time this will contain short profiles with directions for further reading on key figures in the Western Medical tradition - primarily before 1700 as this aligns with my own area of expertise. It will contain definitions of key terms and concepts for the study of the history of science and insight into the various skills sets needed for the study of historical science and medicine. These will link studies with areas of my own research and with new works in the area of palaeopathology. It will explore some of the origins of particular 'cures' and treatments, and how they related to modern medical practice, and the relationship between medieval and modern medical thought. It will will also deal with some of the myths that have built up around the Black Death, plague more general, medieval epidemics, and medieval medicine. I aim to do so in the same way I try when I give talks to the general public in various venues - including in the form of stand up comedy - with both as much accuracy as is possible with the evidence in hand, and with humour. So, did someone call the plague doctor?
