Health and Healing in the Early Modern World

Welcome to ‘Health and Healing in the Early Modern World’! Students on the module will take control of the account each week, sharing their interests and insights into the global history of early modern medicine.

Last week, I recorded a discussion with my fab colleagues on Covid-19 & the role historians can play in shaping public discourse on pandemics. Thank you @davidbrydan @AnnaMaerker @therealcaitjan @LauraGowing. The students found it really engaging - a great end to @earlymodmedKCL!

and discouraged the British to adopt indigenous medicine.

That being said, initial British settlers saw little difference between their own medical/health research and the medical theories of Indian physicians. However, racism and the subordination of Indians had rendered their practices inferior...

Their own political agenda of expansionism.

The development of medicine in India by the British had helped concretize their colonial position in India. By providing a more advanced array of medicine and treatment to the diseases that plagued them and those they colonized, the British were able to implement...

It was also in the best interest of European powers to improve health and hygiene. For instance, the British were able to capitalize upon the health and well-being of both British soldiers and Indian soldiers both militarily and politically.

It was now more important than ever for Scientistic and Medical research to take place and help solidify European expansion and help colonial soldiers adapt to the Asian climate.

Thus causing a disparity between Europe and Asia. The European climate was perceived as superior- one that was not responsible for death and disease. And annexed Asia was seen as unclean and unhygienic.

Although the heat had proven too much for colonial powers. European settlers and soldiers became more acquainted with death and disease (e.g Fever and Asiatic Cholera) than the tales of decadence.

By the end of the 18th century, Britain had acquired the largest empire in the world (yet still not encroaching on African soil) the British boasted lands in the 'Tropics'. These were parts of Asia romanticized by their hot climate and "luxuriant natural bounty".

@TudorWench Thanks! We read your chapter on health at sea for this week's class!

@earlymodmedKCL James Lancaster, the General of the first East India Co voyage (1601-3), administered lemon juice to the crew of his flagship daily. Until his supply ran out, the men of that ship remained healthy even though scurvy had compromised the health of the other men in the fleet.

It is important to note that finding a way to manage scurvy cannot be wholly attributed to Lind. As with a lot of medical work, cures and treatments are often the result of a combination of people - this is the case for scurvy.

Thankfully, we’ll only be faced with a ‘petty quarantine’ nowadays. We can only hope there’ll be Netflix and good food.

—Maritime Quarantine: Linking Old World and New World Histories, Alison Bashford

Lazaretto - an institution (such as a hospital) for those with contagious diseases / a building or a ship used for detention in quarantine (from Merrim-Webster)

For nearly two centuries before Lind's experiment citrus fruits had been identified as effective in helping sickness. Richard Hawkins in the 1590s, stressed the importance of sower lemons and oranges in treating illness, for instance.