Book Title: Medicine, Why Is It the Way It Is Now?: From Religion and Urban Contagions to Battlefield Surgery, Exploring the Evolutionary History of Patient-Doctor Relationships in Human Society

Synopsis:

Today's incurable diseases are tomorrow's medicine.

How does medicine make disease history once and for all?

｜Includes a Chronological Table of Major Events in Medical History!｜

Combining the history of medical development and social change from both East and West, this book re-reads three thousand years of medical history, starting from medical concepts, specialized techniques, and public interactions.

｜How Medicine Finds a Way to Survive Through Human Disease History

• Living before the Common Era, why did Hippocrates believe that illness was not caused by magic?

• With infectious diseases, leprosy, and death surrounding the Middle Ages, witnessing the establishment of hospitals and quarantines one after another, will the plague doctors who looked like the Grim Reaper disappear?

• Even Da Vinci during the Renaissance dissected corpses!? Did surgical theaters allow doctors to peer into the inner soul of the human body, or into the meaning of symptoms?

• When society viewed surgery as a stray path, what gave birth to the first batch of surgeons turned out to be the "Barbers' Guild"?

• How did malaria, cholera, smallpox, and the Russian flu catalyze vaccinations and modern bacteriology laboratories?

• Why were female midwives and female doctors once excluded from the medical community, and where is the era of female physicians? If a woman contracted a venereal disease, became pregnant out of wedlock, or gave birth, would she look for a male doctor or turn to an unlicensed practitioner?

• With frequent wars and chaos, how did battlefield anesthesia surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and the treatment of psychosomatic disorders allow batches of wounded soldiers to leave hospitals and strive to survive after the war...

｜"Doctor, I have pain here and pain there..." "How many days do I have left to live?"

When patients walk into a consultation room and sit in front of a doctor, the pain, symptoms, and anxieties they blurt out are so remarkably similar to what Shennong, Hippocrates, and Galen heard thousands of years ago... How did doctors in history treat patients? Where did they learn the techniques and ethical codes of practicing medicine?

Mark Jackson—once a British physician who later devoted himself to the study of medical history and even took over as the chair of the WHO Expert Group on the Cultural Contexts of Health, practicing the spirit of public engagement as a doctor—unveils these old pages of history.

Amidst ancient documents, urban histories, the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, bacteriology labs, and field hospitals, he contemplates the system, material aspects, and cultural development directions of medicine. He combs through the shifts in concepts chronologically and finds that the duties of doctors fluctuate along with society's expectations of the patient-doctor relationship. Meanwhile, hospitals transformed from poor-relief charities at the very beginning to integrating with social health insurance systems. Seeing a doctor is no longer just a critical matter of life and death for individuals and families, but a matter of the state...

｜When a doctor is willing to practice medicine to the best of their judgment according to the Hippocratic Oath—what they see is not just the patient, but society.

The entire history of medicine is not only about disease and pain, but also reflects people's anxieties regarding patient-doctor relationships and death.

How does society participate in the medical issues that contemporary society focuses on? Following this medical historian's path of exploration, perhaps you can gain further inspiration from this book.

Book Features

1. A heavyweight scholar + physician + WHO expert gives you your first lesson in the history of medical humanities.

2. Spanning major events across China, the West, and Europe during ancient, medieval, and modern times; master historical facts and issues in one single book.

3. Comes with a chronological table of major events in medical history for clarity at a glance.

Accolades & Recommendations

Introductory Essay by Kuo Wen-hua, Professor at the Institute of Science, Technology, and Society / Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University

Reviewed and Approved by Li Shang-jen, Research Fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

Wang Hsiu-yun, Associate Professor at the School of Medicine / STM Center, National Cheng Kung University

Lin Cheng-kun, Physician-Writer and Winner of the Wu Ta-yu Public Science Writing Award

Chiu Ta-hsin, Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Sociology and Social Work, Kaohsiung Medical University

Chen Heng-an, Associate Professor at the Department of History, National Cheng Kung University

Zheng Guo-wei, Editor-in-Chief of PanSci

Pan Ji-an (Pan Zhen-ze), Former Professor and Director of the Institute of Physiology, National Yang-Ming University

Su Shang-hao, Surgeon and Golden Tripod Award-winning Author of The Dark History of Medicine and The History of Dissection (tentative translations)

"This book follows a historical timeline to describe the trajectory of Western medicine with vivid and interesting content. It has its own merits alongside Roy Porter's The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, complementing each other beautifully. The author's insights into social history—including culture, class, and gender—shine through between the lines, re-evaluating the heroic figures in traditional narratives. For readers in the Chinese-speaking world, whether they are medical workers, historians, medical students, college students, or anyone interested in the history of medicine, this is an excellent book worth reading." —— Wang Hsiu-yun, Associate Professor at the School of Medicine / STM Center, National Cheng Kung University

"The original English title of Medicine, Why Is It the Way It Is Now? is simply The History of Medicine. However, the Chinese title poses a great question: Why does modern medicine no longer talk about the Galenic system of four humors, four elements, and four qualities? Why does modern medicine no longer use therapies like bloodletting, soaking, induced vomiting, and enemas, nor use herbal formulas with unknown ingredients? And why does modern medicine know how to use anesthesia, disinfection, intravenous fluids, and perform increasingly sophisticated surgeries, with vaccines, antibiotics, hormones, and various drugs with fixed ingredients available for use? The answer lies in the progress of basic medical sciences such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology, which is the main content of this book." —— Pan Zhen-ze, Former Professor and Director of the Institute of Physiology, National Yang-Ming University

International Praise

"As ever, Professor Mark Jackson provides us with a humane and expansive historical vision, pointing towards future medical prospects. As an excellent introduction to the history of medicine, this is a must-read book at a time when medical humanities scholars, clinicians, and scientists are at the forefront of influencing the direction of clinical practice and therapies." —— Jane Macnaughton, Professor of Medical Humanities, Durham University

"Clearly written, forward-thinking, and widely informed. Any reader (including students of medical history) will better understand the interplay of medical ethics, morality, and cultural issues as we face new and surprising developments in healthcare on a daily basis." —— Sander Gilman, Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, Emory University

"In this brief history of medicine, Professor Jackson transforms the way we used to understand medical theory and practice." —— Joanna Bourke, Professor of History, Birkbeck College, University of London

"This authentic and accessible book shapes a novel way of teaching students the importance of learning medical history, and the factors that define and influence medical history in the fields of health and medicine." —— Linda Bryder, Professor of History, University of Auckland

About the Author

Mark Jackson

Professor of History of Medicine at the University of Exeter, UK. He is a qualified physician with medical expertise in immunology, and also serves as the director of research projects in the field of Medical Humanities at the university. He has published several introductory books on medical history and is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine.

In addition to his academic innovations, he is actively involved in public affairs. He served as the chair of the Wellcome Trust History of Medicine Funding Committee, dedicating himself to promoting the development of medical history research. He is currently a member of the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research and Chair of the WHO Euro Expert Group on the Cultural Contexts of Health.

About the Translator

Wang Wei-fen

Graduated from the Department of Zoology at National Taiwan University, and holds a Master's degree in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine from Imperial College London.

Former workplaces include the Institute of Zoology and Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica, Yezi Coffee Shop, the Presidential Office, the Institute of Oceanography, and the College of Medicine at National Taiwan University. Her translated works include more than ten books, such as The Atlas of Climate Change, HOME: A Handbook for Cooling the Earth, Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures, Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body, The Man Who Found the Missing Link, and Nature's Weapons: The Evolution and Destiny of Animal Combat (tentative translations).