Medicine in Colonial America

Book excerpt: In Medicine in Colonial America, Oscar Reiss recognizes the theories and practices exercised by colonial physicians, and illustrates the gradual evolution of Dark Age medical ignorance to the beginnings of modern-day enlightenment. Reiss identifies the various levels of training for physicians from extensive schooling at respected universities to the informal instruction of mountebanks and quacks. He illustrates the numerous, unorthodox methods including bleeding, vomiting, purging, and cupping, used by both charlatans and educated practitioners alike to treat disease, and weighs the quality of colonial life against the available medical knowledge of the day. Reiss discusses the early attempts to license physicians, competitive pricing of medical service, colonial surgery and early autopsies, and cites important medical breakthroughs and theories. An interesting and informative read, Medicine in Colonial America will be of great value to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and dentists as well as historians.