School of Humanities  
 
 
HIS-30100 Sickness and Suffering? Health, illness and medicine 1628-1808  
Co-ordinator: Dr Alannah Tomkins    Room: CBB1.055, Tel:33465  
Teaching Team: Miss Amanda  Roberts, Dr Alannah Tomkins, Dr Ian  Atherton, Mrs Christine  Edge, Miss Jo-Anne  Watts  
Lecture Time: See Timetable...  
Level: 3 Credits: 15 Study Hours: 150  
School Office: Tel: 01782 733147
 
 
 
Programme/Approved Electives for

History Dual Honours (Level 3)
History Major (Level 3)
History Minor (Level 3)

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Yes

Barred Combinations

None

Prerequisites

None

Description

What was it like to be sick or injured in England prior to the use of anaesthetics and antibiotics? How many sorts of medical practitioner could people call on, and what range of treatments was on offer? Medical history has thrived recently, in terms of the resources available for research, the questions tackled and the high profile of historical practitioners like the late Roy Porter. Therefore this module treats aspects of the social history of medicine in England, by considering the changes experienced by both medical practitioners and patients from Harvey&©s publication relating to the circulation of blood in 1628 up to the 1808 County Asylums Act (the first major intervention by government in the provision of healthcare). This was a period of relatively minor scientific change, but the same decades witnessed significant shifts in the ways doctors related to patients and the ways the sick conceptualized both their ailments and their medical attendants.

Topics may include childbirth and midwifery, the loss of the patient narrative, disease and mortality, the rise of institutional medical care, quackery and the medical market place, insanity, perceptions of medical practitioners in graphic satire, and ideas about death and burial.


Aims

This module will consider aspects of the social history of medicine in England, comprising changes experienced by both medical practitioners and patients, from Harvey&©s discovery of the circulation of blood in 1628 up to the 1808 County Asylums Act.


Intended Learning Outcomes

recognise and explain the changing ways in which people perceived human bodies and experienced illness (in conjunction with the changing responses to or by medical personnel in this period). will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
consider and discuss the relationship between contemporary debates about health, illness and medicine and their historical context. will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
evaluate and critically assess a range of primary sources and to use them appropriately in the development of historical analysis. will be achieved by assessments: 2
employ genre writing to demonstrate EITHER appreciation of the complexities of historical debate OR empathy with historical figures will be achieved by assessments: 1


Study hours

20 seminar attendance, 50 seminar preparation, 20 formative exercise preparation and completion, 30 essay preparation and completion, 30 summative exercise preparation and completion


Description of Module Assessment

01: Exercise weighted 40%
Book review OR creative-writing exercise
This exercise may be attempted in two modes: students wishing to focus on empirical history may attempt a book review of 1500-2000 words (in relation to a book specified by the tutor: all reviews in any given academic year will be written about the same book). Alternatively students may attempt a creative-writing exercise of 1500-2000 words.

02: Essay weighted 60%
Essay
A summative essay of 2000-2500 words


Version: (1.06B) Updated: 03/Mar/2013

This document is the definitive current source of information about this module and supersedes any other information.