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HIS-30101 - Module Specification
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

For academic year: 2025/26 Last Updated: 13 November 2025

HIS-30101 - From Sawbones to Social Hero? Doctors and medicine 1808-1886
Coordinator: Alannah Tomkins Room: CBB1.055 Tel: +44 1782 7 33465
Lecture Time: See Timetable...
Level: Level 6
Credits: 15
Study Hours: 150
School Office:

Programme/Approved Electives for 2025/26

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2025/26

In 1808 the medical profession was largely unregulated and was compelled to diagnose and treat patients without anaesthetic, lacking stethoscopes, and unaware of the existence of germs. By 1886 access to the profession was closely monitored, anaesthetic was routinely administered, and Lister's work on aseptic surgery was being accepted. Therefore, this was a period of scientific change and professional consolidation with enormous significance for the ways doctors related to patients and the ways the sick formed expectations of their medical practitioners. This module treats aspects of the social history of medicine in nineteenth-century England by considering the development of medical relationships from the 1808 County Asylums Act up to the Medical Registration Amendment Act of 1886.
Topics may include medical education and professionalisation, the evolution of institutional medical care, medical practitioners in fiction, insanity and the emergence of psychiatry, anatomy and bodysnatching, the roles for women in nursing and the drive for sanitary reform.
Trigger warning: this module routinely deals with issues that students may find challenging or distressing, including (but not limited to) mortality, bodies including genitalia, illness, injury, and pain. If a particular seminar or workshop topic is likely to prove upsetting, do talk to the tutor in advance. If multiple topics risk inducing distress, consider transferring to a different module.

Aims
This module will consider aspects of the social history of medicine, including the changes experienced by both medical practitioners and patients from the 1808 County Asylums Act up to the Medical Registration Amendment Act of 1886.

Talis Aspire Reading List
Any reading lists will be provided by the start of the course.
http://lists.lib.keele.ac.uk/modules/his-30101/lists

Intended Learning Outcomes

recognise and explain the ways in which medicine became professionalised in the nineteenth century, including changes to medical education, the proliferation of roles for formal practitioners as experts and the rise of statutory regulation: 2
evaluate and critically assess a range of primary sources and to use them appropriately in the development of historical analysis: 2
practice and refine their ability to write creatively in a history of medicine context: 1
employ genre writing to demonstrate EITHER appreciation of the complexities of historical debate OR empathy with historical figures: 1
consider and discuss the relationship between contemporary debates about health, illness and medicine and their historical context: 2

Study hours

Active learning hours: 24 seminar attendance, 12 workshop attendance
Independent Study hours: 48 seminar preparation, 33 exercise preparation and completion, 33 reflective diary preparation and completion.

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment

1: Exercise weighted 50%
Biographical review OR creative-writing exercise
This exercise may be attempted in two modes: students wishing to focus on empirical history may attempt a biographical review of 1,500 words (in relation to a figure of their choice who was prominent in the social history of medicine of the period, subject to the endorsement the tutor). This will entail a critical comparison of existing biographies (potentially including extant autobiographies), normally including the subject's entry in the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Alternatively students may attempt a creative-writing exercise of 1,500 words.

2: Exercise weighted 50%
Reflective diary
A reflective diary of class discussions: students will be expected to submit a commentary of 1,400 words in total on four out of ten substantive seminars (350 words per reflection) with each entry alluding EITHER to their reading and the associated class discussion OR the class discussion and their own subsequent analysis. NB: no individual student is required to contribute to seminar discussion in order to complete this exercise successfully, but attendance at four seminars will prove an advantage.

The University undertakes a continuous review of its teaching and research provision to ensure programmes are of a high quality and changes may be made to modules where it is necessary and reasonable to do so. Please be aware that minor changes to modules, such as a change to an individual assessment, can occur up until enrolment, although we endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes. Details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/legalgovernancecompliance/governance/actcharterstatutesordinancesandregulations/studenttermsconditions/

Last Updated: 13 November 2025