Jacalyn Duffin's History of Medicine is one of the leading texts used to teach the history of the medical profession. Emphasizing broad concepts rather than names and dates, it has also been widely appreciated by general readers for more than twenty years. Based on sound scholarship and meticulous research, History of Medicine incorporates pithy examples from a range of periods and places and is infused with the author’s characteristic wit.

The third edition has been completely revised to highlight new scholarship on the past and incorporate significant medical events of the most recent decade – including new technologies, drug shortages, medical assistance in dying, and recent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, H1N1, Zika, and COVID-19. The book is organized around themes of scientific and clinical interest, such as anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, surgery, obstetrics, medical education, health-care delivery, and public health. It includes a chapter on how to approach research in medical history, updated with new resources. History of Medicine is sensitive to the power of historical research to inform current health-care practice and enhance cultural understanding.

The third edition of this bestselling introduction to medical history has been thoroughly updated to include recent scholarship and new events in major fields of medical endeavor.

Illustrations
Tables
Acknowledgments
Preface to the Second Edition

1. Introduction: Heroes and Villains in the History of Medicine
2. The Fabricated Body: History of Anatomy
3. Interrogating Life: History of Physiology
4. Science of Suffering: History of Pathology
5. First Do No Harm: History of Treatment, Pharmacology, and Pharmaceuticals
6. On Becoming and Being a Doctor: Education, Licensing, and Payment
7. Plagues and Peoples: Epidemic Diseases in History
8. Why Is Blood Special? Changing Concepts of a Vital Humour
9. Technology and Disease: Stethoscopes, Hospitals, and Other Gadgets
10. Work of the Hand: History of Surgery
11. Women’s Medicine and Medicine’s Women: History of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women
12. Wrestling with Demons: History of Psychiatry
13. No Baby, No Nation: History of Pediatrics
14. A Many-Faceted Gem: The Decline and Rebirth of Family Medicine
15. When the Patient Is Plural: Public and International Health
16. “Slow as a glacier, equally relentless”: Patient-Centred Medicine
17. Sleuthing and Science: How to Research a Question in Medical History

Appendix 
Learning Objectives

Suggestions for Further Reading
Index

"The first readers of this History of Medicine should be medical students. As the director of a history of medicine program I welcome this book, for at last I have a good textbook to recommend ... It should be bought by, or better still, presented to each Canadian medical student as a reward for acceptance into medical school."

"As a textbook it is not scandalously short, but great, concise, and straightforward. Recommended!"

"A rollicking ride through the history of medicine ... Each chapter represents the tried-and-true teaching methods of the author ... [these], combined with the author's lucid writing style and often humorous approach, made me envious of Duffin's students."

"Duffin's book is not only concise but also entertaining and enlightening ... a valuable, good-natured overview of a large topic that challenges everyone who teaches the history of medicine to do a better job."

"The facts are often fascinating and the prose is lively and accessible, guaranteeing interesting reading even for those on the receiving end of the stethoscope."

"This book is a superbly crafted volume readily accessible to the medical students for whom it was intended but equally rewarding to historians of all stripes for its wide-ranging and insightful discussions of the development of medicine from antiquity to Ebola and AIDS ... a reminder of the splendor and fascination of healing and its lengthy and compelling history."