ABSTRACT
The literature of British maritime and imperial medicine is reviewed here, noting that the key growth in the area coincided with the wars of the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries when the navy started to maintain a regular fleet overseas. Thereafter, the literature followed major imperial wars and focused on the needs of the state in war, and male servicemen. Medical prescriptions for cure were universal, empirical, and economical; experimenting on servicemen to develop cures was a necessity. The emphasis was on control of the human environment and regulation of the men.
Subject(s)
Historiography , Military Medicine/history , Naval Medicine/history , Warfare , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , Humans , United KingdomABSTRACT
The prescription book of Jeremaih Webbe, apothecary, illuminates the medical practices of a number of Oxford physicians, including those of Thomas Willis, Francis Barkesdale, and William Conyers. It provides an indication of the nature of the illness present in Oxford, especially among the students of the University, in the years 1653 and 1654.
