Portland Public Library

Diseases in the district of Maine 1772-1820, the unpublished work of Jeremiah Barker, a rural physician in New England, Richard J. Kahn

eng

Includes bibliographical references and indexes

individual biography

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Diseases in the district of Maine 1772-1820

bibliography

1142935238

Richard J. Kahn

the unpublished work of Jeremiah Barker, a rural physician in New England

"This previously unpublished primary source allows modern readers to reimagine medicine as practiced two hundred years ago by a rural physician in New England through his case histories, correspondence, biographical sketches, and personal commentary. Throughout his fifty-year practice, beginning with a preceptorship in Hingham, Massachusetts, Jeremiah Barker documented his constant efforts to keep up with and contribute to the medical literature in a changing medical landscape, as practice and authority shifted from historical to scientific methods. He performed experiments and autopsies, became interested in the new chemistry of Lavoisier, risked scorn in his use of alkaline remedies, studied epidemic fever and approaches to bloodletting, and struggled to understand epidemic fever, childbed fever, cancer, public health, consumption, mental illness, and the "dangers of spirituous liquors.""--, Provided by publisher

Jeremiah Barker : Background, Education, and Writings -- Obtaining and Sharing Medical Literature, 1780-1820 -- The Old Medicine and the New : why Barker wrote this manuscript, for whom was it written, and why was it not published? -- "Alkaline Doctor" and "A Dangerous Innovator" -- Thoughts to Consider While Reading Barker's Manuscript