Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české: Lékařství – group of authors (2023)

The history of such an exact science as medicine can seem like a cabinet of curiosities. Doctors of the 16th century recommended that diet correspond to the physiological composition of a person, which is why onions could pose a threat to nobles. The essence of the therapeutic methods of Enlightenment doctors lay in provoking symptoms similar to the disease that needed to be treated. Bloodletting became so ingrained that patients demanded it as a preventive measure even in times when doctors were already skeptical about it. Smoking was supported by contemporary medicine. On the other hand, traces of surgical procedures can be found as far back as prehistoric times, the benefits of spa stays were known in the early modern period, and the first Enlightenment vaccinations remain among the greatest discoveries of medical science to this day. The new volume of a well-known editorial series describes the topic of medicine from prehistory to the present in a broad scope, covering diagnostics, therapy, prevention, medications, and technologies, through the development of scientific theories, the history of professional literature and the processing of scientific information, to the establishment of institutions and marginal phenomena such as "folk" medicine, superstitions, and magic.