The history of medicine: a very short introduction by William Bynum is a new book in the William Harvey library shelved at WZ 40 BYN. At 169 pages it really is short but manages to cover western medical history well. Bynum divides the topic into six periods/themes:
1. Medicine at the bedside (Classical period – when doctors focused on the patient)
2. Medicine in the library (Medieval and Early Modern periods- when book learning was key)
3. Medicine in the hospital (Early 19th Century – the rise of the modern hospital starting in Revolutionary Paris)
4. Medicine in the community (19th Century-the rise of public health)
5. Medicine in the laboratory (Late 19th Century – the application of science to medicine)
6. Medicine in the modern world (20th Century onwards – where all the above trends continued to develop)
This is introduction to a subject well worth knowing about, especially as all these elements continue to be important.