Theories of Fever From Antiquity to the Enlightenment

Abstract

Despite the fact that the availability, acceptance, and use of clinical thermometers in medical practice is relatively recent medical history (Wunderlich's classic paper on clinical thermometry and fever was published in 1842), there is a wealth of treatises, books, pamphlets, and illustrations on the subject of fever as a general sign of disease as well as as a diagnostic pool of the prevailing infectious diseases in the world. Medical historians considering various theories on fever during these 2,000 years also encounter a history of scientific philosophy. Theories on Fever From Antiquity to the Enlightenment is a compilation of seven essays that were delivered at a meeting of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in June 1980. The seven articles are each expertly researched and clearly presented in the context of the specific theories of fevers and, in addition, the social, religious, and political effects such theories had

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 35 citations exist upstream.