Colonial American Medicine

If medical ignorance and treatments such as bloodletting, purging, and blistering prevailed among eminent physicians at the end of the colonial era, one can only imagine the state of medicine during the rest of the period. Colonial medicine was marked by ignorant theories, ineffective treatments, a scarcity of trained physicians, poor sanitation, and frightening epidemics. Despite important discoveries like the circulation of blood, little was known about the cause of disease. This book is an engrossing look at the state of medicine and the healing arts during colonial times.