136-039 Blood, Guts and Science

Formerly available as 136-225/325. Students who have completed 136-225/325 Social History of Medicine are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 75 points of first year study across any discipline areas.

This subject is a history of medicine from prehistory to the present, with a special emphasis on the past three hundred years. It explores the experience and understanding of disease and its therapies in different cultural settings, and the transformation in those understandings since the scientific revolution - from the magical to the molecular. It includes ancient medicine, the evolution of the hospital, the contest between lay and professional practitioners, dissection and the birth of the clinic, the discovery of the germ and the rise of the laboratory. What is the patient's story? How has medicine changed our experience and management of sickness, trauma, sexuality and difference? What do we mean by 'medicalisation' and how has it changed private life? Students who complete this subject should develop the ability to analyse the role of medicine and its practitioners in the shaping of private experience, public welfare, suffering and mortality.

• develop skills in written and oral communication;

• conduct independent research;

• make appropriate use of primary and secondary sources in mounting an argument;

• form defensible judgements based on a critical evaluation of conflicting arguments.

Three 500-word position papers 30% (to be submitted in the relevant class), a 2500 word research essay 60% (due after the teaching period) and 10% for class participation. A hurdle requirement of 80% attendance at tutorials.

• Roy Porter, Blood & Guts: A Short History of Medicine. 2003.