Medical Fringe and Medical Orthodoxy 1750-1850

First published in 1987. Even as the professionalism of medicine progressed, many sufferers continued to rely on what would now be termed "fringe" practitioners – quacks, backstreet surgeons, bone-setters, Thomsonian botanists, holists and naturalists. Many types of fringe medicine were popular in particular circles or reflected the political or religious preoccupations of their practitioners. Anti-establishment radicals might favour natural medicine, Christian Scientists would reject the medica