Understanding and Treating Illness

Understanding and Treating Illness

Up to this point in the reading, most of the material covered has been about things that appealed to a small portion of society. For example, the reading states, "Detailed studies of subjects such as astronomy, motion, anatomy, physiology, chemistry, electricity, flora and fauna, and the development of the fetus failed to capture the attention of the majority of people" (Gregory, 2008). Medicine was very different, it was important to everyone, regardless of class, "the condition of the human body was a matter of direct and immediate concern for everyone" (Gregory, 2008). Illness had "no respect for social class… the king who suffered from an incurable disease had no advantage over a pauper in the same situation," (Gregory, 2008), this statement is one of my favorites because it was true; illness leveled out the playing field, it did not matter whether you were the king or a peasant if you had cancer you were going to die. Because of illness' leveling powers, many people, of all segments of society, became interested in whatever they could find out about healing.

During the 18th century, there were two types of healers, sanctioned and unsanctioned healers; the difference was that sanctioned healers had a license to practice and unsanctioned healers did not. This license to practice was a university degree, that really meant nothing, "it would be a mistake to assume that healers who had a license possessed a vastly different conception of what disease was and what should be done about it from those who operated without legal sanction" (Gregory, 2008), this is what I believe to be the one of the biggest differences between then and now. Although it would be nice, and inexpensive, most of us in this day and age would not go to our neighbor to figure out what to do about our strep throat. In the 18th century, the poor did, they actually distrusted physicians, especially when their lives were at stake. Because of this, the poor did not hesitate to go to healers as opposed to sanctioned physicians.

Although there were rules to govern who had the right to do what, they were not obeyed. There were many reasons for this but the main one was supply and demand. Because everyone needed help medically there weren't enough sanctioned healers. Another big reason for choosing unsanctioned as opposed to sanctioned healers was that many people could not