Breland 227 and Conroy
Honors Center
646-4601 (History Department)
646-2005 (Honors
College)
e-mail: weamon@nmsu.edu
Office Hours: T Th
2-4:30 p.m., Conroy
Honors Center
(University and Espina)
This course examines the history of medicine
and disease in the West from antiquity until the 20th century. Our
overall theme is the biological and cultural impact of disease (especially
epidemics) on society. We will try to understand how cultures have understood
epidemics in the past and how they have responded to disease through medical
systems. We will look at the formation of the western medical tradition
in antiquity, the development of academic medicine in the Middle Ages, the
development of anatomy and ideas about the body, hospitals and public health
systems, the rise of epidemiology, modern technological and scientific
breakthroughs, the professionalization of medical
practice, and the role of medicine in shaping attitudes toward poverty, women,
race, and disease.
Research paper:
The topic of your
research paper must be approved by the instructor by the fourth week of
class. Research papers should be about 12-15 pages long, double-spaced
(12 pt. type), must be typed with a word processor, and must contain a minimum
of ten bibliographical sources, at least two of which must be primary
sources. Papers must have a title and title page, and must conform to the
Chicago (or Turabian) style for notes and
references. Footnotes or endnotes are acceptable. Papers will be
submitted in three stages: a preliminary bibliography and two drafts
(preliminary draft and a revised, final draft).
Web Site:
The web site for this
course is: http://honors.nmsu.edu/weamon/hist304.html.
The syllabus, assignments and other useful information will be posted on the
web site.
Attendance Policy:
Attendance in this
course is mandatory and advance preparation is expected. Absences will be
excused only in cases of a medical emergencies and
with a physician's notice. Excessive absences may result in automatic
withdrawal. As this class will be conducted largely as a seminar, class
participation is encouraged. The class will benefit from the unique
perspectives, ideas and informed opinions of all students, so please be assured
that your views count. Also, ten percent of your grade is based on attendance
and participation.
Academic Misconduct:
Absolutely no academic
dishonesty will be tolerated in this course. If you feel you do not fully
understand the issue of plagiarism, please consult with the instructor.
Any student discovered plagiarizing will receive an F for the course, end of
story. All parties involved in the submission of plagiarized or copied
work are equally guilty of academic misconduct under all circumstances. If you
resubmit work you have done for other courses for credit in this one, I will
consider that plagiarism.
Incompletes and Make-up Work:
Incompletes will be
given only if a student has passed the first half of the course and is
precluded from completing the course by a documented illness or family
crisis. Make-ups of the mid-term exam (only in cases of a documented
illness) will be given only during the final exam period. There are no
provisions for extra credit work.
Important Dates:
- February 14: You must obtain approval of
your research paper topic by this date
- February 28: Preliminary research paper
bibliography due
- March 2: Midterm exam
- March 9: Last day to withdraw from a
course with a "W"
- April 11: Preliminary research paper draft
due
- April 27: Final research paper draft due
- May 2-7: Final Exam week
Notice for Students With Disabilities:
If you have, or believe
you have, a disability and would benefit from any accommodation(s), you may
wish to self-identify by contacting the Services for Students with Disabilities
(SSD) Office located at Garcia Annex (phone: 646-6840; TTY: 646-1918) to
register. All medical information will be treated confidentially.
If you have already registered, please make sure that your instructor receives
a copy of the accommodation memorandum from SSD within the first two weeks of
classes. It will be your responsibility to inform either your instructor
or SSD representative (in a timely manner) if the services/accommodaations
provided are not meeting your needs.
If you have a condition
that may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency
or that may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss any
concerns with the Instructor or Ms. Jane Spinti, SSD
Coordinator.
Please call the Employee
Relations Director at 646-3333 if you have any questions about the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA)
and/or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Syllabus
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Topics and Assignments
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Supplementary Readings
and Hyperlinks
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I. Introduction: Framing
Disease
Understanding diseases and epidemics in history
PBG
1-20
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II. Disease and Medicine in
the Ancient World
Epidemics in antiquity
The rise of the physician
PBG
21-52; MWC 17-22, 43-7, 139-44
Thucydides's Description of the Plague of Athens
The
Hippocratic Oath
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Ancient Mesopotamian
Medicine
Ancient Egyptian Medicine
Ancient Egyptian
Magical Cures
The Plague in Athens
Greek and Roman Surgical
Instruments
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III.
Medicine in Late Antiquity and Islam
Medicine and Faith
Leprosy: pollution and
purity
MWC, 145-51;
209-11
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Islamic
Culture and the Medical Arts
Arab roots of European
medicine
Bloodletting
What is leprosy? Basic facts
Saint
Louis serving a leprous monk
A Miracle of Saint
Nicholas, 1425
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IV.
Disease and Medicine the Medieval West
Medieval Medicine
The Black Death
Discussion of Herlihy, Black Death
MWC 269-73;
HBD (entire); Boccaccio
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Marchione di Coppo
Stefani, The
Florentine Chronicle
Jean Froissart on the Flagellant Movement
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V.
Disease and Medicine in the Renaissance
The medical Renaissance
Doctors and Charlatans in
Renaissance Italy
PBG, 53-74;
MWC, 54-67
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Andreas Vesalius'
De humani corporis fabrica (1555)
"Plague anointers"
in Milan, 1630
Early Printed Herbals
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VI.
The 'Columbian Exchange'
The impact of smallpox in the New World
"The Great
Pox": The Syphilis Epidemic in Europe
MWC,
212-16
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VII.
Anatomy and the New Science
Paracelsus and medical chemistry
William Harvey and the
experimental tradition
MWC,
24-32, 68-75
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Paracelsus
and Renaissance Medicine
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VIII.
Medicine and the Enlightenment
Vaccination
Diseases of the
Industrial Revolution: Cholera
MWC
299-309, 217-39, 343-51
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Edward Jenner and the Discovery of Vaccination
Ergotism
and the Salem Witch Trials
Dr. John Snow (1813-1858)
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IX. Medical Care in the 19th Century
Hospitals and the reform of nursing
'Heroic' intervention and
alternative medicine
PBG,
135-52; MWC 360-64, 376-79
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Florence
Nightingale
Midwives
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X. Medical Science in the 19th Century
The germ theory of disease
Experimental medicine
PBG
75-98, 428-61; MWC 240-46, 253-57, 310-29
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W. Holmes,
"Contagiousness Of Puerperal Fever," 1843
Claude
Bernard
Louis Pasteur
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XI.
Medicine and the State
Eugenics
Public Health
Discussion of
Leavitt, Typhoid Mary
LTM (entire)
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The American Eugenics Movement
Medical Experiments of the
Holocaust and Nazi Medicine
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XII.
Psychiatry and the Treatment of Insanity
Freud
The reform of the asylum
MWC
103-8, 166-97
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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Freud: Conflict and Culture
(Exhibition)
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XIII.
Imperialism and World Diseases
Malaria and Yellow Fever
The Great Influenza
Epidemic of 1918
Discussion of Kolata, Flu
KF
(entire)
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Yellow
Fever/Reed Commission
More
about Malaria
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XIV.
Medical Advances in the 20th Century
Surgery
The Pharmaceutical
Revolution
PBG, 99-134,
153-69
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XV.
The Experience of Illness
Anatomy and destiny
The healer in history
Discussion of
Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider
MWC
79-102,117-24, 261-6, 269-73, 278-81, 290-95, 369-75
PPH
(entire)
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Oral Reports: "Disease
of the Week"
Each week one student
(or occasionally more than one) will present an oral report on the history of a
particular disease or epidemic selected from the list below. The reports
should be about 20 minutes in length and should cover, at minimum, the
following points:
1.
Definition (including type of disease) and disease agent
2. Etiology
3. Epidemiology (if epidemic)
4. Date and place of first appearance
5. Distribution and incidence
6. Main symptoms and pathology
7. Changing perceptions of the disease
8. History of treatment
To research your disease, first consult Kenneth F. Kiple, ed., The Cambridge World History of Human Disease
(Cambridge,
1993), located in the Branson Library reference section. After reading the article in Kiple, consult at least one of the reference given
in the bibliography for the disease (or another reference). Your
presentation should be clear, accurate, carefully organized, thoroughly
prepared, and clearly presented. It should be in your own words (do not
merely copy or paraphrase the Kiple article).
Schedule of oral reports
Please select from
the following list:
Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
African Trypanosomiasis
(Sleeping Sickness)
Anorexia nervosa
Anthrax
Black and brown lung
disease
Bubonic Plague
Catarrh
Diphtheria
Ebola Virus Disease
Epilepsy
Favism
Gonorrhea
Gout
Leprosy
Hookworm Disease
Meningitis
Pellagra
Plague of Athens
Puerperal Fever
Rabies
Scrofula
Scurvy
St. Anthony's Fire
Sickle-Cell Anemia
Sweating Sickness
Syphilis
Tuberculosis
Typhus (Epidemic)
Yaws