HIS-30101 - Module Specification
School of Humanities
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

In 1808 the medical profession was largely unregulated and was compelled to diagnose and treat patients without anaesthetic, lacking stethoscopes, and unaware of the existence of germs. By 1886 access to the profession was closely monitored, anaesthetic was routinely administered, and Lister's work on aseptic surgery was being accepted. Therefore, this was a period of scientific change and professional consolidation with enormous significance for the ways doctors related to patients and the ways the sick formed expectations of their medical practitioners. This module treats aspects of the social history of medicine in nineteenth-century England by considering the development of medical relationships from the 1808 County Asylums Act up to the Medical Registration Amendment Act of 1886.
Topics may include medical education and professionalisation, the evolution of institutional medical care, medical practitioners in fiction, insanity and the emergence of psychiatry, anatomy and bodysnatching, the roles for women in nursing and the drive for sanitary reform.
Trigger warning: this module routinely deals with issues that students may find challenging or distressing, including (but not limited to) mortality, bodies including genitalia, illness, injury, and pain. If a particular seminar or workshop topic is likely to prove upsetting, do talk to the tutor in advance. If multiple topics risk inducing distress, consider transferring to a different module.

This module will consider aspects of the social history of medicine, including the changes experienced by both medical practitioners and patients from the 1808 County Asylums Act up to the Medical Registration Amendment Act of 1886.

Intended Learning Outcomes

recognise and explain the ways in which medicine became professionalised in the nineteenth century, including changes to medical education, the proliferation of roles for formal practitioners as experts and the rise of statutory regulation: 2
evaluate and critically assess a range of primary sources and to use them appropriately in the development of historical analysis: 2
practice and refine their ability to write creatively in a history of medicine context: 1
employ genre writing to demonstrate EITHER appreciation of the complexities of historical debate OR empathy with historical figures: 1
consider and discuss the relationship between contemporary debates about health, illness and medicine and their historical context: 2

Study hours

Active learning hours: 24 seminar attendance and quiz completion, 12 workshop attendance
Independent Study hours: 48 seminar preparation, 33 seen examination preparation and completion, 33 exercise preparation and completion.

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment