Man with a skeleton in his closet. c1885.

Dr. Brian Regal

Professor for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine

Department of History

Office: LHAC 212

Phone: 908-737- 5316

email: bregal@kean.edu

Civil War shooting victim

Course Description:

Survey of the development of the medical profession in the United States. Medical education and practice, scientific research, public health and their institutions. 18th century to the present.

Course Objectives:

Students will gain a familiarity with the history of medicine in general, and in America in particular.  Emphasis will be placed on the role of doctors and disease and the changing nature of the profession of physician.  The role of health care and the corporate turn of medicine will be examined.  Students will learn to apply the techniques of historical analysis to the medical field.  Students will show their proficiency through a series of exams, discussions, and written projects.

• Syllabus Fall 2022  (NOTE: the syllabus is subject to change over the course of the semester).

Required Readings: texts and articles

Jacalyn Duffin. History of Medicine: a scandalously short introduction (University of Toronto Press, 2010).

Power Point presentation: updated June 2023

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tRKJddGg4qVFkjaXb2RQ2zTO9bZiRkED/view?usp=sharing

CMS quick guide: 4.18.2021

Power Point Presentation: History of Vaccination: March 2021

• Grading rubric

• The Hippocratic Oath

• Astrology in Early America

• Thomsonian medicine

• Phineas Gage

• Phineas Gage, the whole story

• Phineas Gage, updated

• Documentary film, The Lobotomist

• Antiseptic History

• Black physicians

• Discovery of Anesthesia

• Forgotten hero

• Florence Nightingale

• Clara Barton

• Pure Food Law history

• Patent Medicines

• Abortion

• Gun violence as a health issue?

• FBI gun death statistics

and

• Some words history students should know

Pilot episode of House

http://www.cucirca.com/2009/01/27/house-season-1-episode-1-pilot/

Supplemental Readings: Not required but strongly recommended

• Phrenology in England

• Franz Joseph Gall and the origins of Phrenology

• Phrenology in America

• The Return of Phineas Gage

• Progressives and Pure Food

• Pure Food Today

• Modern Eugenics

Medical students dissecting a cadaver, 1924

On-Line Resources: accessing these will make your life in this class much easier!

African American Surgeons: Opening Doors Exhibit

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/aframsurgeons/

American Folk Medicine UCLA source page

http://www.folkmed.ucla.edu/

Cultures of Heath: A  Medical Anthology, University of Windsor Ontario, Canada

http://hih.uwindsor.ca/wordpress/

Cool American medical history photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/medicalmuseum/

History of Medicine Finding Aids Consortium from the US National Library of Medicine

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/consortium/index.html

Islamic Medical History Podcasts, University of Warwick, UK

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/podcasts/media/more/medislam/

Medical Heritage Library, Harvard/Countway Library

http://mhl.countway.harvard.edu/search

Medical History Society of New Jersey

http://www.mhsnj.org/

Medical History of the US Navy

http://usstranquillity.blogspot.com/

Mütter Museum, Philadelphia (Museum of weird medicine a must see!) www.collphyphil.org/mutter.asp

National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington DC

http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/

Neurophilosophy: blog on the brain and related issues including lobotamy

http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php

Patent Medicine discussion and artwork

http://www.pharmacytechs.net/blog/old-school-medicine-ads

Patent Medicine at the Smithsonian

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/balm-of-america-patent-medicine-collection?ogmt_page=therapeutic-use-categories&edan_start=0&edan_fq=topic%3A%22STD+Drugs%22

Reflections on Health in Society and Culture

http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/reflections/spring2008/

Royal College of Physicians, library on-line rare book collection

https://archive.org/details/rcplondon?sort=-publicdate

US National Library of Medicine - History of Medicine site

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/index.html

Surgical History - operating room, old London

http://www.medicallondon.org/walk_1.html

The most notorious body snatchers in history:

New York Academy of Medicine 'The Resurrectionists'

http://www.nyam.org/library/pages/historical_collections_resurrectionists

The People's Medicine Comes to Massachusetts,  a history of the  medical profession and an institution

http://library.umassmed.edu/omha/fmch/index.cfm

UMDNJ (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey) medical history library and archive.

http://www.umdnj.edu/librweb/speccoll/special_collections.html

Wellcome Library of the History of Medicine, London.  Great source for historic images

http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/

1859 American anatomy textbook illustration

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• Kean University Department of History Main Page

• Kean University Main Page