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Diseases in the District of Maine 1772 - 1820: The Unpublished Work of Jeremiah Barker, a Rural Physician in New England

Online ISBN:
9780190053284
Print ISBN:
9780190053253
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Diseases in the District of Maine 1772 - 1820: The Unpublished Work of Jeremiah Barker, a Rural Physician in New England

Richard J. Kahn
Richard J. Kahn

Assistant Clinical Professor

Assistant Clinical Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
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Published online:
July 2020
Published in print:
August 2020
Online ISBN:
9780190053284
Print ISBN:
9780190053253
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This previously unpublished primary source allows modern readers to reimagine medicine as practiced two hundred years ago by a rural physician in New England through his case histories, correspondence, biographical sketches, and personal commentary. Throughout his fifty-year practice, beginning with a preceptorship in Hingham, Massachusetts, Jeremiah Barker documented his constant efforts to keep up with and contribute to the medical literature in a changing medical landscape, as practice and authority shifted from historical to scientific methods. He performed experiments and autopsies, became interested in the new chemistry of Lavoisier, risked scorn in his use of alkaline remedies, studied epidemic fever and approaches to bloodletting, and struggled to understand epidemic fever, childbed fever, cancer, public health, consumption, mental illness, and the “dangers of spirituous liquors.” He corresponded with luminaries such as Benjamin Rush, Samuel Mitchill, and Lyman Spalding, and he published several articles in the first US medical journal, the Medical Repository. Perhaps many rural physicians practiced at this level, but few such written records have survived. Barker’s rare transcribed manuscript, never before published, is presented in its entirety with extensive annotations, a five-chapter introduction to contextualize the work, and a glossary to make it accessible to twenty-first-century general readers, genealogists, students, and historians.

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Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always … More Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always check the product information and clinical procedures with the most up to date published product information and data sheets provided by the manufacturers and the most recent codes of conduct and safety regulations. The authors and the publishers do not accept responsibility or legal liability for any errors in the text or for the misuse or misapplication of material in this work. Except where otherwise stated, drug dosages and recommendations are for the non-pregnant adult who is not breastfeeding.
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