Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History

Reviews compiled by medically-trained men and published only for medical men".This may have been true two decades ago, but it is certainly insupportable now.In fact it casts doubts on the author's qualifications for writing medical history.Nevertheless, he orientates his work to the patient and looks at a number of ways whereby medicine in the period under discussion impinged upon him: childbirth, infancy, childhood and youth, adulthood, and old age.He presents a great deal of well- documented information which frequently reveals his lack of medical knowledge.A lot of it is already known and available elsewhere, but even so, this book will be a useful source-book of general and particular information, but limited in circulation by its high price.It is a pity that Mr. Smith's prejudices against medical men, especially those that write medical history, are so obvious, and he will not be applauded by the growing band of professional historians of medicine for some of his incautious and inaccurate remarks contained in his "Introduction", not to mention his social and political bias.