HIST 249 Chapter Notes - Chapter reading: Asepsis, Genetic Engineering, Trauma Surgery
16 Nov 2018
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In the 20th century individual bodies became the locus for dealing with issues that had previously belonged to other realms of life social as social life, culture, politics, morals or religion. By defining bodily problems they became amenable to medical treatments - surgery, drug therapy, genetic engineering. Popular views of the body were shifted by new ideas from scientific and medical discoveries. Surgery is a field where it solves problems through intervention in the most advanced form. The art of bodily manipulation was seen as a manual craft and separate from the learned medical profession. Until the 19th century the body was seen as a functional whole that interacted with its external environment. People though that diseases originated from the disruptions in the balance of humours. Diseases should be treated by changing the environment or the wat one lives to restore balance. This could also be restored through purgatives and bloodletting.
