Health and Society in Bengal: A Selection from Late 19th-Century Bengali Periodicals

Description

This remarkable volume discusses, for the first time, the nature of the interaction between western medical science and local knowledge and practices in late 19th-century Bengal through excerpts from important Bengali medical and scientific journals published between 1850 and 1900. The articles reproduced in this volume not only reveal the various ways in which western medicine combined with local practices, but also depict the customs, traditions, social practices, religion, and economy of 19th-century Bengal. Overall, this important book shows how modern knowledge practices transplanted on to a foreign society were infiltrated in various ways by local practices and knowledge. Contents Preface Introduction: Health, Science and Society in 19th-Century Bengal • Pradip Kumar Bose CHAPTER 1: Indigenous Medicine and Medical Science 1.1 Are the Ayurvedas Scientific o r Unscientific? 1.2 Aryan Health Sciences 1.3 On Health: Hindu Ayurveda and Western Modes of Treatment 1.4 Dishonour to Kaviraji by Fraudulent Advertising 1.5 What is Ayurvedic Medicine? 1.6 Treatment of Fevers by the Unani School of Medicine CHAPTER 2: National Health 2.1 The Revival of National Physical Health 2.2 Indigenous Medicine and its Teacher 2.3 Precepts for Good Health 2.4 Testing Native Diet 2.5 Indigenous Health Science 2.6 National Health-How Marriage Affects It 2.7 Cogitations on Marriages 2.8 The Context of Health: Dowry and Women's Health CHAPTER 3: Sexuality and Sexual Relations 3.1 Indigenous Health Science: Sexual Intercourse between Man and Woman 3.2 Unproductive Male or Sterile Female? 3.3 Protest-Unproductive Male or Sterile Female? 3.4 The Practice of Masturbation among Boys and Youths 3.5 The Degeneration of india CHAPTER 4: Public Health and Communicable Diseases 4.1 Bubonic Plague or the Epidemic 4.2 Plague in Calcutta 4.3 Plague and the Results of Vaccination 4.4 The Past and Present Condition of Calcutta during Outbreaks of Plague 4.5 Plague Commission 4.6 Prevention of Plague 4.7 Destroying the Germs of Plague 4.8 Plague and the Treatment for Snake-Venom 4.9 Plague and Devotional Song (Samkirtana) 4.10 Government’s Efforts Regarding the Prevention of Plague 4.11 Our Opinion about Plague 4.12 Again Plague 4.13 Opinion of Different Doctors about Malaria 4.14 Pox in Calcutta 4.15 Health Conditions in Calcutta CHAPTER 5: Practice and Development of Medical Education 5.1 Calcutta Medical School 5.2 The World of Physicians of Bengal Notes on Periodicals Glossary Index About the Editor