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"Neither of meate nor drinke, but what the Doctor alloweth": Medicine amidst War and Commerce in Eighteenth Century Madras

Chakrabarti, Pratik (2006) "Neither of meate nor drinke, but what the Doctor alloweth": Medicine amidst War and Commerce in Eighteenth Century Madras. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 80 (1). pp. 1-38. ISSN 0007-5140. (Access to this publication is currently restricted. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:13073)

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Abstract

Madras in the eighteenth century was a site of continuous warfare sparked mostly by trading interests. This paper studies how these influences of hostility and commerce shaped the medical establishment of the English East India Company. It begins by analyzing the struggle of the medical establishment to cope with military and logistical requirements; it then shows how the Coromandel trade provided a peculiar dynamic to the practice of medicine in Madras. By aligning the history of medicine with that of trade, the paper traces the parallel trajectories of intellectual and material wealth. The development of modern medicine is seen as a process of adjusting to and engaging with diverse ideas and items—sometimes co-opting them, sometimes realigning them in new modes of production.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled keywords: Madras, "black doctor," surgeon, Country trade, bazaar, Tanjore pills, Coromandel, hospital, English East India Company
Subjects: A General Works > AZ History of Scholarship. The Humanities
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Funders: Wellcome Trust (https://ror.org/029chgv08)
Depositing User: Pratik Chakrabarti
Date Deposited: 05 Nov 2008 08:46 UTC
Last Modified: 12 Jul 2022 10:39 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/13073 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Chakrabarti, Pratik.

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