The surgeon, the midwife, the quack : how to stay alive in Renaissance England / Alanna Skuse.

"In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a medical revolution was afoot. Physicians’ education was being formalised. Surgeons were documenting the intricacies of the human body with ever-greater skill. And, as European powers expanded into the New World, novel medicines and treatments were being discovered. Alanna Skuse ventures into the bustling medical marketplace of Renaissance England – a world of travelling surgeons, prosthetics craftsmen, faith healers and snake oil merchants. There's the domestic healer, always ready to dole out tonics and elixirs to her ailing neighbours; the expert midwife, called upon when the physician and surgeon failed; the trusted apothecary, his shop stocked with remedies from across the globe. Humane and entrancing, The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack reveals the people and stories behind a scientific revolution."--From publisher.