APOTHECARYS WIFE: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF MEDICINE (PB)

The running joke in Europe for centuries was that anyone in a hurry to die should call the doctor. For effective treatment, the ill and injured went to the women in their lives. This system lasted hundreds of years - yet somehow, between 1650 and 1740, the domestic female and the physician switched places. She became the ineffective, potentially dangerous quack; he the knowledgeable, trustworthy expert. Drawing on a vast body of archival material, Karen Bloom Gevirtz depicts the extraordinary cast of characters who brought about this transformation – and what it means today.