Medicine and charity in Georgian Bath : a social history of the General Infirmary, c. 1739-1830

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Bibliographic Information

Medicine and charity in Georgian Bath : a social history of the General Infirmary, c. 1739-1830

Anne Borsay

(The history of medicine in context)

Ashgate, c1999

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Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

A close and systematic analysis of the General Infirmary at Bath, which was founded in 1739 to grant "lepers and cripples, and other indigent strangers" access to the spa waters. Four main themes are pursued in order to locate the hospital within its economic, socio-cultural and political contexts: arrangements for management and finance under the conditions of a prospering commercial economy; the rewards and restrictions experienced by the physicians and surgeons who donated their professional services free of charge; the changing moral economy of charitable donors and recipients; and the construction of an integrated social and political elite around the physical and moral rehabilitation of the sick and poor. The example of Bath - a stylish resort whose visitors and residents exemplified the dynamics of fashionable philanthropy - is used to open up issues of significance to our understanding of Georgian Britain as a whole.

Table of Contents

  • Part 1 Introduction: Britain in the long 18th century. Part 2 The commercial economy: the promotion of civic virtue
  • the achievement of financial solvency. Part 3 The medical profession: the rewards of service
  • the limits of autonomy. Part 4 The moral economy: the obligations of paternalism
  • from mercatilism to laissez-faire. Part 5 Status, politics and power: the pursuit of social status
  • the integration of the political elite
  • the education of the lower orders. Part 6 Conclusion: medical charity and the middling sort.

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