Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Women's Health Care

professional physician, whose expertise was brought to bear on a whole range of active interventions in preserving or reclaiming physical and mental well-being. The physician was the subject, the patient his (overwhelmingly his) object. What has been called the "medical orthodoxy" of health care in the Victorian period held sway over the most scientifically advanced Anglo-European and American medical protocols (Hartman 176). Whatever the ailment, orthodox care tended to call for "heavy drug medication, surgery, and harsh or painful treatments" (Hartman 176). It should also be noted that these protocols were directed toward members of the upper and middle classes, who could pay sometimes large bills; the health-care options of the working classes were on a lower plane altogether, trickling down irregularly from the expert levels.

Women--that would be women of leisure--appear to have been special targets of a wide variety of drug mixtures. Bauer (157-9) cites the abundance of advertising and testimonials for tonics meant to "cleanse the blood, tone the system, increase its nutrition, and establish a healthy condition." Although the chemistry of the tonic concoctions seems to have been imperfectly understood, what was consistent about the pattern of tonic distribution to patients is that it was linked to extended supervised stays, marked by regimented health-improvement schedules, in sanatoriums or spas designed for the purpose. Such facilities were where patients betook themselves to take a variety of cures, with the desired result for women being that of curing them of being invalided.

The Battle Creek, Michigan, clinic of John Harvey Kellogg was an exemplar of the type. Kellogg also produced a hefty tome of general advice to women who needed to regain their health. His prescriptions for young ladies and mothers were highly specific and normative, with his object in view to crush the scourge of "chronic invalidism" associated with...

< Prev Page 2 of 18 Next >

More on Women's Health Care...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Women's Health Care. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:10, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682887.html