Domestic Medicines. An Irreverent Look at Health Education

The thirteenth century Regimen Sanitatis of Salerno, quoted here in a translation by Sir John Harington was merely the forerunner of many books on the maintenance of health. Such books, written by doctors for members of the general public give, I submit, a more accurate view of the state of medical belief and practise than do many that are written by doctors for doctors; they deserve to be subjected to scholarly analysis. Unfortunately they are too diverting. Roughly contemporaneous with Harington's translation were books such as the Garden of Health, the Castell <;f Health, the Breviary of Health and the Haven of Health. The latter, by Thomas Coghan is addressed to students