International Journal of Epidemiology 2002;31:698-699
© International Epidemiological Association 2002
Book Review |
Bodies Politic: Disease, Death and Doctors in Britain, 1650–1900. R Porter, London: Reaktion Books 2001, pp. 304, £25. ISBN 1-86189-094-X.
Social scientists, or at least a subset of them, have recently become more interested in the visual, in both theoretical and methodological terms.1,2 This may be due to a realisation that we live in what Jay refers to as an increasingly ‘ocularcentric’ world3—where the image is central to contemporary Western life. As Porter's ‘select bibliography’ at the end of his book suggests, the study of images in their historical context, and in relation to science and medicine in particular, is also a burgeoning field of scholarship. However, this is a new area of research for Porter; as he himself points out he has only recently begun to grapple with visual evidence.
The book looks at the story that historical pictures have to tell about the body, disease and medicine, although as Porter informs us, the genre of etchings, cartoons and drawings that he refers to were in fact usually presented not as stand alone pictorial devices but in conjunction with text; the verbal and the visual were fused. The first chapter is entitled ‘Framing the Picture’. Here Porter jumps straight in—describing the particulars of selected prints, immersing the reader in historical detail and anecdote—occasionally offering a generalizing, contextualizing comment to help the reader find their way. At the end of the chapter Porter (finally) explains what the book is about:
‘This is a book, I wish to make clear, about the culture conveying the understanding of the body, the quest for health, and the practice of medicine. Alongside the tales and teachings embedded in texts, visual images form an important element. Prints and fictions, together provided guides as to what was to be thought, said and done in painful, shameful and potentially life-threatening situations. The chapters that follow explore such images, verbal and visual, within the wider context of representations at large.’ (p. 34)The following chapters travel through two and a half centuries in England and consider public representations of health, illness and the practice of medicine, and the shifting culture of embodiment. Early chapters (2. The Body Grotesque and Monstrous; and 3. The Body Healthy and Beautiful) refer mostly to plates from the 18th century (though it includes plates ranging from the 6th to the 19th centuries). Then, the prevailing view was to dismiss doctors as ineffective quacks, the depiction of medicine was thus as ‘a costume drama or a travelling circus, embodied in performance, rhetoric and ritual’ (p. 272).
The next chapter (4. Imagining Disease) covers the visualization of symptoms of disease and diagnosis, variously showing the victims' illnesses as sympathetic, ridiculous or self-inflicted. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on representations of practitioners and patients respectively, though it seems fair to say that Porter seems more interested in the former. The images in chapter 5 are for the main part straightforward, serious portraits (though there is one caricature of a doctor taking snuff and a photograph of an 18th century gold-headed cane); in chapter 6 the plates are more varied. Chapter 7 and 8 (Outsiders and Intruders; Professional Problems) revert to focusing on the portrayal of the medical profession—the imagery of self-promotion and professionalism. Chapter 9 (The Medical Politician and the Body Politic) looks at the politicization of the body and the medicalization of politics. This chapter contains the most gory images—madness, dissection, cannibalism and plenty of diarrhoea. By contrast the final chapter (10. Victorian Developments) contains rather more sedate portrayals, as the medical profession gained power and prestige and women were included among their ranks.
This will no doubt be a fascinating book for many readers, but some may be left craving a more contemporary analysis of images of health and medicine. The book stops short of the 20th century but is at its most interesting when comparisons and connections are made to current events and representations. Although clearly seduced by the visual (the book contains 137 illustrations, 39 in full colour) Porter has in no way abandoned text, his characteristic style remains, and it is (for this reader at least) overwhelmingly wordy and at times bombastic. In addition, Porter appears to treat visual sources in the same manner as he uses other historical sources; comments on the selected plates are for the most part confined to remarks placed under the illustration rather than being embedded into the main text. Sadly, the production of the book has also failed to give primacy to the visual material—plates that ought to be reproduced as full pages are reproduced at such a diminutive size that the detail would only be visible with the aid of a magnifying glass.
References
1 Rose G. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. Sage: London, 2001.
2 Woodiwiss A. The Visual in Social Theory. Athlone Press: London, 2001.
3 Jay M. Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth Century French Thought. California University Press: Berkeley, 1993.
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