Article ID: CBB717642249

‘The Chearful Haunts’: John Armstrong (1709–1779), Physician, Poet, Satirist and Leveller of Medical Knowledge (2015)

unapi

John Armstrong, the first honours graduate of the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine, was famous in his day for a lengthy didactic poem entitled The Art of Preserving Health (1744). He is now obscure except to scholars specializing in the 18th century and, when discussed at all, often dismissed as a failed physician who wrote mediocre poetry in a quest for money and fame. A new exegesis by Adam Budd exhumes Armstrong as an original voice who offered timely and reassuring advice to Britons as they braced for another epidemic of plague; who depicted illness through the lens of a vulnerable and sympathetic physician, and who was perhaps above all else a leveller of medical knowledge. Elaborating on Budd's thesis, it would seem that Armstrong, a complicated man, has frequently been misread and was in some ways ahead of his time.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB717642249/

Similar Citations

Book Coyer, Megan J.; Shuttleton, David; (2014)
Scottish Medicine and Literary Culture, 1726--1832 (/isis/citation/CBB001553360/)

Article Umanath, Sharda; Sarezky, Daniel; Finger, Stanley; (2011)
Sleepwalking through History: Medicine, Arts, and Courts of Law (/isis/citation/CBB001211237/)

Article Maurizio Baldin; (2012)
Su alcune patologie in Plaut. Trin. 523-544 (/isis/citation/CBB033441703/)

Thesis Rosner, Lisa; (1986)
Students and apprentices: Medical education at Edinburgh University, 1760-1810 (/isis/citation/CBB001564424/)

Article Mackie, Erin; (2013)
Swift and Mimetic Sickness (/isis/citation/CBB001201894/)

Article Carmody, John; (2013)
Medical History: Feeling No Pain (/isis/citation/CBB001320435/)

Article Hull, Gillian; (2007)
John MacCulloch, MD (1773--1835): A Dedicated Geologist (/isis/citation/CBB000831680/)

Book Holmes, Martha Stoddard; (2004)
Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture (/isis/citation/CBB000771239/)

Book Hannah C. Tweed; Diane G. Scott; (2018)
Medical Paratexts from Medieval to Modern: Dissecting the Page (/isis/citation/CBB835785112/)

Article Boyle, Marjorie O'Rourke; (2008)
William Harvey's Anatomy Book and Literary Culture (/isis/citation/CBB000774859/)

Book Daniela De Liso; Valeria Merola; (2020)
La medicina dell’anima: prosa e poesia per il racconto della malattia (/isis/citation/CBB600494617/)

Book Emanuele Stolfi; (2022)
Come si racconta un'epidemia: Tucidide e altre storie (/isis/citation/CBB569097952/)

Authors & Contributors
Marco Canani
Baldin, Maurizio
Hannah C. Tweed
Emanuele Stolfi
Merola, Valeria
Diane G. Scott
Concepts
Medicine and culture
Medicine
Medicine and literature
Medical education and teaching
Disease and diseases
Disabilities; disability; accessibility
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
Modern
Ancient
Early modern
Places
Scotland
Edinburgh
Great Britain
United Kingdom
Glasgow (Scotland)
England
Institutions
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh Physiological Society
University of St. Andrews
University of Glasgow
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment