The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present (The Folio Society)

xxiii, 382; xii, 383-826 pp. Introduction by Jeremy Farrar. From the Palaeolithic era to the 20th century, the 'symbiosis of disease with society' becomes clear. The neolithic revolution may have solved starvation, but proximity to animals resulted in the transfer of pathogens and brought forth new afflictions: smallpox, influenzas and rhinoviruses (the common cold). War and colonisation could turn epidemics into pandemics, and cities, with their bustling populations and poor public health, remained deadly until the 19th century - proving, as Porter writes, that 'progress brings pestilence'. Frontispiece and 24 pages of colour and black-and-white plates in each volume 22 integrated black-and-white chapter-head illustrations