Inhalt, Aufgaben und bisherige Leistungen der Hygiene. Zahlreiche statistische Erhebungen tiber die Sterblichkeitsverhaltnisse der jetzt lebenden Menschen liefern uns den Nachweis, daB wir von dem biblischen Ideal "Unser Leben wahret 70 Jahre" weit entfernt sind. Nur wenige Menschen erreichen dies hohe Ziel; weitaus die meisten werden in frtiherem Alter dahin gerafft, und in Wirklichkeit zeigt die Bewegung der Bevolkerung in den Kulturstaaten der Gegenwart auBerordentlich groBe Unterschiede, je nach Landern und Bevolkerungsgruppen. Ta belle l. Sterbetafel fUr das Deutsche Reich 1901-1910. Von Tausend sterben Mittlere Lebensdauer Zahl der zu Anfang der jahrIich bis zur Er- Alter in Jahren vom neb- nebenbezeichneten Alte- reichung der nachsten bezeichneten Alter an stufen Vberlebenden, in Altersstufe, gerechnet, vollen "Tausendfache Sterbe- "Absterbeordnung" "Lebenserwartung" wahrscheinlichkeit" Jahren: mann . weib . mann . weib . mann . weib . I I I 100000 100000 202,3 170,5 44,8 48,3 0 I I 39,8 38,7 1 79766 82952 55,1 57,2 76585 79761 14,9 14,6 56,4 58,5 2 9,5 9,3 56,2 3 75442 78594 58,3 74727 77867 6,9 6,8 55,8 57,9 4 74211 77 334 5,3 5,3 55,2 57,3 5 72827 75845 2,4 2,6 51,2 53,4 10 74887 2,8 3,0 46,7 49,0 15 72007 5,0 20 70647 73564 4,2 42,6 44,8 68881 71849 5,1 5,4 38,6 40,8 25 67092 69848 5,6 6,0 34,6 36,9 30 65104 67679 7,0 6,9 30,5 33,0 35 65283 9,2 7,7 26,2 40 62598 29,2 45 59405 62717 12,4 8,5 22,9 25,3 59812 17,0 11,3 19,4 21,4 50 55340 ]6,2 50186 55984 23,6 16,2 17,6 55 32,6"

Performance and medicine are now converging in unprecedented ways. London's theatres reveal an appetite for medical themes - John Boyega is subjected to medical experiments in Jack Thorne's Woycek, while Royal National Theatre produces a novel musical about cancer. At the same time, performance-makers seek to improve our health, using dance to increase mobility for those living with Parkinson's disease or performance magic as physiotherapy for children with paraplegia. Performance, Medicine and the Human surveys this emerging field, providing case studies based on the author's own experience of devising medical performances in collaboration with cancer patients, biomedical scientists and healthcare educators. Examining contemporary medical performance reveals an ancient preoccupation, evident in the practices of both theatre and healing, with the human. Like medicine, theatre puts the human on display in order to understand and, perhaps, alleviate the suffering inherent to the human condition. Medical practice constitutes a sort of theatre in which doctors, nurses and patients perform their humaneness and humanity. This insight has much to offer at a time when established notions of the human are being radically rethought, partly in response to emerging biomedical knowledge. Performance, Medicine and the Human argues that contemporary medical performance can shed new light on what it means to be human - and what we mean by the human, the humane, humanism and the humanities - at a time when these notions are being fundamentally rethought. Its insights are relevant to scholars in performance studies, the medical humanities, healthcare education and beyond.