Owsei Temkin presents the history of epilepsy in Western civilization from ancient times to the beginnings of modern neurology. First published in 1945 and thoroughly revised in 1971, this classic work by one of the history of medicine's most eminent scholars now returns to print in a new softcover edition.

It is splendid news for all classicists, especially those interested in the history of women in antiquity that Owsei Temkin's translation of Soranus' Gynecology is back again in print ...thanks are due to the Johns Hopkins Press for reissuing Dr. Temkin's translation in paperback. Today's students in Women in Antiquity classes will now have full access to this important evidence for women's daily lives in the early Empire. Temkin draws upon his experiences as a physician to supplement Soranus's vague descriptions of medicines. The translation avoids modern medical terminology, keeping close to the original Greek.

"The fascinating story of how Hippocrates and the Oath (which is unlikely to have been written by the great Coan doctor himself) became Christianized is the theme of this wise and humane book... Historians, theologians, and doctors alike will benefit from this clear, learned, and courteous exposition of an enthralling theme." -- Vivian Nutton, Times Literary Supplement.

"A feast of citations from a staggering variety of sources... The reader can only salute [Temkin] as one of the greatest humanist physicians of our time." -- New England Journal of Medicine.

In Hippocrates in a World of Pagans and Christians, Temkin shows how the perennial appeal of Hippocratic practice helped establish the relationship between scientific medicine and monotheistic religion. After the first century, Hippocratic medicine competed with powerful beliefs in religious healers from Asclepius to Jesus. Yet the ascendance of Christianity, Temkin explains, did not diminish the stature of Hippocratic science. Hippocrates, after all, saw nature as a divine and orderly power that caused growth and supplied "health." Hippocratic doctors could easily exchange the cult of Asclepius for the worship of Christ. But they could not sacrifice their belief in nature as the basis of health, disease, and therapy without renouncing their science. In compromise, the Church accepted Hippocratic medicine with the proviso that the Christian physician shun all pagan or heretical interpretations of naturalism -- he must not, for example, believenature to be divine, the soul a mere function of the brain, or himself the true savior of the sick.

Published to commemorate the centennial of the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species," this volume brings together several important essays on the history of the idea of evolution. Included are discussions of Maupertuis, Buffon, Diderot, Kant, Herder, Lamarck, and Schopenhauer by such leading scholars as Arthur O. Lovejoy, Bentley Glass, Owsei Temkin, C. C. Gillispie, Francis C. Haber, and Jane Oppenheimer.

Preeminent historian of medicine Owsei Temkin brought to his writing an awesome range of scholarship, for he was at home in the classical, the medieval, and the modern eras. The essays gathered in this volume deal with all the topics that Temkin considered most important in his work. They were widely commended for their originality, intelligent analysis, and impressive continuity of thought.

Temkin explores the history of basic medical sciences, of health and disease, and of surgery and drug therapy, as well as general questions concerning the historical and philosophical approach to medicine from antiquity to the early twentieth century. In a retrospective introduction which gives the book its name, Temkin relates his writings to his career as a scholar in Germany and the United States. He situates the writings against the background of the development of the study of medical history and provides recollections of such prominent figures as Karl Sudhoff, Henry E. Sigerist, William H. Welch, and Richard H. Shryock.