Although we often look back at the past with a few nostalgic sighs, when it comes to a visit to the doctor, not many of us would like to step back in time. The fascinating field of the history of medicine is under the microscope this week at McMaster, with the arrival of Hooker Visiting professor Vivian Nutton.

Nutton, of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, specializes in the history of medicine of the classical tradition, particularly the second century Greek physician Galen, whose prolific writings exerted an enormous influence over early medical practitioners and medicine during the Renaissance.

Nutton's publications include the first ever edition and translation of Galen's On My Own Opinions and an edited issue of Renaissance Studies, Medicine in the Renaissance City (2001). He is also a series editor for Clio Medica: The Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine.

His visit to McMaster is hosted by the Departments of Classics and History, where McMaster researchers are also tapping the rich vein of medical history. These include the associate dean of humanities David Wright, who as the Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine holds a joint appointment between the Department of History and the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences.

Wright has worked on the confinement of the insane in 19th century Britain as well as lunacy in Canada in the past 200 years and is currently researching the dramatic influx of thousands of doctors and nurses in the late 1960s, who were trained outside of Canada and became front line workers.

“The History of Medicine as an academic field itself goes back hundreds of years,” says Wright. “There have always been physicians, formally or informally trained, who studied the history of their own practice.”

His colleague in history, Juanita De Barros, is undertaking a SSHRC-funded research project exploring the role of African-descended health workers in constructing and implementing public health and social welfare policies in the 19th and 20th century Caribbean.

Nutton's public lecture on Art, Anatomy and the Missing Leonardos takes place on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m in TSH Room 120. He will also be giving a seminar on A Century of Galen: From Windbag to World Author on Thursday, Nov. 8 at 3:30 p.m. in the DeGroote School of Business, Room 505, with reception to follow. All are welcome to attend.