Headaches inDomestic Medicine by William Buchan

Abstracts

In this paper, we consider the chapter on headaches contained in William Buchan’sDomestic Medicine, a book that enjoyed great success during the second half of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, and belongs to the series of public education treatises that began with the publication ofAvis au Peuple sur la Sante by Simon Andrè Tissot. In line with the ideals of the Enlightenment, Buchan’s aim was to satisfy the needs of people who had no opportunity of consulting a physician by providing them with information about the symptoms and treatment of the most common diseases. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the book is the space dedicated to preventive medicine. In the chapter on headaches, as well as dealing extensively with their etiology, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics and treatment within the conceptual context of humoral medicine, the author also proposed a number of preventive measures that can still be considered fully acceptable today.