Reseñas

no es obstáculo, sino solo advertencia, para recomendar su lectura a un público general y a quienes leen Dynamis, en particular, por tratarse de una obra innovadora, sugerente y m'tica, a la vez que formativa e informativa. Por íin, añadir que se trata de una edición bastante cuidada, con referencias exhaustivas a las traducciones castellanas de las obras citadas (no obstante alguna ausencia importante, como en la p. 35, n. 36, que se olvida la versión castellana del artículo de Joan Scott, El género: una categona útil para el análisis histórico, Valencia, Aifons el Magniinim, 1990). Las ilustraciones tienen una calidad de impresión mejorable y es seguro que la colección Feminismos ganaría con la incorporación de un apartado bibliográfico final y con la de índices analíticos, de tan escasa tradición en la divulgación científica española, que posibilitaran una lectura alternativa. Malcolm Laurence CAMERON (1993). AngleSaxon Medicine. Cambndge, Cambridge University Press, 21 1 pp. ISBN: (1521-40521-1. M. L. Carneron's AngloSaxon Medicine is a monograph about the practice of medicine in Anglesaxon times. References to previous works on this subject are constantly made specially to Payne's English Medicine in Angldaxon Times (1904) and Grattan & Singer's AngloSaxon Magic and Medicine lllustrated Specidyfi-om the Sernipagan Text ~Lacnungax (1952). The author tries to prove in his work that, in contrast with Singer's opinion that Anglo-Saxon medicine was filled with superstition and magic, and with useless remedies, practices and theories, and only few rational elements, the AngleSaxons practiced rational medicine and the magical elements were only a small part in it, and that we cannot apprehend it correctly if we do not place this practice within the right context of its place and time. To achieve his objectives, the author begins with a close exarnination of the conditions for health and disease at that time. He discuses the living conditions of the people in England, paying close attention to housing, diet, working, knowledge of illnesses or symptoms, and knowledge of remedies for illnesses. Likewise, he gives us a view of other social conditions which are important, so that we can place ourselves in the right position to understand the practice of medicine in medieval England. In this line, he states that the role of the physician was to prescribe medicines, bleed his patients, prescribe diets, and most importantly to offer support to his patients in the hope that recovery was posible. He gives an account of the different Anglo-Saxon medical texts, being these, DERMS. Acta Hisp. Med. Sci. Hist Illw., 15,1995,487-539. those written originally in Old English, those which are traslations kom Latin sources, and those written in Latin and proved to have been used by the hglo- Saxons. Aü these texts are used throughout the whole work as the main sources to prove Cameron's hypothesis. The author makes a good description of aii of them, placing them within the posible different trends in medicine at that time. We are provided with many quotations from the different sources in the original languages of the texts (Old English, Latin, and Greek) which are also translated into Present Day English, so that the information becomes accesible to nontrained readers of those languages. He analyses in depth the native element in the leechbooks and compares them with their closest analogue sources to achieve the conclusion that there must had been older compilations of recipes in Old English that have not survived. He also dedicates a chapter to discuss the *Materia Medican of the Anglo- Saxons, and regarding to this matter, he points out again that Singer's opinion that the remedies were impossible to prepare may be not true. The trade of goods from the East allowed Anglo-Saxon physicians to acquire the imported substances required for the preparations. On the other hand, he states that the climatic conditions of Britain were not the same in the Early Middle Ages and thus, many herbs could grow without any dficulty. Two chapters are dedicated to discuss rational medicine and magical medicine, understanding rational medicine as that based on plant remedies, regardless of their effectiveness, and here he tries to prove that there are many elements to believe that the remedies could be helpful. With the help of modern physiology and pharmacology, he examines the properties of the plants and he claims that some of the preparations were the result of a long and patient observation. The magic element in Anglo-Saxon medicine plays, on the other hand, an important role, according to the author. Although being, at first glance, useless, in the context of Anglo-Saxon England, it represented a hope for the patient who finnly believed in the effectiveness of magic. The last three chapters are oriented towards the examination of particular aspects of the medical practice such as phlebotomy, surgery and gynecology. As phlebotomy is concerned, the author's opinion is that it was not so widely practiced as in the Mediterranean culture, since Anglo-Saxons did not pay so much attention to the theory of humours. Surgery is also believed to have been a not very cornmon practice among the Anglo-Saxons, who probably were not very well trained for practicing it. This work represents a more modern approach to the study of Anglo-Saxon DWAMIS. Acta Hisp. Med. Su. Hist Illus., 15, 1995, 487-539. medicine, providing empirical data to support a thesis that was defended by Payne at the turn of the tsventieth centwy, and giving a wider spectrum of what Angle Saxon medicine was like, since the study is based in most of the relevant texts of that period. Maxirniano LEMOS (1991). História da Medicina em Portugal. Doctrinas e instituicoes. 2 vols. Lisboa, Publicacoes Dom Quxote/Ordem dos Médicos. ISBN: 972-20-0835-8, 972-20-0836-6. Con la reedición de este libro, la Biblioteca da Ordem dos Medicos, en colaboración con las Publicacoes Dom mote, pretende iniciar una nueva colección de monografias sobre la historia de la medicina portuguesa. La edición original se publicó en 1899 en un momento de auge de la disciplina en el país vecino, precedido por los Archivos de História da Medicina Portugueza, sin duda una de las más tempranas revistas históricemédicas. Su autor, Maximiano Lemos junior se graduó en 1881 en la Escola Médicc-Cirúrgica de la Universidad de Oporto con una disertación sobre la medicina en el Portugal de finales del siglo XVIII. Desde entonces y hasta su muerte, ocurrida en 1923, publicó un centenar de trabajos, entre los que destacan las biografías de Amato Lusitano, Abraham Zacuto y Ribeiro Sánchez. Lejos ya del modelo bio-bibliográfico imperante en la mayor parte de la historiografía del siglo XIX, Lemos concedió mayor relevancia en su obra a la evolución de la enseñanza y al progreso de los saberes médicos. De ahí la coherencia del subtitulo, doctrinas e instituciones, que actúa de hilo conductor a lo largo de los cuatro grandes apartados en que se ordena el texto. El primero de ellos corresponde al período que media entre el nacimiento del reino de Portugal en el siglo XII y la fundación de la Universidad de Coimbra en 1288; el siguiente apartado, que se extiende por la Baja Edad Media, concluye en uno de los hitos de la medicina lisboeta: la creación del Hospital de Todos los Santos en 1504; el tercer apartado llega hasta la reforma pombalina de los estudios médicos, en plena Ilustración y el cuarto y último se cierra en 1825, con la creación de las escuelas médicoquirúrgicas. Se trata de una correcta edición, que incluye, además del texto original, la biografía de Maximiano Lemos que escribiera Hernani Monteiro para la Historia do Ensino Médico no Porto (Porto, 1925). Los índices onomásticos y temático, elaborados por Man'a Olívia Rúber de Meneses y Arnélia Ricon Ferraz, facilitan la consulta de la obra y la hacen mucho más manejable para el lector actual. DYNAMIS. Acta Hisp. Med. Su. Hist. Illus., 15, 1995, 487-539.