A collection of readings on the past, present and future of alternative medicine in Britain, this volume covers such areas as acupuncture, homeopathy, osteopathy and spiritual healing. Special reference is made to the professionalization of medicine, which is seen as being of crucial importance.

Mike Saks: Introduction; I. Health Care in Britain Before the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Christina Larner: Healing in Pre-industrial Britain; Ann Oakley: The Wisewoman and the Doctor; Peter Wright: Astrology in Seventeenth-century England; Eric Maple: The Great Age of Quackery; Terry Parssinen: Medical Mesmerists in Victorian Britain; II. The Rise of Medical Orthodoxy and the Development of Alternative Medicine: Phillip Nicholls: Homeopathy in Britain after the Mid-nineteenth Century; Mary Chamberlain: The Old Wife, Pregnancy, and Birth Control; Paul Vaughan: 'Secret Remedies' in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries; Gerald Larkin: Orthodoxy and Osteopathic Medicine in the Inter-war Years; Brian Inglis: Unorthodox Medicine after the Establishment of the National Health Service; III. Alternative Medicine in Modern Britain: Jill Vincent: Self-help Groups and Health Care in Contemporary Britain; Gillian Allen and Roy Wallis: Pentecostalists as a Medical Minority; Stephen Fulder: Alternative Therapists in Britain; Mike Saks: The Paradox of Incorporation: Acupuncture and the Medical Profession in Modern Britain; IV. Alternative Medicine: The Future: Ruth West: Alternative Medicine: Prospects and Speculations; British Medical Association: Report on Alternative Medicine; British Holistic Medical Association: Response to the British Medical Association Report; Tom Huggon and Alan Trench: Brussels post-1992: Protector or Persecutor?