Biomaterial Database

Introduction: the Cape Doctor in the nineteenth century. 2004

Harriet Deacon

Department of Historical Studies, UCT.

The Cape Doctor, named after the profession as well as the wind that sweeps the Cape Peninsula of dangerous miasmas, is a social history of medicine, seeking to place formal western medicine within its political, social and economic context. Besides Shula Marks' study of South African nurses, Divided Sisterhood, no previous work has brought such a breadth of material about South Africa's medical past under the framework of social history. This work provides clear evidence of the way in which the Cape medical profession excluded all but a few women and black practitioners, and discriminated along lines of race, class and gender in their practice, but it also moves beyond the classic revisionist tradition (documenting the emergence of a society divided along lines of race and gender) by providing examples of cultural crossover and medical pluralism.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D010820	Physicians	Individuals licensed to practice medicine.	Physician
D011287	Prejudice	A preconceived judgment made without factual basis.	Anti-Semitism,Islamophobia,Anti Semitism,Anti-Semitisms,Islamophobias,Prejudices
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012962	Sociology, Medical	The study of the social determinants and social effects of health and disease, and of the social structure of medical institutions or professions.	Medical Sociology,Sociology of Medicine
D013019	South Africa	A republic in southern Africa, the southernmost part of Africa. It has three capitals: Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), and Bloemfontein (judicial). Officially the Republic of South Africa since 1960, it was called the Union of South Africa 1910-1960.	Republic of South Africa,Union of South Africa
D049672	History, 19th Century	Time period from 1801 through 1900 of the common era.	19th Century History,19th Cent. History (Medicine),19th Cent. History of Medicine,19th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 19th Century,History of Medicine, 19th Cent.,History, Nineteenth Century,Medical History, 19th Cent.,Medicine, 19th Cent.,19th Cent. Histories (Medicine),19th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 19th (Medicine),Cent. History, 19th (Medicine),Century Histories, 19th,Century Histories, Nineteenth,Century History, 19th,Century History, Nineteenth,Histories, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 19th Century,Histories, Nineteenth Century,History, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Nineteenth Century Histories,Nineteenth Century History
D018595	Colonialism	The aggregate of various economic, political, and social policies by which an imperial power maintains or extends its control over other areas or peoples. It includes the practice of or belief in acquiring and retaining colonies. The emphasis is less on its identity as an ideological political system than on its designation in a period of history. (Webster, 3d ed; from Dr. J. Cassedy, NLM History of Medicine Division)