Sep 25, 2020 09:00:00

How did the spread of imperialism change the way medicine should be?

The epidemic of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has highlighted the fact that health problems affect the workforce and the economy. It seems that the awareness that 'health problems are directly linked to political and economic problems' developed during the modern

imperialist era, and Boston Review , an American political, social, and literary magazine, said that the imperialist era was the way medicine should be. It explains that it has changed.

How Early Modern Empire Changed Medicine | Boston Review
https://bostonreview.net/science-nature/zachary-dorner-how-early-modern-empire-changed-medicine

A long time in Europe, a classic since ancient India and Greece humorism is, has been used as a theory to explain the disease. The four-body fluid theory is based on the four-body fluid theory, which uses four types of 'blood, mucus, yellow bile, and black bile' as the basic human fluids, and the imbalance of the basic fluids deteriorates health. It has been thought that balancing can help maintain good health.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the imperialist nation, which required a large labor force, crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a large ship to enslave more than 12 million Africans from the African continent. In particular, Britain, France, Spain, etc. organized large-scale navies and conducted expeditions, warning with other countries and colonizing overseas territories.

One of the problems in these movements was the disease that struck sailors and those who settled in foreign colonies. Illness rages regardless of people's class and skin color, and in the war of the 18th century, more soldiers died of illness than they died by engaging with enemies.

The spread of illness not only lost lives, but also caused political and social problems. For example, during the Nine Years' War , which broke out at the end of the 17th century, the disease that spread to the Royal Navy on an expedition to the Caribbean Sea saturated military medical services. Many sailors died despite using drugs provided by the London Medical College, abandoning the planned attack on Martinique in 1693, and several ships in 1695. It seems that he sank due to lack of personnel.

As a result of military operations failing due to illness, the Navy is forced to reassess its traditional medical system with an emphasis on humorism. In the first place, the humor theory emphasizes the individual's temperament, constitution, and environment, so it was inefficient from the viewpoint of treating a large number of sick people at once. Therefore, the Navy sought medicine that could be adapted to a wider range of people, focusing on curing illness rather than fluid balance, rather than complex and personalized medicine that was tailored to one's constitution.

Under these circumstances, the idea was that 'disease has a specific property in itself and attacks the body from the outside.' With the birth of the concept that diseases come from outside the body, the development and spread of medicines to treat specific diseases has progressed, and it is said that it spread in Europe in the 18th century. While this idea was certainly rational and saved many lives, Boston Review points out that there is a growing movement to see each patient as an 'alternative.'

The idea of treating illness with universally applicable drugs was a cost-effective way to treat a particular illness and was effective in treating

plantations and outbreaks on board. The high morbidity and mortality of illnesses have a negative impact on military expeditions and crop yields, so the proportion of drug purchases in the imperial nation's spending has increased.

In London in the mid-18th century, pharmacists and chemists formed partnerships to mass-produce medicines to meet overseas medical demands, and medicines became a major trade item. As medicines have become indispensable for slave plantations and ship expeditions, how to produce medicines in their own country was important for a commercial victory over European rivals, Boston Review said. I will.

At first glance, the situation of being treated with the same medicines, whether black slaves working in the colonies or European aristocrats, seems to diminish racial discrimination. However, in reality, the concept of 'a particular drug is universally effective' was used to strengthen racial ideology throughout slavery.

The slave class was forced to work in a harsh environment, so their health was inferior to that of the ruler white people. However, the difference in health status between the two was not thought to be due to slave labor, but to the racial factor that 'blacks are prone to racial illness'. ..

Although racial ideology in the medical field has diminished considerably in modern times, the still built-in racial bias in the healthcare system is often a problem. The move to link healthcare delivery to labor and productivity is likely to continue in a capitalist society, Boston Review said.