Includes bibliographical references (p. [143]-156) and index.

Sickness and health, a global concern -- Before the advent of acute epidemic diseases : pharaonic Egypt and the preconquest New World : ext inct societies -- Pluralism in ancient Greece -- The evolution of medic al systems in the Middle East c. 632 CE to modern times -- Health and d isease on the Indian subcontinent before 1869 -- Medicine and disease i n China : concepts and practices from c. 1900 BCE to 1840 CE -- The glo balization of disease after 1450 -- Medicine and disease in the West, 1 054-1840 -- The birth of modern scientific medicine : the German lands contrasted with the United Kingdom and the British in India -- Health a nd medicine in the world, 1940 to the present.