This series looks at the medical contributions and advances made over the centuries, from prehistoric times to the present day. Each book evaluates the major medical issues of the time and the key individuals who pushed medical knowledge into new territory. In this title, readers can discover how advances in technology and science brought new understanding about the causes of disease and how the body works. Improved public health measures and living standards meant people were better able to resist illness, and the growing professionalism of doctors and advances in surgical procedures saw the dawn of a new age in surgery, and laid the foundations for the improvements in medical treatment that were to come in the twentieth century.