www.greencol l ege .ubc .ca

Mark Harrison is Professor of the History of Medicine and Director of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine in the University of Oxford, where he is also a Fellow of Green Templeton College. He has published widely on the history of disease and medicine, especially in relation to the history of war and imperialism from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. His study Medicine and Victory: British Military Medicine in the Second World War (Oxford University Press) was awarded the Templer Medal Book Prize for 2004. He is currently working on a history of medicine and British imperial expansion, c.1700-1850. His visit to Green College, UBC, is part of a celebration of the scholarly life and achievements of the late Dr. William C. Gibson (1913-2009), Head of the Department of the History of Medicine and Science at UBC from 1959 to 1978 and one of the persons chiefly responsible for the creation of the Woodward Biomedical Library.

MeDiCine anD MUniFiCenCe in arCOT: PHysiC anD POLiTiCs in an inDian COUrT, 1744-1801 5-6:30 pm, Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Coach House, Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, UBC, with reception to follow

Green College The University of British Columbia

6201 Cecil Green Park roadVancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

tel: (604) 822-8660

CeCil H. and ida green visiting professor

mark Harrison

THis TaLk is OPen TO THe PUBLiC. sPaCe is LiMiTeD - PLease arriVe earLyFor More inForMation: WWW.GreenCOLLeGe.UBC.Ca Or GC.eVenTs@UBC.Ca

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was not uncommon for European practitioners to find employment at Indian courts, where they worked alongside practitioners belonging to indian medical traditions. While they often reflected critically on Indian anatomical and physiological knowledge, their basic understanding of physic was not unlike that of their indian counterparts, and they were eager to obtain knowledge of indian materia medica. This interest in local drugs persisted through the eighteenth century but by the late 1700s european practitioners became self-consciously rationalistic, seeing indian medical systems as mired in superstition. in view of this, the employment of europeans in indian courts became more problematic. examining the south indian province of arcot (a largely autonomous part of the Mughal empire), the lecture considers patronage and medical practice at a crucial time in its court’s history.