The greatest benefit to mankind : a medical history of humanity from antiquity to the present / Roy Porter ; introduced by Jeremy Farrar.

London : Folio Society, 2016.

2 volumes (xxiii, 826 pages, 50 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (some colour) ; 25 cm

Introduction -- The roots of medicine -- Antiquity -- Medicine and faith -- The medieval west -- Indian medicine -- Chinese medicine -- Renaissance -- The new science -- Enlightenment -- Scientific medicine in the nineteenth century -- Nineteenth-century medical care -- Public medicine -- From Pasteur to penicillin -- Tropical medicine, world diseases -- Psychiatry -- Medical research -- Clinical science -- Surgery -- Medicine, state and society -- Medicine and the people -- The past, the present and the future.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 693-742) and index.