Medical Connections and Exchanges in the Early Modern World

Abstract

For most of human history there have been extensive exchanges of medical information all over Eurasia. Some diseases were considered to be geographically determined, and hence had to be cured using local knowledge. Other ailments were found in many places, but cures could differ according to location. Most healers, whether book based or experiential, took a non-judgemental approach to different healing methods, as seen especially in India in the early colonial period.

Keywords

• Medical history
• Portuguese Goa
• folk medicine
• healers
• Islamic medicine