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Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 2005 60(1):1-41; doi:10.1093/jhmas/jri001
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© Oxford University Press 2005; all rights reserved.

Between Galen, Geddes, and the Gael: Arthur Brock, Modernity, and Medical Humanism in Early-Twentieth-Century Scotland

David Cantor1

1 Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, Executive Plaza North, Suite 2025, Bethesda, MD 20892-7309. E-mail: cantord{at}mail.nih.gov or cantord1{at}mail.nih.gov.

Arthur Brock (1879–1947) is generally remembered as the physician who treated poet Wilfred Owen for shell shock and as the translator of Galen and other ancient physicians. He was also a key figure in the early-twentieth-century humanist revival within medicine. Brock's interest in humanism, I argue, was inspired by a broader concern about modernity and by a desire to return medicine and society to the more harmonious, organic existence that he believed was characteristic of ancient Greece and could still be found among "primitive" peoples, such as the Scottish Gaels. This article explores Brock's anxieties about modernity and its relations to his interests in ancient and "primitive" peoples; to his medical thought and practice; to his interests in history, sociology, language, and translation; and to his involvement in the social and political life of Edinburgh and North Queensferry, where he moved in 1925. Crucially, it shows how all these interests and activities were influenced by Brock's mentor, Edinburgh polymath Patrick Geddes. The article concludes with a discussion of Brock's place in early-twentieth-century medical humanism.

Key Words: Arthur J. Brock, Patrick Geddes, ancient Greece, ancient medicine, "Back to the Land," cancer, Celtic revivalism, classical revivalism, Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh, ergotherapy, Gael, medical humanism, medical sociology, neurasthenia, North Queensferry, Scotland, shell shock, Wilfred Owen.


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