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Oxbow says: The long journey of the medical profession from ancient times to the present day has not been a long continuum of improvements in making people better. As well as discoveries and innovations, there have been obstacles, resistance and failures, bad medical practice and thinking and 'doctors doing harm'. David Wootton's book presents a concise general history of medicine focusing on the treatments, and doctors, that did more harm than good. Bloodletting for example, used for hundreds of years, spread infection, weakened the patient and in many cases, led to their death, whilst early hospitals helped to spread disease. From Hippocrates in the fifth century BC to the modern day, Bad Medicine takes a fascinating look at the proliferation of bad medical practice up until the mid-19th century and explains why 1865 was a major turning point in the progress of medicine.