Three hundred years of family health care: some perspectives.

Many medical texts have been produced in the past to help the ordinary individual and his family care for themselves, without resorting to the services of a physician. Five "home care" books were randomly selected for study from the many hundreds spanning a period of approximately 300 years, up to the early 20th century. It is likely that these books, which dealth with a whole range of problems including morality, religion, and lifestyle, had a significant impact on the attitudes of society, many of which persist to this day. The importance of environment and natural therapies stressed in these books has been reemphasized in recent years.