Quantification and Measurement in British Health Advice, c. 1670-1830 Diet, Exercise, and Body Weight in Iatromechanics

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Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine

Quantification and Measurement in British Health Advice, c. 1670-1830

Diet, Exercise, and Body Weight in Iatromechanics

Marsha Wübbels

History / Europe / General

This open access book explores how medical advice on diet, exercise, and body weight evolved in Britain between 1670 and 1830. Focusing on the growing use of measurement and quantification, it shows how ideas of a ‘healthy’ body were defined and debated in medical literature. Bringing together three topics rarely examined in combination, the study offers a fresh perspective on eighteenth-century health practices. Drawing primarily on printed health guides, alongside letters and diaries, it argues that the period from 1680 to 1780 marked a formative moment in the development of modern health advice.

Marsha Wübbels is a historian of medicine and the body. Having studied and taught as a Postgraduate Teaching Associate at the University of Exeter in the UK, she now works in student services.Marsha's research examines how the human body was imagined, measured, and treated in the long eighteenth century.


Publication Date: 21 November 2026
Publisher: Wellcome Trust
Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN-13: 9783032327598
Format: Hardback

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