Long, Long Before Obamacare

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Midday_111312_Hr_2_LotionsPotions.mp3

What was health care like in early America, before and after the revolution? Elaine Breslaw, retired professor of history at Morgan State University, provides a fascinating and skin-crawling chronicle of the 18th Century -- the practitioners and their practices, from purging to pain relief, and the whole realm of alternatives to the infection-fighting medicine that was being developed in Europe. Breslaw, a visiting scholar at the University of Tennessee, is the author of “Lotions, Potions, Pills, and Magic: Health Care in Early America."