Within cultural history, histories of the body and of health have long been important foci of research. Examining how people in the past gave meaning to their bodies and used those meanings to attend to their bodies has interested cultural historians both from the standpoint of discursive activity and practical agency. The history of medicine, too, has in the last few decades seen a turn toward meaning-making and experience as well as accounting for the patients’ or laypersons’ viewpoints – that is, a turn toward medical culture, broadening earlier perspectives on the history of medical science. ¹