Historians describe the ‘long 19th century’ as an age of empire, characterized by expansion and industrialization. The period witnessed the evolution of Western medicine into something uniquely ‘modern’, rooted in the shift to industrial capitalism and encroachment of government monitoring to state health, as well as the colonial mindset that drove overseas travel and encounters with unfamiliar populations, climates and disease. More than ever before, food, drugs, people and sickness circumvented the globe, crossing borders and prompting enormous changes in the way people...