In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the approach to medicine was vastly different from today. Health is now recognised, at least in most European countries, as a universal right, but what was it like in the past? How did social and political boundaries affect access to treatment, and what were the treatments of the day? This unit examines how Scottish healthcare institutions were influenced by these underlying social, economic, political and cultural contexts. This study unit is just one of many that can be found on LearningSpace, part of OpenLearn, a collection of open educational resources from The Open University. Published in ePub 2.0.1 format, some feature such as audio, video and linked PDF are not supported by all ePub readers.