The New Poor Law (1834) transformed medical care in ways that have long been overlooked by historians. Sickness in the Workhouse illuminates this little understood area of poor law history through a close examination of two urban workhouses in the west midlands of England from 1834 until 1914. By observing day-to-day practice of the doctors and nurses, author Alistair Ritch offers a new perspective on workhouse medicine, emphasizing the significant role workhouse infirmaries played within the local health economy and challenging perceptions of their care as of inferior quality and of little benefit to patients.