In 1827 The London Medical and Physical Journal published a short report on what it called a case of ‘infibulation’. I was unfamiliar with this term, so had to look it up. It usually refers to an extreme form of female genital mutilation (FGM), the barbaric practice intended to prevent women from enjoying – and … Continue reading The golden padlock
The human clarinet
At a meeting of the Glasgow Pathological and Clinical Society on November 13th 1877, members had a rare treat. The British Medical Journal for the following month takes up the story: Dr. David Foulis showed the parts removed by him in the operation of excision of the larynx, viz.: the cricoid and thyroid cartilages. The … Continue reading The human clarinet
An extraordinary surgical operation
Last week I came across an article which took my breath away. It was published in 1858, in an American journal, the Medical and Surgical Reporter, and it describes an operation of such audacity and skill that I can’t believe it isn’t better known. This is how it was reported: At the request of a … Continue reading An extraordinary surgical operation
Like finding a needle in a pharynx
In November 1828 several English-language journals picked up a case which had appeared in the Revue Medicale, a French medical journal, the previous month. It begins promisingly: A man, aged twenty-five years, was irritating his nostril with a needle… As you do. …when by some accident he suffered it to enter the nostril through which … Continue reading Like finding a needle in a pharynx
An abnormal secretion
This was the front page story in The Lancet on July 11th 1835. It’s a glorious case, but I think my favourite thing about it is the inclusion of the word ‘abnormal’ in the headline: can you imagine such an emission of milk ever being ‘normal’? It was reported by a Swiss medic, a Dr … Continue reading An abnormal secretion
The boy who got his wick stuck in a candlestick
The year is 1827, and if you wish to apprise yourself of the latest and most important developments in medicine you could hardly do better than browse the pages of The London Medical and Physical Journal. It is everything a medical journal should be: up-to-date, authoritative, and – above all – serious. What, for instance, … Continue reading The boy who got his wick stuck in a candlestick
A freak accident
In March 1827 The London Medical Repository and Review included a short report of an inquest which had been held a couple of weeks earlier. The deceased was a small child, whose name is not revealed – and since children were often referred to at this date as ‘it’, it is not even possible to … Continue reading A freak accident
Painful news from the Bobbin Factory
Here’s something that will make you wince, and then marvel at the human body’s recuperative abilities. In 1849 Dr Thomas Sanborn, a surgeon from Newport in New Hampshire, wrote to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal: A young man, aged 23 years, engaged in the Bobbin Factory, was caught, while standing over a revolving arbor … Continue reading Painful news from the Bobbin Factory
A large portion of chin
One night in May 1832 the duty medics at St Thomas’s Hospital in London suddenly had a particularly difficult case to deal with. It was subsequently reported in the London Medical and Surgical Journal: Joseph B. aged 24, a Frenchman, of sanguine temperament, whilst partially inebriated, on the evening of May, in an hotel in Gracechurch Street, … Continue reading A large portion of chin
An unwanted buzz cut
In 1869 The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal reported the following unusual case which had taken place a few years earlier in California: On our recent tour through Mendocino county, we made the acquaintance of B. F. Chase, a foreman in the Caspar mill, who received a wound in July, 1864, the nature of which, … Continue reading An unwanted buzz cut