All flesh is grass
I imagine that most doctors have had to treat at least one patient who has been unlucky or stupid enough […]
Mysterious illnesses, Remarkable recoveries
August 2015
Remarkable recoveries
Fingers crossed
A short but – to me – fascinating article from the Medico-Chirurgical Review. Surgeons are now quite adept at reattaching fingers,
Unfortunate predicaments
All’s well that ends well
A grisly tale, but one with a happy ending: John Nedham wrote to the Philosophical Transactions in 1756 with news
Hidden dangers
It makes you go blind, you know
Nineteenth-century medical journals were much preoccupied with the sin of self-harm. One authority on mental illnesses even suggested that masturbation
Unusual treatments
Mummies and rhubarb
I recently wrote about the horrifying animal remedies which one could buy in a London apothecary’s shop in the seventeenth century.
Bewildering research
Adventures in digestion
In the 1820s a young Canadian, Alexis St Martin, was shot in the stomach by a musket-ball. He recovered from the
Mysterious illnesses
The dreadful mortification
A case published in The Medical Museum of 1781 is a reminder of a world we have gratefully left behind;
The winged ones: insects in the stomach
In 1824 the Transactions of the Association of Fellows and Licentiates of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians in
Unusual treatments
Leeches: for external and internal use
If there’s one thing that everybody knows about early medicine, it’s the fact that doctors loved to use leeches. Attaching
Mysterious illnesses
The perpetual patient
In 1872 a case reported in The Lancet made quite a stir in the international journals. For once, it concerned