Dead from too much pie
Recovering from the annual excess of mince pies and roast potatoes, I was amused to come across this passage from […]
Notable deaths
December 2015
Sober up the nineteenth-century way
As Christmas celebrations fade away and battered livers dubiously await the assault of New Year’s Eve, now is a good
A Victorian hospital Christmas
As a seasonal antidote to all the misery and medical disasters usually documented on this blog, here is something genuinely
Hidden dangers
The hidden dangers of a Victorian Christmas
In the last (I promise) of my trilogy of Christmas disasters, here is a warning of the dangers of festive
The perils of the Christmas pudding
Continuing this blog’s recent Christmas theme, here’s a short article originally printed in the Medical Adviser in 1825. It was
Hidden dangers, Notable deaths
Death by Christmas dinner
If you haven’t yet bought everything for your Christmas dinner, this tale from almost 200 years ago may cause you
A beetle in the bladder
Insects and spiders colonising the human body were a regular feature of medical journal articles in the 19th century. For
Unfortunate predicaments
There was an old woman who swallowed a fork…
In 1868 the Medical and Surgical Reporter contained a report of an unusual case received from the physicians of the
Unfortunate predicaments
Somewhat silly in his manner
Fans of nominative determination – the idea that a person’s name can have a bearing on their choice of career
All hail the strawberry
A number of fruits and vegetables which are part of our regular diet were more prized in past centuries for