Here’s an arresting story from 1870, reported to the Chicago Medical Times by a Dr J.F. Snyder:
James Thompson, sixty years of age, stout and robust, usually of active habits, suddenly commenced declining in health, without apparent cause. When I was consulted, he had been, as he expressed it, “under the weather for five or six weeks.” His symptoms were … Read more
An essay by Dr Robert Graves of Dublin, published in The London Medical and Surgical Journal in 1835, contains this seasonal gem:
When three Roman youths, residing at Padua, had bought a lamb, and had eaten part of it on Easter day, 1562, several pieces of the remainder kept till the day following, shone like so many candles, when they … Read more
Eels seem to have featured regularly in this blog, for some reason. First there was the physician who had a shocking experience with an electric eel, and more recently we’ve had the dubious tale of the boy with an eel in his stomach.
Here’s another story involving an ingested eel, and much more besides. In 1826 The London Medical … Read more
This blog usually takes a fairly light-hearted approach to its subject: I tend to look for cases which arouse amusement as well as horror. While looking through the archives of the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal I came across this story which is, well, not a barrel of laughs. But I’ve decided to include it, because while the details are … Read more
In 1837 The Lancet reported a cause of death previously unknown in the annals of medical science. Its report begins:
The following is an account of the post mortem examination of the body of Mr. Robert Cocking, aged sixty-one, who fell with a suicidal machine called a parachute, from the cord of a balloon which ascended from Vauxhall Gardens, … Read more
In 1763 a doctor from Malling in Kent, identifying himself only as ‘W.P.’, reported this strange case in The Medical Museum. His patient had died, apparently from eating a vast number of cucumbers:
It may be necessary to observe, that this unhappy woman had all the symptoms of a bilious cholic, to the most extreme degree, from the time … Read more
In September 1842 a young man called William Howard went to the army recruiting depot at Coventry, hoping to join the 35th Infantry Regiment. As is usual on these occasions, he was examined by the medical officer, one Dr Macann. The good doctor had a surprise in store, as he later reported to the Provincial Medical Journal and Retrospect … Read more
Earlier this week a reader of this blog introduced me to a term I hadn’t encountered before: the ‘bosom serpent’. The phrase apparently originated in the study of folklore, and describes an ancient tradition of stories in which the human digestive tract is colonised by other animals. These are typically snakes – as you’d expect – but also … Read more
English is littered with words which were originally medical in their application but which have found broader or figurative usage. Melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic are three good examples – all deriving from the terms for specific bodily fluids and the temperaments associated with them.
Another is jaundiced, often used to mean ‘hostile’ or ‘prejudiced’, but which entered the … Read more
On April 16th 1828 a ship called the New York sailed from its eponymous home port destined for Liverpool. She carried a full complement of passengers and cargo and – as reported in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal shortly afterwards,
on the morning of the 19th, was struck by lightning, which shattered the main royal mast, and, gliding down the … Read more
