The poet’s skull and a boy’s bowels
The Scottish surgeon Archibald Blacklock is chiefly remembered today for the events of the night of March 31st, 1834, when […]
Remarkable recoveries
August 2016
Mysterious illnesses, Unusual treatments
On flatulence and Darwin
In 1867 The Medical Press and Circular published a series of articles by the physician Dr John Chapman on a
Prodigies and monsters
The man with 87 children
The English physician Samuel Merriman (1771-1852) was a leading authority on midwifery and the diseases of pregnancy. His best-known work,
Unfortunate predicaments
The fractured penis
On December 6th 1848 the distinguished American surgeon Dr Valentine Mott read a paper at a meeting of the New
Remarkable recoveries
The cure of Thomas Tipple
In 1840 an American physician, Dr Pliny Earle, visited the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
Remarkable recoveries
Reattached with a sticking plaster
Today’s surgeons are quite adept at reattaching parts of the body when they have been severed. Fingers, hands and even
Remarkable recoveries
The missing tobacco pipe
In 1855 The Lancet reported the proceedings of the most recent meeting of the London Medical Society. Here is one
Unfortunate predicaments
The extra jaw
A short story, this one, but it packs quite a punch. In 1855 the Western Lancet published a letter from