The woman who peed through her nose
This is the most extraordinary and perplexing case of all the many I’ve sifted through while finding material for this […]
Mysterious illnesses, Unfortunate predicaments
September 2016
Unusual treatments
Toast and herbs
William Salmon was a seventeenth-century physician and a prolific writer, the author of numerous books on surgery and internal medicine.
Remarkable recoveries
In one side and out the other
Volume 6 of the Medical Facts and Observations, published in London in 1795, includes four cases submitted by a Dr
Remarkable recoveries
Severed, replaced, reunited
In June 1852 the New Jersey Medical Reporter printed an article about brain injuries. The following month a doctor from
Mysterious illnesses
The woman who vomited pins
In 1873 The Lancet reported this case from Belford Hospital, an institution which had been founded eight years earlier, and
Snake poo salesman
In 1862 an Edinburgh-trained physician, Dr James Hastings, published a slim volume about the treatment of tuberculosis and other diseases
Medical shenanigans
She needs a finger
On July 26th 1911 The Los Angeles Times carried what must be the most extraordinary classified ad in its history. The editor
Unfortunate predicaments
Flies in his eyes
Here’s a tale from an edition of The Lancet published in 1843 which caused me to squirm more than once.
The King of Smokers
There were plenty of doctors in the nineteenth century who thought that smoking was good for you; so there’s nothing