The spider’s web cure
Until the nineteenth century, spider’s web was often used as a folk remedy for superficial lacerations. The great tensile strength […]
December 2016
Prodigies and monsters
The forty-foot tapeworm
Medical journals do not often publish articles by undergraduates these days, but an 1847 edition of the Southern Medical and
Medical shenanigans
A festive night in a Victorian emergency department
Christmas is always a difficult time of year for practitioners of emergency medicine. In the UK, accident and emergency departments
Unfortunate predicaments
Pegged out
In 1865 a young eye surgeon from Gloucester, Robert Brudenell Carter, sent a series of case reports for publication in
Notable deaths
Shot by a toasting fork
This is one of my favourite nineteenth-century cases, which I originally intended to include in my forthcoming book but which
Remarkable recoveries
A bayonet through the head
In June 1809 a French military surgeon, M. Fardeau, read a paper at a meeting of the Société de Médecine
Horrifying operations
A high pain threshold
In 1878 an elderly surgeon from Birmingham, Dickinson Crompton, was persuaded to write a short article about his early career
Notable deaths
Killed by his false teeth
People who wear dentures sometimes lose them, as you might mislay a pair of glasses, but it’s rare to do
The venomous boot
Here’s a tall tale from 1856, published in The Medical Times and Gazette: Some interesting experiments were made at the
Horrifying operations, Unfortunate predicaments
Bunged up
Most of the injuries chronicled on this blog were caused by bad luck, and a few by misadventure; but here’s