Today’s medical dispatch comes from St George’s Hospital in London, and was reported to The Lancet in 1850:
A wound of a very unusual description was lately inflicted on a young man of twenty-three, who was admitted under the care of Mr. Tatum. From the patient’s statement it would appear, that on the 25th he was out shooting blackbirds. Whilst … Read more
One of the things that strikes me every time I look at a medical journal published between about 1850 and 1900 is quite how dangerous the early railways were. More or less every issue contains a report of a major accident in which passengers were killed, or railway workers maimed or injured after wholly avoidable mishaps. Safety standards were non-existent, … Read more
In 1836 a doctor from rural Ireland, J.L. McCarthy, encountered a highly unusual case which he then reported to The Lancet. The journal deemed it worthy of publication, although it is unlikely that many of its readers would ever need to know how to treat a patient suffering from this particular complaint:
On Thursday, the 8th instant, I was … Read more
The image above shows the Jardin Royal (Royal Garden) in Paris – misleadingly named, since although it included a botanical garden it was primarily an educational institution. In addition to botany, it offered classes in chemistry, anatomy and surgery.
One member of its faculty was the surgeon Pierre Dionis (c.1643-1718), who taught there for many years. He was also a … Read more
On Saturday, May 19th 1849 the Westminster Medical Society held one of its regular meetings. Here is an extract from the minutes, as reported in The Lancet:
Dr. Routh exhibited to the Society two small maggots, which had come out of the ear of a gentleman.
Well, that would certainly grab my attention.
This gentleman held the office … Read more
Here’s a landmark case from the Philosophical Transactions, reported by the Plymouth surgeon James Yonge in 1709:
A girl 16 years old, a daughter of Elizabeth Worth of this town, had about the end of last April a few hot pimples rise on her cheeks, which bleeding and a purge or two cur’d. She continued very well till about … Read more
In November 1870 a London surgeon took the unusual step of writing anonymously to The Times to complain about his son’s headmaster. The son in question was a boy at Rugby School, and the letter was headlined ‘Rugby and its Football’:
Sir,–– I use the expression because to my mind the game as it is played at Rugby differs from … Read more
