Pipe dreams
HMS Grampus, a battleship launched in 1802, ended her days as a hospital ship moored off Greenwich. Between 1816 and […]
The eye-brush
Scarification is a medical practice which was popular until the early nineteenth century and which thankfully has now been consigned
Mysterious illnesses
The owl-eyed girl
Mr J.S. Webster, a surgeon from East Dereham, wrote to the London Medical Journal in 1787 to pass on an
Remarkable recoveries, Unusual treatments
Medicine or marinade?
Early nineteenth-century doctors had some funny ideas about treating infectious disease. Before the discovery of microbes, next to nothing was
Trouble at t’mill
Last week I revealed the dangers of working in the mirror manufacturing trade in 19th-century Bohemia. Here’s another tale of
Mysterious illnesses
The worst job in the world?
Occupational diseases are those associated with a particular profession. The first to be identified was a type of scrotal tumour
Horrifying operations
The do-it-yourself hernia operation
In the nineteenth century medical attention was a luxury which had to be paid for, and which not all could
Bewildering research, Unusual treatments
Saliva and crow’s vomit
The University of Pavia in northern Italy is one of the oldest in the world, founded in 1361. It has
Horrifying operations, Unfortunate predicaments
Glass half-empty
The remarkable headline above graced the pages of the American Journal of the Medical Sciences in April 1849. In case
Remarkable recoveries
A case for Dr Coffin
In 1837 a Canadian teenager tripped over while walking back to his parents’ house. The accident did not hurt much,