The Scottish surgeon James Syme (1799-1870) has been described as the boldest and most original operator of the end of the pre-anaesthetic era. He was fast and accurate, having begun his career at a period when the ideal operation should take no more than a minute or two. And he was a superb and innovative technician: one of his operations, … Read more
News of an exciting new anaesthetic reaches the Medical Times and Gazette in 1865:
In a short article in the Lombardy Gazetta Medico, March 13, an account is given of a demonstration made by Dr. Rodolfi, at the Brescia Hospital, in the presence of a large number of Medical Practitioners, of the power of the electrical current to induce local … Read more
In 1865 the Medical Times and Gazette published a series of articles entitled ‘Report on cheap wine’. There was some concern that the increasing availability of inexpensive wines and spirits was not simply due to increased supply, but that unscrupulous producers were cutting corners or selling counterfeit goods, with serious implications for public health. A ‘Special Empirical Commissioner’ – today … Read more
This from the Medical Times and Gazette, published in 1869:
From an interesting article on cacao and chocolate, by M. Marchand, in a recent volume of one of the great French Medical dictionaries now in course of publication, we learn that chocolate is much more largely used in France than in this country as an agreeable basis for the … Read more
At least twice a year one or other of the newspapers prints a story about one of those mysterious apparitions in which the likeness of Jesus is burnt on to a piece of toast, or can be seen (if you squint) in the seeds of a watermelon. In 1828 the London Medical Gazette reported a strange Napoleonic equivalent – thirteen … Read more
This blog usually deals with medical matters; but I couldn’t resist reproducing this article from the first number of the American Medical and Philosophical Register, published in 1814, even though it was contributed to the non-medical section of the journal. An engineer called James Sharples – holder of a patent relating to steam engines – contributed an essay about … Read more
The Annals of Medicine for 1799 contains a letter from a Dr Guthrie, an Scottish physician then working in St Petersburg. At the invitation of the journal’s editor, he related a series of interesting cases he had encountered in his practice there. One of them came from a former housemaid, who had visited his study to tell of a simple … Read more
A cautionary tale from the Medical Facts and Observations, published in 1795:
On Tuesday, the 25th of March last, a French gentleman was sent to me by an Apothecary in this neighbourhood, complaining of a pungent, hot, and irritating sensation in the rectum ; which was considerably augmented during every evacuation per anum. These painful symptoms had commenced on … Read more
In 1823 The Lancet’s regular summary of goings-on at the London hospitals contained this interesting report of an early public demonstration of the stomach pump. The experiment documented here took place at Guy’s Hospital:
Friday, Nov. 21. At half past one o’clock the operating theatre was crowded to excess, in consequence of its having been stated on the preceding … Read more
A curious book of remedies was published in London in 1700, entitled Dr. Lower’s, and several other Eminent Physicians, Receipts, Containing the Best and Safest Method for Curing Most Disease in Human Bodies. It was aimed at those without easy access to medical services – a compilation of home remedies which could be prepared by those without any pharmacological expertise. … Read more