Don’t try this at home
The medical experiments of earlier centuries often look odd to the modern eye. So odd, in fact, that it’s easy […]
Bewildering research
Bewildering research
Bewildering research, Unusual treatments
Lettuce, a Class A drug
A post last week referred to Andrew Duncan, founder of the Medical and Philosophical Commentaries, the first regular medical journal
Bewildering research, Mysterious illnesses
The case of the luminous patients
In June 1842 the Provincial Medical Journal devoted no less than ten pages to a long essay by the physician
Bewildering research
Electrical anaesthesia
News of an exciting new anaesthetic reaches the Medical Times and Gazette in 1865: In a short article in the Lombardy Gazetta Medico, March
Bewildering research, Medical shenanigans
Hard to stomach
In 1823 The Lancet’s regular summary of goings-on at the London hospitals contained this interesting report of an early public
Bewildering research
Le hundred-up club
In August 1895 the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph reported the results of an unusual survey: A census of
Bewildering research
Nutmegs is the best spice for students
In 1584 the Tudor physician Thomas Cogan published The Haven of Health, a guide to maintaining health primarily aimed at
Bewildering research
Poisoning pooches in the park
[with apologies to Tom Lehrer] Articles in early scientific journals are often little more than a series of anecdotes, without
Bewildering research, Notable deaths
Chess and phrenology
In 1841 The Dublin Journal of Medical Science printed a short report of a meeting which had taken place earlier
Bewildering research
Adventures in digestion
In the 1820s a young Canadian, Alexis St Martin, was shot in the stomach by a musket-ball. He recovered from the