Christmas is always a difficult time of year for practitioners of emergency medicine. In the UK, accident and emergency departments brace themselves for a flood of injuries caused by alcohol; most years there will be at least one newspaper article about drinking culture in the UK and how it is placing intolerable strain on the health service.
It’s always tempting … Read more
In 1870 a Dr John P. Gray, of Utica, told this strange and rather sad little tale to a meeting of the New York State Medical Society, about a patient he had recently encountered. The case was then reported in The Medical Record:
The individual was a native of Germany, and had always been considered as a female—wearing the … Read more
On July 26th 1911 The Los Angeles Times carried what must be the most extraordinary classified ad in its history. The editor realised he had a story on his hands, promptly despatched reporters to find out more, and promoted the advertisement to a handsome slot on the front page. The headline certainly makes you want to read more. And … Read more
When I first read this case I found myself thinking that it would not be out of place in a Sherlock Holmes story. Happily this is no coincidence – Holmes’s creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is very likely to have been familiar with it. It first appeared in an article in the Edinburgh Surgical Journal in 1875:
Here’s a cracking ‘news in brief’ item from an 1851 edition of The Lancet:
A few days back a curious case occurred at a roadside inn, known by the name of the “Rummer”, a few miles from Norwich.
Stoke Cross, to be precise. The Rummer Inn was a venerable watering hole which finally closed in 1957. If it helps … Read more
Physician, chemist, writer and revolutionary: Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) was a remarkable man in a remarkable age. Arguably the greatest physician America had yet produced, he was an early and tireless advocate for vaccination, an authority on epidemic disease and wrote the first American textbook on mental health. He was also controversial: during a dreadful outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia … Read more
Medical disputes could be dangerous affairs in the old days. Two hundred years ago two physicians settled their differences not in the pages of the medical journals, but by fighting a duel. This arresting story appeared in a January 1828 edition of The London Medical Gazette:
A Duel was fought last Saturday about three o’clock in the afternoon, between … Read more
As a seasonal antidote to all the misery and medical disasters usually documented on this blog, here is something genuinely heart-warming. The Victorians were particularly good at Christmas – they invented most of the domestic Christmas traditions we enjoy today, from the meal to the tree. A story published in the British Medical Journal in December 1869 shows them extending … 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
In August 1868 the British Association for the Advancement of Science held its annual meeting in Norwich. One of the members invited to present a paper was Lydia Becker, an amateur astronomer and botanist; among her accomplishments she could count a gold medal from the Royal Horticultural Society and the respect of Charles Darwin, with whom she corresponded.… Read more
