The tooth ant
In June 1873 a respectable American medical journal, The Clinic, published a ‘news in brief’ story which had been culled […]
Prodigies and monsters, Unfortunate predicaments
Prodigies and monsters
Prodigies and monsters
The forty-foot tapeworm
Medical journals do not often publish articles by undergraduates these days, but an 1847 edition of the Southern Medical and
Prodigies and monsters
The man with 87 children
The English physician Samuel Merriman (1771-1852) was a leading authority on midwifery and the diseases of pregnancy. His best-known work,
Prodigies and monsters
The double monster
The phenomenon of conjoined twins was poorly understood until the twentieth century. Though even the earliest medical journals contain reports
Notable deaths, Prodigies and monsters
The fire-proof man
In 1828 The Lancet reported the antics of a person they called ‘the fire-proof man’, a Cuban with extraordinary abilities:
Prodigies and monsters
Inexpressibly loathsome and sickening
Unlikely tales were often swallowed unquestioningly by the editors of medical journals in the nineteenth century, so it was a
Prodigies and monsters, Unfortunate predicaments
The human piggy bank
Eels seem to have featured regularly in this blog, for some reason. First there was the physician who had a
Prodigies and monsters
The boy who vomited his own twin
This delightful case was reported in the London Medical and Surgical Journal in 1835, having previously appeared in a Greek
Notable deaths, Prodigies and monsters
The woman who turned to soap
In February 1846 a group of gravediggers in New York had a truly spooky experience when they were asked to
Don’t mess with an electric eel
Few creatures have provided such enduring fascination to the medical profession as the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), a creature capable