The man with three testicles
In September 1842 a young man called William Howard went to the army recruiting depot at Coventry, hoping to join […]
Mysterious illnesses, Unfortunate predicaments
Unfortunate predicaments
Mysterious illnesses, Unfortunate predicaments
An intestinal… mouse?
As regular readers of this blog may be aware, early medical journals often carried tales of unlikely creatures found living
Unfortunate predicaments
The man with a tooth in his ear
In 1847 a Dr Mervin Coates wrote to The Lancet to tell them a funny story, an unusual case which
Remarkable recoveries, Unfortunate predicaments
Oshkosh, by gosh
Here’s a spectacular head injury (and recovery) reported in the Transactions of the Wisconsin State Medical Society in 1869. This
Remarkable recoveries, Unfortunate predicaments
Trees do not grow in humans
In June 1879 the Chicago Telegraph made quite a splash with a story published under this headline: Probably the most
Unfortunate predicaments
Penis in a bottle
A regular feature of any hospital accident and emergency department is the patient who turns up in an embarrassing and
Unfortunate predicaments
Fruit, feathers and hair
In 1838 a French specialist in bladder stones, Professor Civiale, wrote a remarkable paper for the Gazette des Hôpitaux in
Suffocated by a fish
Here’s a ‘news in brief’ item which appeared in the British Medical Journal in 1863, under this headline:A warder of
A dismal tail
We’ve all heard of student pranks that went too far, but this story takes youthful high jinks to a truly
Unfortunate predicaments
A medical old wives’ tale
This story, attributed to the great American physician Benjamin Rush and repeated in a medical journal in 1839, is almost