In June 1873 a respectable American medical journal, The Clinic, published a ‘news in brief’ story which had been culled from a local newspaper in New Jersey. It was evidently reproduced more for entertainment than for its scientific value, since it was prefaced by the ironic comment ‘We give the following for what it is worth.’ Its veracity … Read more
Today’s medical dispatch comes from St George’s Hospital in London, and was reported to The Lancet in 1850:
A wound of a very unusual description was lately inflicted on a young man of twenty-three, who was admitted under the care of Mr. Tatum. From the patient’s statement it would appear, that on the 25th he was out shooting blackbirds. Whilst … Read more
In 1836 a doctor from rural Ireland, J.L. McCarthy, encountered a highly unusual case which he then reported to The Lancet. The journal deemed it worthy of publication, although it is unlikely that many of its readers would ever need to know how to treat a patient suffering from this particular complaint:
On Thursday, the 8th instant, I was … Read more
On Saturday, May 19th 1849 the Westminster Medical Society held one of its regular meetings. Here is an extract from the minutes, as reported in The Lancet:
Dr. Routh exhibited to the Society two small maggots, which had come out of the ear of a gentleman.
Well, that would certainly grab my attention.
This gentleman held the office … Read more
In 1865 a young eye surgeon from Gloucester, Robert Brudenell Carter, sent a series of case reports for publication in The Ophthalmic Review. Carter was an unusually accomplished individual whose achievements went far beyond
surgery. He performed with distinction as an army surgeon in the Crimea, and his dispatches from the conflict were published in The Times.
Carter … Read more
Most of the injuries chronicled on this blog were caused by bad luck, and a few by misadventure; but here’s one which can only be attributed to rank stupidity. In 1852 The Half-Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences published this report from an Italian surgeon, Signor Riali:
In December, 1848, a peasant was admitted into the hospital of Orvieto, in … Read more
In February 1793 a small British expeditionary force under the command of the Duke of York landed at Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands. They were part of an international coalition whose aim was to invade and occupy Revolutionary France. Known as the Flanders Campaign, the effort was a failure: the French counterattacked and succeeded in annexing much of the Low … Read more
Today’s news is culled from an edition of The Northern Journal of Medicine published in 1845. It brings a new meaning to the phrase ‘biting your tongue’:
A German soldier was wounded in the battle of Gross-Gorschen (2nd May 1813) by a musket ball, which penetrated the left cheek, carrying away the four last molars of the upper jaw, and, … Read more
Ever swallowed a leech by accident? Me neither. Here’s a tale told by Surgeon-Lieutenant T.A. Granger, a surgeon in the British army in India, in a letter to the British Medical Journal in 1895. It might make you a bit more careful about your drinking water next time you’re abroad:
Several days ago I received a note from the political … Read more
The Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales, published in France between 1812 and 1822, was the first encyclopaedic dictionary of medicine. It’s a massive work, running to 60 volumes. To get a sense of its scale, consider the fact that volume seven, a tome of some 700 pages, deal only with the alphabet between COR and CYS. Among those articles is … Read more