‘Powder a Toad’ – Wesley’s Primitive Physick
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was one of the most celebrated Englishmen of the eighteenth century. He spent years […]
Unusual treatments
Unusual treatments
The electric spectacles
Exciting news from the world of medical technology was reported in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in 1850. The
Medicinal pancakes
It being Shrove Tuesday, I thought I’d write a short post about pancakes. Not how to make them, or the
Medical shenanigans, Unusual treatments
Benjamin Rush in The Lancet
Physician, chemist, writer and revolutionary: Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) was a remarkable man in a remarkable age. Arguably the greatest physician
Sober up the nineteenth-century way
As Christmas celebrations fade away and battered livers dubiously await the assault of New Year’s Eve, now is a good
All hail the strawberry
A number of fruits and vegetables which are part of our regular diet were more prized in past centuries for
Horrifying operations, Unusual treatments
Bleeding you well
More from Lorenz Heister’s surgical textbook Chirurgie, published in 1718, on which I have written before. The practice of bloodletting,
Hidden dangers, Unusual treatments
In praise of temperance
It seems appropriate on a Friday to share this warning about the dangers of binge drinking, from William Buchan’s Domestic
The eye-brush
Scarification is a medical practice which was popular until the early nineteenth century and which thankfully has now been consigned
Remarkable recoveries, Unusual treatments
Medicine or marinade?
Early nineteenth-century doctors had some funny ideas about treating infectious disease. Before the discovery of microbes, next to nothing was