In event of drowning, blow smoke up bottom
Samuel Auguste André David Tissot was an eminent Swiss physician of the eighteenth century, best known as the author of […]
Unusual treatments
Unusual treatments
A bad use for good wine
This promising headline appeared in an issue of the Philosophical Transactions published in 1755. ‘Success’ is an interesting choice of
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A bracing cure for madness
Dr G.G. Brown of Bath writes to the Annals of Medicine in 1799: If you have a vacant page in
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Mercury snuff
Mercury has a long history as a therapeutic drug. Used by Arab doctors in the Middle Ages to treat skin disorders,
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On leeches, and how to catch them
Leeches were one of the most commonly prescribed medical treatments until the late nineteenth century. They were a convenient way of
John Keats: Ode to a Black Eye
On the first day of the Ashes Test at Lord’s, here is a cricketing curiosity – a Romantic poet picking up
Unfortunate predicaments, Unusual treatments
A bit of a headache
One of the things that all first-aiders should know is that blades or other penetrating objects should never be removed from
Unusual treatments
Heart disease? Have you tried using a swing?
We’ve already established that skipping ropes should be avoided at all costs, but it’s not all bad news for those who
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Hemlock and millipedes
In September 1762 Ann James, a fifty-five-year-old woman from Boughton Monchelsea in Kent, came to the attention of Josiah Colebroke,
Unusual treatments
Curing conjunctivitis with frogspawn
Thomas Sydenham (1624–1689) was one of the most celebrated English physicians of the seventeenth century. His Observationes Medicae (Medical Observations,