The most eccentric physician who ever lived
Dr Messenger Monsey was one of the best-known physicians in eighteenth-century London, although probably not one of the most capable. […]
Unusual treatments
Prodigies and monsters
The man with two penises
On April 9th 1878 the professor of surgery at the University of Maryland, Dr Alan Smith, gave a talk at
Remarkable recoveries
An interesting and remarkable accident
This is one of those cases that at first reading seems inherently unlikely – but, bizarre as it sounds, has
Cured by a collision
Serious rail accidents have become such rare events that it’s easy to forget just how dangerous the railways were in
Horrifying operations, Remarkable recoveries
The accidental hysterectomy
In 1840 one Dr Drane, a physician from Louisville in Kentucky, wrote a short communication to the Western Journal of
Unfortunate predicaments
Media vita in morte sumus
“In the midst of life we are in death”, in the words of the funeral service of the Book of
Twice bitten
On February 23rd, 1872, the Philadelphia Post published a breathtakingly crass news story: A thrilling scene occurred on Wednesday in
Remarkable recoveries
Cones and bones
You may have seen this recent story about a man who thought he had lung cancer before learning that his
Normal for Norfolk
If you lived in rural Norfolk in the nineteenth century and wanted to get rid of a wart on your
Falling pregnant
The seventeenth-century French surgeon François Mauriceau was one of the founders of modern obstetrics. Over several decades he studied every