Welcome to the internet’s most extensive collection of weird and wonderful stories from the history of medicine.
All these stories are genuine excerpts from early medical journals, which I started to collect while researching The Matter of the Heart. Some of the most bizarre and entertaining cases eventually became the basis for The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth.
500+ stories from the medical archivesRead a random story from the archive
Where to start
Greatest Hits
Can’t decide? These are some of the most extraordinary stories in the collection.
The mystery of the exploding teeth
A Pennsylvania clergyman’s toothache ended with a bang — literally. His tooth exploded like a pistol shot, and he wasn’t the only victim of this baffling phenomenon.
Mysterious illnessesShe swallowed a mouse
A three-year-old fell asleep with breadcrumbs in her mouth. A hungry mouse ventured too far. What happened next is every bit as horrible as you’d imagine.
Unfortunate predicamentsThe tapeworm trap
An American inventor’s highly original approach to eradicating intestinal parasites — using cheese as bait.
Bewildering researchThe pork cylinder
A Frenchman walked into a urologist’s consulting room and announced that he had a pig’s nerve inside his bladder. The truth turned out to be even stranger.
Unfortunate predicamentsThe pigeon’s rump cure
A unique treatment recommended by a nineteenth-century German physician — involving a live bird.
Unusual treatmentsThe spermatorrhoea alarm
Victorian doctors banish the scourge of self-abuse — as only the Victorians could.
Primitive equipmentBrowse the archive
Explore by Category
Over 500 stories sorted into twelve categories of medical misadventure, wonder and horror.
Unfortunate Predicaments
125 storiesPatients who found themselves in situations no textbook could have anticipated.
Remarkable Recoveries
108 storiesAgainst the odds, these patients survived — thanks to medical treatment, or despite it.
Mysterious Illnesses
87 storiesBaffling symptoms, inexplicable conditions and diagnoses that defied explanation.
Horrifying Operations
70 storiesAstonishing tales of surgery before anaesthesia.
Unusual Treatments
70 storiesRemedies ranging from the inventive to the utterly deranged.
Notable Deaths
43 storiesDemises both instructive and improbable.
Hidden Dangers
40 storiesEveryday objects and innocent activities with lethal potential.
Bewildering Research
33 storiesExperiments and investigations that raise questions about the experimenter.
Medical Shenanigans
27 storiesFraud, rivalry, skulduggery and professional misconduct.
Prodigies & Monsters
27 storiesExtraordinary bodies, impossible births and anatomical marvels.
Primitive Equipment
13 storiesThe terrifying instruments and improvised tools of early medicine.
Dodgy Predictions
5 storiesConfident medical forecasts that aged spectacularly badly.
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Looking for something specific? Search all 500+ stories.
Many of these stories were collected in The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine, published by Penguin. The blog also grew out of research for The Matter of the Heart: A History of the Heart in Eleven Operations.