medical history Archives - British Society for the History of Medicine https://bshm.org.uk/category/medical-history/ Thu, 27 Feb 2025 11:03:35 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 Reconstructing an Early Modern Panacea https://bshm.org.uk/reconstructing-an-early-modern-panacea/ https://bshm.org.uk/reconstructing-an-early-modern-panacea/#respond Thu, 27 Feb 2025 11:03:35 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=19837 For nearly two millennia, Theriac—a panacea developed in antiquity—was produced and praised across Europe. By the 19th century, it was dismissed as quackery. Today it has been reconstructed and will soon be tested. Danuta Raj explains. In recent years, historical reconstruction has emerged as an innovative approach in research, bridging traditional historiography with hands-on practices […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/reconstructing-an-early-modern-panacea/feed/ 0 Emil Kraepelin, the little known guru of British psychiatry https://bshm.org.uk/emil-kraepelin-the-little-known-guru-of-british-psychiatry/ https://bshm.org.uk/emil-kraepelin-the-little-known-guru-of-british-psychiatry/#respond Mon, 20 Jan 2025 15:36:46 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=19612 Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) is one of the psychiatrists who have shaped world psychiatry. His views have had more lasting influence on psychiatry than Freud, yet he is little known by the public, explains Peter Carpenter.  Kraepelin arguably is the most significant figure in the development of the ideas of British psychiatry. The impending centenary of […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/emil-kraepelin-the-little-known-guru-of-british-psychiatry/feed/ 0 The Royal Lancaster Infirmary Collecting Barrel  https://bshm.org.uk/the-royal-lancashire-infirmary-collecting-barrel/ https://bshm.org.uk/the-royal-lancashire-infirmary-collecting-barrel/#respond Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:07:21 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=19548 Soon after its opening in 1896, the general committee of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) discovered that they needed an additional £4200 for essential items. Bryan Rhodes describes an object used to raise funds. Building work on the new Lancaster Infirmary began in 1893, and by 1896 this ‘state of the art’ new hospital was […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/the-royal-lancashire-infirmary-collecting-barrel/feed/ 0 Plague Houses and Pandemics – Some comparisons between 1665 and 2020 https://bshm.org.uk/plague-houses-and-pandemics-some-comparisons-between-1665-and-2020/ https://bshm.org.uk/plague-houses-and-pandemics-some-comparisons-between-1665-and-2020/#respond Thu, 19 Sep 2024 20:32:53 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=19033 Charles ll issued an edict in 1665 that every parish should identify a shed, a tent or a house to accommodate those identified with the plague. Alison Wall looks at the role of such isolation in times of pandemic. Plague, pest or pestilence houses – the terms can be used interchangeably – were buildings set […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/plague-houses-and-pandemics-some-comparisons-between-1665-and-2020/feed/ 0 Electricity and Pancakes https://bshm.org.uk/electricity-and-pancakes/ https://bshm.org.uk/electricity-and-pancakes/#respond Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:47:49 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=18550 Adrian Thomas describes how the poet William Cowper used electricity to treat a friend who suffered a stroke. I had a significant birthday recently, and as a birthday treat, we decided to visit Olney in Buckinghamshire where the poet William Cowper (1731-1800)  lived. In his day Cowper was arguably the most popular and influential poet […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/electricity-and-pancakes/feed/ 0 “The forgotten man of Africa” https://bshm.org.uk/the-forgotten-man-of-africa/ https://bshm.org.uk/the-forgotten-man-of-africa/#comments Tue, 14 May 2024 08:26:54 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=18422 Standing on the deck of the exploring vessel Pleiad in July 1854, Edinburgh trained doctor William Balfour Baikie was about to lead an expedition into the interior of Africa to test the validity of a cure for malaria, writes Wendell McConnaha. Baikie had been seconded to the mission sponsored by the merchant Macgregor Laird and […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/the-forgotten-man-of-africa/feed/ 1 An unflattering view of English medical education in the 1840s https://bshm.org.uk/an-unflattering-view-of-english-medical-education-in-the-1840s/ https://bshm.org.uk/an-unflattering-view-of-english-medical-education-in-the-1840s/#respond Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:05:23 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=18109 In about 1841, Belgian doctor Constantin Pierre Crommelinck toured various psychiatric institutions in England, France, and Germany. His report reviewed not just various English asylums and also the training of English doctors. Peter Carpenter recounts his none too flattering findings.   Constantin Pierre Crommelinck (1814-1884) was the son of a Belgium surgeon who trained as […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/an-unflattering-view-of-english-medical-education-in-the-1840s/feed/ 0 Bringing X-rays to the front https://bshm.org.uk/bringing-x-rays-to-the-front/ https://bshm.org.uk/bringing-x-rays-to-the-front/#respond Mon, 08 Jan 2024 11:12:31 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=17709 Edwin Aird describes how Marie Curie created radiological cars to take X-rays to the battlefront in Word War I. In 1914 at the beginning of the First World War, Paris was under threat of invasion from Germany. The situation was sufficiently alarming that the French Government moved to Bordeaux. And Marie Curie moved the precious […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/bringing-x-rays-to-the-front/feed/ 0 How a pregnancy test saved the lives of a family in Nazi times https://bshm.org.uk/how-a-pregnancy-test-saved-the-lives-of-a-family-in-nazi-times/ https://bshm.org.uk/how-a-pregnancy-test-saved-the-lives-of-a-family-in-nazi-times/#respond Tue, 28 Nov 2023 09:43:23 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=17512 Susanne Krejsa MacManus explains how pregnancy testing saved the life of a refugee woman biochemist and her family in the run-up to World War II. In the 1930s, the Institute of Animal Genetics at Edinburgh University was the only UK laboratory that ran pregnancy tests. Although the Aschheim-Zondek method invented in Berlin in the late […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/how-a-pregnancy-test-saved-the-lives-of-a-family-in-nazi-times/feed/ 0 Poor law but better care https://bshm.org.uk/poor-law-but-better-care/ https://bshm.org.uk/poor-law-but-better-care/#respond Mon, 21 Aug 2023 14:34:28 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=17197 Graham Kyle explains that a surprising benefit of the harsh Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 was that paupers in the workhouse received free medical care. Perhaps even more unexpectedly, the care had to come from qualified medical practitioners. Near where I live near Llanfyllin in North Wales, there is a fairly well preserved workhouse that […]

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