middle eastern history Archives - British Society for the History of Medicine

The Sacra Infermeria or Holy Infirmary of Malta

Lee Coppack — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 14:08:14 +0000

Founded in 1299, Malta’s Santo Spirito Hospital was more than 200 years old when the Knights Hospitalier arrived on the island and decided a new hospital was needed. Arpan Banerjee tells the story of a hospital ahead of its time. The Knights Hospitalier were a proud military order of the Catholic Church founded in the […]

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The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis

Edward Wawrzynczak — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 02:08:05 +0000

The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis was originally published in Latin by the Royal College of Physicians in 1618 and translated into English by Nicholas Culpepper in the middle of the seventeenth century. To celebrate its 400th anniversary an illustrated version of the book is to be published later this year. I am delighted to be one of […]

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Neurology and Psychiatry in Babylon

Edward Wawrzynczak — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 18:42:24 +0000

How rapidly does medical knowledge advance? Very quickly if you read modern newspapers, but rather slowly if you study history. Nowhere is this more true than in the fields of neurology and psychiatry. It was believed that studies of common disorders of the nervous system began with Greco-Roman Medicine, for example, epilepsy, “The sacred disease” […]

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