An 11th-century Persian philosopher, physician, pharmacologist, scientist and poet had a profound influence on both European thought and the Islamic world.
Caricature of vaccination scene at the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital at St. Pancras Hospital in London, by James Giray, 1802.
Library of Congress
The success of the smallpox vaccine was far from guaranteed when Edward Jenner first published his treatise in late 18th century. A curator of the book talks about what we can learn from it today.
Experts recommend adopted children be told about their origins, no matter how difficult the circumstances, but doing so is tricky for adoptive parents.
Florence Nightingale, who would have turned 200 today, might be remembered for her work during the Crimean War. But that’s ignoring the 54 years afterwards she spent writing, analysing and agitating.
The squares of medieval European cities bore witness to the reopening of economies after plagues.
(Shutterstock)
The cities of Europe have experienced disease outbreaks for centuries, but they were able to bounce back using quarantine, economic stimulus and patience. Not all were successful.
The official naming of COVID-19 has the tone of a committee decision. Historically, names for diseases have not been quite so well thought out and were more likely to offend.
The grand facade of Sydney’s Rum Hospital did little to improve patients’ accommodation.
Charles Pickering/State Library of NSW
Australia’s hospitals have come a long way from the huts of convict times to the well thought-out spaces we see today.
Vibration devices have been used to treat everything from ‘hysteria’ to hair loss. So Marie Kondo’s tuning forks and crystals are nothing new.
from www.shutterstock.com
From vibrators for ‘hysteria’ to vibrating belts for weightloss. How we’ve been fascinated with shaking ourselves to health.
Apothecaries of the 17th and 18th centuries diagnosed illness, mixed up medicine and dispensed it, a far cry from the current turf war between doctors and pharmacists.
Cam Miller/Flickr
The ‘turf war’ between doctors and pharmacists we see in current debates has a long history.
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, is one example of doctors’ involvement on the political stage.
Wellcome Images/Wikimedia Commons
Hernán Cortés owed his conquest of the Aztecs to his expedition’s unknown, unseen secret weapon: the smallpox virus. Disease epidemics can set the course of human history.
Is medicine cure? Treatment? Healing? Understanding? Or a bit of all those things.
Kenishiroti/Shutterstock
It’s shocking to read reports of people who worked as doctors for years without having the qualifications to do so, because we trust our medical professionals. So, how do these imposters do it?
People with tuberculosis were confined in specialised hospitals called sanatoria.
Interior of open air ward for tuberculosis patients 1918./ US. National Library of Medicine
Statues of a racist medical experimenter are an affront to the American public.
Edward Jenner, who pioneered vaccination, and two colleagues (right) seeing off three anti-vaccination opponents, with the dead lying at their feet (1808).
I Cruikshank/Wellcome Images/Wikimedia Commons
Some people have objected to childhood vaccination since it was introduced in the late 1700s. And their reasons sound remarkably familiar to those of anti-vaxxers today.
A man in China had 12kg of compacted faeces and a large part of his gut removed by surgeons. The patient was suffering from a rare disorder known as Hirschsprung’s disease.
General anaesthesia has come a long way since its first public demonstration in the 19th century, depicted here.
Wellcome Library, London/Wikimedia
Terrifying accounts of surgery 200 years ago remind us how far general anaesthesia has come. Yet we still know little about how anaesthetics alter consciousness.
Independent journalist and health writer; Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney; Founder of Croakey.org. PhD candidate, University of Canberra