Edna Bonhomme, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
771,945 have been infected.
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.
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.
Many in the Western Front contracted haemorrhagic dysentery.
Wellcome Library, London
When commemorating our troops, doctors and nurses this Anzac Day, consider also tipping your hat to the discovery of bacteriophages. In the post-antibiotic era, our health might just depend on them.
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after dementia.
from shutterstock.com
Lettuce leaves and purgatives might ease your aching heart.
Gone are the days when we were told to suck out a snake’s venom. So what’s the current treatment and how have treatments changed over time?
State Library of NSW/Hood
New research that more isn’t better when it comes to chemotherapy mirrors the evolution of surgery approaches to breast cancer that, a few decades ago, were far more radical than now.
‘Doctor, whenever I get up I feel dizzy for half an hour.’ ‘Then wait for half an hour before getting up.’
Alexander the Great trust to physician Phillip, Henryk Siemiradzki
On Human Experiments – The impact of World War II on the development of human research ethics often overshadows the fascinating history and evolution of what came before.