Medicine and health

Photo of marble relief depicting Hippocrates

Why did Hippocrates eat earwax?

Diorite stela inscribed with the laws of King Hammurabi of Babylon, around 3,800 years ago. Hammurabi sits enthroned at top of the stela. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&A Who first attempted to regulate medicine?

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Top 10 Plantagenet podcasts – from the Black Death to Richard III

An illustration of a Tudor street

“Mooke, fylthe and other vyle things”: Tudor dirt and dung

Illustration of the Zodiac Man

General ancient history

Q&A Why did physicians ‘bleed’ their patients?

An Egyptian mummy receiving a CT scan

Looking inside ancient Egyptian mummies

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The Black Death and Tudor adventurers . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Black Death, the effects of which are pictured in this medieval miniature, took little more than seven years to wipe out around half of mankind. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

History explorer: the catastrophe of the Black Death

Disability history

British microbiologist and discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming. (Photo by Ipsumpix/Corbis via Getty Images)

A big day in history: Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

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The end of slavery and headaches in history

Portrait of physician Elizabeth Blackwell. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Timepix/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

My history hero: Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)

Two women from South America. Six centuries ago South American civilisations matched the west in some respects. (Getty Images)

The wonder of the west

A woman puts a foundling, or her own unwanted child, into a revolving doorway in a hospital or orphanage wall, intended for unwanted children. (Getty Images)

A mother’s love: tokens left with London’s foundling babies

Illustration of couple with bubonic plague

Where the Black Death happened: 9 places connected to the plague