Medicine and health

A group of surgeons operate with the use of carbolic acid, a disinfectant also known as phenol, in an era when surgical gowns, caps, masks and gloves had not yet dawned.(Photo by Getty Images)

General History

From bone setting in ancient Egypt to organ transplants: a brief history of surgery

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Pod Andrew Scull WL

American psychiatry: a tortured history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Clinic at the School of Dentistry, Paris, 1892. A female student treating a patient under supervision. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)

General History

Q&A What are the roots of dentistry?

Circulation of the blood, 1628. English physician William Harvey (1578-1657) was the first to correctly describe the mechanism whereby blood is circulated in the body. Diagram showing the existence of valves in veins. From Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus, by William Harvey. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

A medical renaissance?

The opthalmoscope

Victorian medicine: why the 19th century was a time of seismic medical change

A medieval illustration showing a doctor bleeding a patient

General History

A history of medicine 14 surprising facts

A colourised photomontage depicts a young woman on her deathbed in 1858. The “fasting girls” phenomenon of the
19th century resulted in similar scenes being played out in British and American homes. (Photo by Gado/Getty Images)

Hidden lives Victorian fasting girls

Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert and Edward Jenner

My history hero Dame Sarah Gilbert chooses Edward Jenner

Illustration showing woman receiving a caesarean section

General History

Q&A What are the origins of the caesarean section?

Illustration by @GlenMcIllustration

Q&A Which king thought he was made of glass

Reverend Spencer Parsons, head of the Chicago branch of the Clergy Consultation Service (CCS), an interfaith group dedicated to helping women obtain abortions before 'Roe v Wade'

The American clergy who helped women get abortions before Roe v Wade

A British poster dated 1917 designed by Bert Thomas. (Photo by Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)

A brief history of smoking

Jesus is shown cleansing ten lepers in a scene from the Gospel According to Luke, illustrated in an 11th-century manuscript

General History

Leprosy How has the disease been perceived and treated through history?

Portrait of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, showing his pronounced Habsburg jaw

Q&A What was the Habsburg jaw?

Pro-choice and pro-life advocates outside the Supreme Court in the 1970s, following the Roe v Wade decision. (Photo by Diana Walker//The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images)

A brief history of US abortion law, before and after Roe v Wade