Finding Keepers: Mental Illness in the 19th century
Caring for the mentally ill in Victorian Britain was hard, unrewarding and dangerously unregulated. Alexander Morison tried to improve things for both the unwell and their carers.
Medicine & Disease
The 17th Century Guide to Sleep
Despite the modern obsession with a good night’s rest, more of us are sleeping less. Perhaps we should pay attention to the advice of early modern doctors.
Consumptive Chic: When Tuberculosis was the Height of Fashion
During the 19th century, the physical effects of tuberculosis became the ideals of beauty for the fashionable woman.
Théodore Tronchin, Doctor to the Stars
In the fashionable female circles of 18th-century Paris, a physician who recommended fresh air, exercise and looser corsets became a celebrated figure.
All’s Fair in Blood and War
The pain of war had at least one positive side-effect: medical advances in haematology.
Marie Curie: A Life in Science
The legacy of Marie Skłodowska Curie, the world's most famous female physicist, is assured, but in her lifetime she was a controversial figure.
Remedies Against the Devil and Dementia
The medical advice in Bald’s Leechbook outlasted the language in which it was written.
The Invention of the Stethoscope
The stethoscope revolutionised medicine, but it also provoked anxieties about the unfamiliar sounds it revealed.
Welcome to Dottyville
The Hydra, a magazine produced by shell shock patients, was pioneering as a mental health care treatment.
Is Laughter the Best Medicine?
Since it was founded in 1948, the issue of how Britons have laughed with – or at – the NHS reveals much about changes in society.