Medicine & Disease

Gold, Fire and Gallows: Quarantine in History

As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues its dreadful march, Duncan McLean looks at the 600-year-old practice of isolating individuals and communities in order to bring an end to epidemics and assesses the effectiveness of such measures.

The Prospects of Life 1951-71

‘Man has made himself what he is today.’ Joe Rogaly writes how important biological changes have recently transformed his whole existence.

Debating Death and Disease

John Henderson challenges received ideas on how medieval and early modern societies dealt with perils such as plague.

Gout Gets Even

The notorious malady of the 18th century is on the increase in the UK.

Bart’s Hospital

St Bartholomew’s was refounded in the reign of Henry VIII. Courtney Dainton describes how, for nearly two centuries, it was one of only two major hospitals in England for the care of the general sick.

Medieval Hospitals of England

In England, medieval hospitals flourished until the beginning of the 15th century, funded by taxes, tolls, and wealthy doners. 

London Life in the 1790s

Frances Austin reads the lively late eighteenth century letters of a great surgeon’s apprentice to his family in Cornwall.