Medical History
Smallpox: The First Bioweapon
June 25, 2021
Smallpox is an extremely infectious and deadly disease, wiping out up to 30% of those unlucky enough to catch the virus. By the 1700s, people began figuring out how the disease spread an...
The History Of Anesthesia: How We Discovered Painkiller...
September 29, 2020
Reenactment of the first operation under anesthesia (ether). The actual operation took place on October 16, 1846; this reenactment took place shortly afterwards...
Sleeping Beauty Syndrome And How It Takes Over Your Lif...
September 2, 2020
The Sleeping Beauty - Fairy tale by French author, Charles Perrault: 12 January 1628 16 May 1703. The scene where the Prince appears to the Sleeping beauty ,a...
1894: Two Scientists Discovered The Bacteria That Cause...
August 25, 2020
Man being injected by doctor during an outbreak of bubonic plague in Karachi, India. Photograph, 1897. (Wellcome Collection/Wkimedia Commons) By 1894, the bub...
'Blowing Smoke Up Your Ass': The Literal Meaning/Medica...
July 12, 2020
To "blow smoke" has had a few definitions over the years, and the end of the phrase (as well as its meaning) varies. You can "blow smoke in someone's face" t...
The Anti-Mask League Of 1919: The Anti-Masker Movement ...
July 1, 2020
In 1918, the most deadly outbreak of influenza of the 20th century killed nearly 50 million people across the world and around 675,000 people in the United S...
San Francisco's 1904 Black Plague Scare (And How It Was...
May 14, 2020
South tower of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. (Brocken Inaglory/Wikimedia Commons) The bubonic plague is one of the most catastrophic diseases to ev...
The Polio Epidemic: A Brief History Of The 20th Century...
April 26, 2020
(Wellcome Images/Wikimedia Commons) In the early 20th century, polio was one of the most debilitating diseases to rock the planet. The illness was easily spre...
How Every Pandemic In Human History Has Been Exactly Th...
April 11, 2020
From the Black Plague to the flu of 1918, global pandemics have been affecting the vast population Earth for thousands of years. This kind of global threat is a b...
How We Tried To Contain Major Pandemics Throughout Reco...
April 10, 2020
A nurse checking on a patient at the Walter Reed Hospital Flu Ward during the influenza pandemic, Washington, D.C., circa 1918. (Harris & Ewing/Underwood Archiv...
This Is How The Church Handled Easter During The Plague
April 9, 2020
Easter is one of those times when people who don't normally attend church services fill the pews, but in the time of a pandemic like COVID-19, this kind of gathering...
The History Of Quarantine: How Individual Actions Stopp...
April 6, 2020
With many cities, states, and even countries issuing "stay at home" orders to stop the spread of COVID-19, now might be a good time to look back through history a...
Plague Masks: A Brief History Of The Strangest Medical ...
April 5, 2020
As if the Black Plague—the terrible pandemic of bubonic plague that decimated medieval Europe—wasn't terrifying enough all by itself, the "doctor" who showed...
Mysophobia: History Of The Fear Of Germs, Washing Hands...
April 4, 2020
A paramedic wears a protective mask and complete sterile dressing to avoid contact with COVID-19. (Photo by Olivier Matthys/Getty Images) "Mysophobia" is a mo...
The Gympie: Stinging Trees Make People Kill Themselves
March 26, 2020
We're gonna say it: Plants are jerks. Considering that we need them to live, they don't even have the decency to taste good, and sometimes, they flat-out kill us...
Baby Fae, A Baboon Heart, And Bioethics
November 11, 2019
On October 14, 1984, a tiny, premature, and the very sick baby was born in California. Although her birth certificate listed her name as Stephanie Fae Beauclair, she became kno...
Wolverine Woman: Jo Cameron Has Healing Powers, Feels N...
October 24, 2019
Not the actual Wolverine woman. Source: (Photo by Ollie Millington/Getty Images) As kids, everyone dreams of gaining superpowers like teleportation or the abi...
Bethlem Hospital: London's Infamous, Horrible, And Terr...
October 22, 2019
Mental institutions and real-life insane asylums of the past were essentially real-life horror movies. It shouldn't be a shock that their conditions were bad, but...
Onesimus: The Slave Who Brought Inoculation To America ...
October 10, 2019
Smallpox was a singularly devastating disease in the 18th century, killing up to 30% of those infected within mere days or weeks of contamination. The virus ...
Dr. William Halstead: The Cokehead Who Fathered Modern ...
September 4, 2019
By now, you have probably heard many stories of how cocaine was used in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was used in quack medicines, cocktails, stimulants...
Medical Practices From History That Will Drop Your Jaw....
July 17, 2019
Think back to the first time you remember visiting a doctor’s office. All of the equipment looked so large and frightening, and the examination was definitely st...
How Did Werewolf Legends Start?
April 26, 2019
American actor Glenn Strange (1899 - 1973) is transformed into a werewolf in the film 'The Mad Monster', 1942. Source: (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images) Most myths and legends have...
Historical Figures Who Suffered From Diseases or Disord...
March 23, 2019
There are numerous diseases and disorders that average people suffer from every day with no respecter of persons. These diseases can come upon anyone at any ...
Brief History Of The Lobotomy
February 9, 2019
Psychosurgery, as properly defined, is the treatment of mental disorders by means of brain surgery. Psychosurgery can be loosely defined as the gray area between neurosurgery and psychi...
56 Crazy Medical Practices Doctors Thought Made Sense
January 11, 2019
The human body is a mysterious machine. Most of the time, human babies develop according to plan, but sometimes, something goes weirdly wrong and the result is a curio...
When Phrenology was a Legit Science
November 20, 2018
In the early 19th century, peaking between 1810 and 1840, the science of phrenology was considered to be fact-based, cutting-edge science. Phrenology was the study and measurement ...
Ethical Medical Practices of the Past?
September 29, 2018
Medical Practice is just that - medical "practice." Physicians attend college to learn new techniques and procedures, but when its all said and done, they are still just practi...
60 Crazy Medical Practices Doctors Thought Made Sense
July 5, 2018
The human body is a mysterious machine. Most of the time, human babies develop according to plan, but sometimes, something goes weirdly wrong and the result is a curio...
The Curious Case of the Woman with Four Legs
November 27, 2017
Myrtle Corbin, was known as the Four-Legged Woman, however, technically, only one pair actually belonged to her. The other pair belonged to her dipygus twin sister. Born in Lin...
The Curious Story of the Blue-Skinned Family of Eastern...
November 23, 2017
For nearly 200 years, the Fugate family of Kentucky remained largely sealed off from society as they passed their blue skin from one generation to the next. The B...
In 1600s, People Believed That Sniffing Farts Would Cur...
November 11, 2017
In the 1600s, some doctors recommended their patients to save their fart in jars and sniff them to help treat exposure to the bubonic plague. The logic behind thi...
Vintage Photos Reveal the 19th Century’s Fascination wi...
October 29, 2017
In the 19th Century, posing with and taking photographs of dead loved ones was commonplace, allowing people to have a keepsake of their departed family members....
Assassin’s arsenal: The 17th Century “Cabinet Book” Con...
September 30, 2017
The book below appears voluminous, but anyone who thought it has too much text inside is wrong. The interior is crafted into 11 drawers in varying sizes, wi...
The 'Accidental' Discoveries of 8 of the World's Most R...
July 11, 2017
Chlorambucil - Antileukemia Drug Chlorambucil is an anti-leukemia drug first approved by the FDA in 1957. It's origin go all the way back to the use of mustard ga...
Castrati Singers: Boys Were Castrated To Keep Their Voi...
June 13, 2017
In the 17th and 18th century the church banned women singers from performing in church music or on stage. This led to the castration of boys as a way to keep the...
Did You Know: One Woman, In Her Lifetime, Gave Birth to...
June 11, 2017
Her name was Valentina Vassilyev and she was a Russian peasant who lived from 1707 to 1782 and gave birth to 69 children during her lifetime, comprising 16 pairs ...
When Self-Electrocution Was Used To Cure What Ails You
June 6, 2017
The hydro-electric belt first appeared at the World’s Fair in London in 1851. It was comprised of several batteries and electrodes and was used to “cure” everything ...
The Mysterious Case of Mirin Dajo, The Human Pin Cushio...
May 19, 2017
In the 1940s, Mirin Dajo was known for his stage performances, in which he’d stand barechested while his assistant take fencing foils, and one by one, run him thr...
Phineas Gage: The Man Who Survived An Iron Rod Which We...
May 14, 2017
Throughout medical history, there have been countless stories of amazing accounts of survival defying logical explanation. One such event, dubbed as the “American...
The Forgotten Story Of The Radium Girls, Whose Deaths S...
May 12, 2017
During the First World War, hundreds of young ladies labored by painting watch dials using luminous radium paint in clock factories. Literally "glowing in the dar...
Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Soldiers Tried t...
May 3, 2017
Although they fought on opposite sides, the Union and Confederate forces shared a common enemy: smallpox. At the battle of Chancellorsville, fought May of 1862, n...
The Tragic Story Behind The Invention Of Coca-Cola
April 28, 2017
Wendy Clark, Coca-Cola marketing executive, once wrote of the man who invented the famous beverage: Today's Coca-Cola brand message is indeed to “make the world happier,”...
The 19th-century Pandemic that Killed 12 million People
April 12, 2017
Between 1855 and 1959 – over 500 years after the Black Death of the medieval times – a new plague pandemic ravaged the globe, leaving on its wake some 12 million dea...
Psychological Experiments From The Past That Went Horri...
March 17, 2017
Psychology is perceived as a relatively young science. Since its outset, multiple experiments have already been conducted that guided us to have a better understa...
Footage of US Soldiers Before and After Using LSD, 1958...
March 5, 2017
As part of the U.S. Military Chemical and Biological Warfare Program, soldiers are given LSD while executing close-order drills. They try to duplicate their actio...
5 of the Most Painful Medical Treatments of the Middle ...
February 28, 2017
The Middle Ages was an era full of interesting history, profoundly rich art, revolutionizing philosophy, some epic heroes, and even a bit of magic. Nonetheless, i...
The Story of Henrietta Lacks and Her 'Immortal' Cells
February 23, 2017
Who was Henrietta Lacks? She was a tobacco farmer hailing from southern Virginia who acquired cervical cancer when she was 30 years old. Her doctor at Johns Hopkins t...
Neuroscience Experiments from the 19th Century: Capturi...
February 21, 2017
Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne de Boulogne was curious to determine how the muscles in the human face generate facial expressions that he believed to be direct...
These Women Should Be Famous...
February 7, 2017
Scientists Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering created one of the world's first whooping cough vaccines in 1930s Grand Rapids. On their own time, with a lab and tiny budget, Kendrick and Elde...
The Three Female Med Students Who Destroyed Gender Norm...
February 6, 2017
The three magnificently dressed ladies were students at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, snapped at a Dean’s reception, in 1885. The three in the phot...
The Alleged HIV 'Patient Zero' Man Has Been Exonerated
January 27, 2017
Gaetan Dugas, singled out as the first infection vector for the virus in the United States, was a homosexual flight attendant. Recent science has renounced his unwant...
The Curious Case of the Woman Who Was 'Pregnant' for 60...
January 16, 2017
A 92 year-old woman named Huang Yijun, from southern China debatably holds the record for the longest pregnancy ever… unbelievably for 60 years! Technically, she...
The Crumbling Smallpox Hospital On Roosevelt Island
January 13, 2017
For more than 3,000 years, smallpox was an epidemic in all parts of the world, which had caused the death of more than 400,000 people a year in Europe alone. Prior to th...
The Woman Who Performed Caesarian Section On Herself (A...
January 11, 2017
On March of 2000, a pregnant woman named Ines Ramirez Perez, 40-years old and living alone in a rural area of southern Mexico, was in her one-room cabin when she...
Faces of War: Men With Broken Faces and The Tin Nose Sh...
January 4, 2017
Located inside the 3rd London General Hospital, its properly known as the "Masks for Facial Disfigurement Department" but wounded tommies humorously called it "Th...
Parturition Chairs: The Birthing Seats of the 18th Cent...
January 4, 2017
From time immemorial until the 1800s, several gave birth with the help of specially designed seats, known as the parturition chairs. These allowed women to either...
Ten Assorted Vintage Artificial Eyes from 1870 - 1920
January 4, 2017
In the 19th century, advances in complicated eye operations were discovered as more and more doctors specialize in eye disease. When anaesthesia was introduced in 1846...
11 Horrifying Dentistry Tools Used in the Past
January 2, 2017
Before the 18th century, the official denstistry profession, as well as the training, has not been practiced. In the past, as explained by the American Dental Association, pe...
History of Dentistry: From Barber-Surgeons to Dentists
December 5, 2016
Few people know that barbering (the simple practice of cutting hair on the scalp) and dentistry co-existed for many years. As far back as the Bronze Age (3500 BC) men...
The First Woman to Survive C-Section in 1337
November 27, 2016
Births by cesarean section are so common these days that it is easy to forget what they were like before the advent of modern medicine: desperate gambits to save a baby by sacr...
"Probable Causes of Insanity" Among The Inmates of the ...
November 10, 2016
The new asylum building was equipped to handle 100 patients. Seven men, chosen by the Senate, were to serve as a Board of Managers. They were tasked to hire the s...
Mary Edwards Walker: The Only Woman to Receive the Meda...
October 21, 2016
She was the only woman in her medical class in 1855. Her medical practice, however, floundered because no one trusted a female doctor then. So she volunteered in ...
Plastic Surgeon Experimented on Wounded WWII Soldiers a...
September 25, 2016
During WWII, thousands of British soldiers were discharged for injuries sustained in combat. Many received severe scars covering their entire face or extremities....
World's Oldest Example of Cancer Found in 1.7 million-y...
September 20, 2016
Up until now the oldest evidence of human cancer dated back to around 3,000 B.C. But this recent discovery in Johannesburg by British and South African scientists...
9 Famous People in History Killed By Medical Misconduct...
August 29, 2016
Doctors work with us when our body is at its weakest. Sometimes it's inevitable that a doctor’s intervention will kill, directly or indirectly, rather than cure. ...
Oddly Beautiful X-Rays Of Women Wearing Corsets In 1908
August 12, 2016
In 1908, Doctor O’Followell’s Le Corset (The Corset) explored and showcased through x-rays, the nasty things corsets can do on a woman's body. These make me wince. ...
28 Photos Show Us How 'Strange' Medical Practice of the...
August 3, 2016
Back in the 1800s, the human body was still largely a mystery. Modern medicine was just starting to take shape, but compared to what we know today, doctors at the...
10 Horrifying Medical Procedures from the Past
July 14, 2016
Blood Letting. People used to believe that the reason why you’re sick is because you’re full of humors. You will then be cut on the skin to allow blood to flow out of the bod...
27 Shocking Hygiene Practices From The Past. Whoa!
July 10, 2016
Human hygiene has come a really long way since the dark ages. And to show you exactly how far we’ve come, here are some examples of horrible hygiene practices from the pa...
15 Vintage Photos of People Getting X-Rays Over The Dec...
July 5, 2016
X-rays was first introduced about 120 years ago. It was still considered dangerous back then, but despite the danger, the judicious use of X-rays allowed great me...
The Faces War Have Altered
June 17, 2016
Given its crushing trench nature and use of large-caliber artillery, World War I saw some of the most devastating wounds suffered by soldiers in the history of warfare. Before the days of sophi...
The Medical Stuff Used in the Past Will Give You the Wi...
June 14, 2016
US Civil War Surgeon’s kit. Walter Reed Physiotherapy Store, 1920s Obstetric Phantom, Italy, 1700 - 1800. Tool to teach medical students and midwives about chil...
15 Old Medical Photos That Will Make You Glad You Weren...
May 11, 2016
Before modern medical science became widespread, the human body was a mystery. Back in the 1800s, people were pretty much clueless and medical practitioners were ...
This Footage Of A Shellshocked Soldier From World War I...
April 14, 2016
Following the end of World War I, the world were faced with yet another dilemma, something they'd never seen before — a bizarre condition that was once known as s...
27 Vintages Photos of Medical Treatments Throughout His...
April 1, 2016
Modern medicine is still quite young. The fetal ultrasound was only developed in 1959 and penicillin wasn’t discovered until 1928. And when the 1918 flu pandemic ...
This Is What You Had To Go Through To Wear Contact Lens...
February 18, 2016
The best way to appreciate today’s technology is to see what people had to do or go through in the past. Credit: British Pathé
