Tag: History of Medicine
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Murder, Resurrection and Dissection: The Dark History of Edinburgh’s Medical Past
In 1827 Edinburgh, Burke and Hare murdered lodgers to sell corpses to Dr. Knox, leading to Burke’s execution and posthumous dissection for anatomy. Abbie Teal recounts this gruesome episode of Edinburgh’s history.
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Variolation, Vaccination, and the Eradication of Smallpox
Smallpox, a once deadly disease, was eradicated due to immunization efforts worldwide. Ishaabhya Tripathi traces how this groundbreaking public health success was achieved,
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On the Defence of Wine: Medical Discourse during the Global Temperance Movement
During the temperance movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, proponents of the health benefits of wine sought to counter its growing influence. Kat Jivkova examines the cultural and medical discourse which defended its consumption.
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The Past Unveiled: A New Perspective on Ancient Phenomena and Myths through Poor Sight
Legends surrounding creatures lurking in the depths of the Earth’s waters have captivated human interest for centuries. However, there may be a more physiological answer to their supposed sightings, as Dalma Roman investigates.
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The Pill that Changed the World: A Complicated History
Written by Sophie Whitehead. The history of birth control pills is not commonly understood, despite their presence in the everyday lives of hundreds of millions of people. Sophie Whitehead discusses its murky history both in relation to narratives of historical exceptionalism and uncomfortable associations.
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The Four Humours: Understandings of the Body in Medieval Medicine
Written by Amy Hendrie. Popular conceptions of the Middle Ages as cruel and gruesome extend to ideas about medieval medicine. But the medieval understanding of the body was steeped in history, and likely extended into modernity more than one would think.
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The Impacts of Li Shizhen’s Bencao gangmu
Written by Kat Jivkova. The history of the natural world and study of the natural world has much to owe Li Shizhen’s Bencao gagmu, a sixteenth century text created from years of research and exploration, and often referred to as a “dictionary of Chinese knowledge”.
Retrospect Journal 