Category Archives: Medicine

The case of Alphonse Louis is one of the earliest and most famous examples of the use of a prosthetic jaw. Not only was the piece a masterful piece of craftsmanship, it also returned the patient in question to a relatively normal life after he suffered a horrific disfigurement. War Injuries Today, most facial prosthetics […]

Gout is a painful type of arthritis caused by an excess of uric acid in the blood, which then builds up in the joints, causing painful swelling and inflammation. Though not typically dangerous, it can be debilitating if untreated. The condition is usually caused by overconsumption of alcohol and fatty foods combined with general inactivity.  […]

Leprosy is one of the oldest known diseases, with written references to sickness that scholars suspect were leprosy dating back to as early as 1500 BC. Geneticists have traced the origins of the disease to East Africa, where it spread across the continent and then to Europe by following human movement along trade and migration […]

Phrenology is the idea that the shape of the head is a physical manifestation of the personality. By feeling the shape and contours of a subject’s head, phrenologists believed they could determine their overall personality, including any predisposition they might have to insanity or criminality. The theory was developed in 1796 by Franz Joseph Gall, […]

Before the reform movement of the mid 1800s, insane asylums were seen as little more than dumping grounds for those who were considered to have no place in society. Likewise, the people who found themselves confined in ‘madhouses’ were often regarded with fear and ridicule. There were many different theories about what caused mental illness, […]

Cyanide is perhaps one of the most notorious poisons in the world. It comes in many different forms, and has been a popular method of dispatch throughout history. Cyanide is famously implicated in many real-life murders and suicides, and continues to be a popular trope in fictional writing due to its deadly reputation and universal […]

The art of embalming is believed to have been started by ancient civilisations, most notably the Ancient Egyptians, who are perhaps most famous for their mummification techniques. However, the desire to preserve the body has endured over the millenia, and many different techniques have been used to try and forestall the decay of the deceased. […]

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral which is made up of fibrous crystals. It is highly heat resistant, and therefore was long considered to be a ‘Miracle Mineral’ that was used to create a plethora of heat resistant and fireproof items. Not only was it found in an array of building and construction materials, such […]

Highly controversial even in its heyday, lobotomy was just one of many experiments within the realm of psychiatry in the quest to find a cure for mental illness. Due to new discoveries about the functions of different areas of the brain at the end of the 19th century, new ideas about surgical treatments for mental […]

Electro-convuslive therapy (better known as ECT) was introduced in 1938, and quickly became widely used in psychiatric hospitals as a new therapeutic treatment. It was found to be particularly useful in treating major depression, and ECT rapidly replaced the use of less safe drugs that had previously been used to induce seizures, such as Metrozol. […]