Questions tagged [medicine]
For questions regarding the history of more or less scientific methods of healing.
83
questions
7
votes
1answer
264 views
Were blue-tinted glasses prevalent in Victorian England and, if so, why?
Whenever I happen to read Chesterton, Conan-Doyle or some other British writers of the era, there will occasionally be mentioned people wearing blue-tinted spectacles.
Chesterton especially, in his ...
10
votes
2answers
435 views
How old is the practice of removing wisdom teeth?
According to this brief history of wisdom teeth removal, wisdom teeth may have been helpful in prehistoric times, but are now removed due to their general incompatibility with the human jaw. However, ...
4
votes
3answers
251 views
What did medical treatments for fractured or broken bones cost in 1900-1915?
Let's say that you are in the year 1915, living in rural Eastern Europe, and you just got badly injured in an earthquake (not a huge earthquake, just big enough to crumble a small and poorly built ...
0
votes
1answer
365 views
Have there been negative large-scale long term effects from vaccines?
This is in regards to the COVID-19 vaccines.
As far as I am concerned, the speedy availability is the conjunction of 3 things coming together:
superior biotech compared to even 10 years ago, both in ...
asked Dec 16 '20 at 5:50
Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
6,0892 gold badges20 silver badges41 bronze badges
8
votes
0answers
150 views
Did anyone at the time blame the Great Plague on rats or fleas?
The Great Plague of London occurred in 1665, before the advent of the germ theory of disease. Nonetheless, people back then had some general notion that the disease could be spread through social ...
0
votes
1answer
145 views
How prestigious was the medical profession given the inefficacy of most treatments?
I have read that doctors were until the advent of penicillin not more effective than not seeing one. I am not sure what that meant: surely for some things, it was better to see a physician than not to ...
2
votes
1answer
128 views
Does the long dense habitation and cultivation of lands correlate with a high incidence of tetanus and gangrene in badly disinfected wounds?
William Keen claims in his Treatment of war wounds (written at the end of WW1) that the soil of France, since it was inhabited and cultured since antiquity, was extraordinarily infected with bacteria ...
8
votes
1answer
867 views
What was the estimated malaria death toll for US Forces during World War II?
Recently I run onto an article listing 10 most deadliest epidemics in the human history, this contradictory article was from Russian website that looks rather low quality, but what attracted my focus ...
0
votes
0answers
121 views
Were there Early Modern precursors to eugenics?
Eugenics, which I'll define here as the selective breeding, sterilization, and biological engineering of humans with political or utopian aims, was a major historical force between the Late Victorian ...
2
votes
3answers
456 views
Why was gout so prevalent in the past among rich people?
I'd like a general explanation about this fact.
I know it's a big error to judge behaviors in history with the current knowledge we have now, but for gout, people could have easily got to know that ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Did healers in medieval Europe use moldy bread in poultices for wounds?
In a Song of Ice and Fire, injured characters are frequently given a poultice made of, amongst other things, moldy bread.
We drowned the wound with boiling wine, and closed you up with a poultice ...
2
votes
1answer
184 views
Is there any truth to my family's story about “Cooper's Pie Wagon”?
According to family lore, my great-uncle Dr. John Cooper
"was a surgeon on Gen. Sherman's and Gen. Fremont's staffs. Credited with the invention of the ambulance; soldiers nicknamed it as Cooper's "...
-1
votes
1answer
202 views
How did ancient people treat acne? [closed]
In the modern era, people have creams and antibiotics to treat acne. How did ancient people treat acne given that there is rarely an ancient picture which illustrates ancient people with acne. Did ...
1
vote
1answer
340 views
Is it true that first surgeons were barbers?
Talking with a friend, he told me that the first surgeons were the barbers. In part it made sense as they are used to cut and cure people as they shave them. Even the striped bar red white and blue ...
10
votes
1answer
2k views
Why was compulsory vaccination abandoned in the UK?
There is currently talk in the UK of making school attendance conditional on vaccination. Similar schemes operate in various places around the world now.
Vaccination against smallpox was compulsory ...
2
votes
1answer
838 views
How were concussions treated in late 19th-century America?
It’s 1899 America, a person has a bleeding head wound after an impact (the rest of their body being unharmed for the sake of the focus question).
They have a concussion and, when they wake up, they ...
-3
votes
2answers
183 views
How was the black death spread? [closed]
When discussing the black plague, many historians believe it to be the bubonic plague transmitted by fleas on rats.
I was wondering if there are any competing theories to what caused this mass death.
4
votes
1answer
331 views
Did the “ancients” use lead plates to prevent pain in their knees?
While reading The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, I came upon the following line:
Just before tea I told Nantz the anecdote of the ancients using lead plates to prevent pain in their knees, the ...
4
votes
1answer
284 views
Did people during the Renaissance believe that the heart had two chambers?
Short question (adapted from @Oddthinking at Skeptics.SE):
How many chambers did the scientific population of the world (excluding Leonardo da Vinci), think the human heart had during the Renaissance?...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Strong movement to deregulate professions in the 1960's?
In chapter 11, page 209, of his book "predictably irrational", Dan Ariely writes:
"The word profession comes from the Latin professus, meaning "affirmed
publicly." Professions started somewhere ...
7
votes
3answers
695 views
What is the best book to learn about medicine in medieval times? (research for a novel)
I am writing a novel where the main character is a healer in medieval times / a low-technology environment. Most of his work would involve field medicine, or treating people generally as a village ...
30
votes
3answers
7k views
Where (if anywhere) were X-ray machines put on trains or trolleys to image “Everybody over 14 years old”?
The background image in this X-ray analysis sotfware page shows what looks like a trolley or train car on tracks with a sign that says "X-ray Now: Everybody over 14 years old".
Where might this have ...
4
votes
2answers
345 views
What is the origin of the name Fallopian tubes?
I read that the Fallopian tubes were described by the Italian anatomist Gabrielle Fallopio, somewhere in the 16th century.
The Wikipedia describes that the structure reminded the musical instrument, ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
Did nutmeg really prevent infections during the Bubonic Plague?
Not sure if this comes under biology or history.
Years ago, a chemistry professor gave us a short lesson on the history of nutmeg. He said, the priests in Europe wore pouches around their neck ...
11
votes
1answer
7k views
How did Mehmed II die?
The different Wikipedias offer different stories.
English Wikipedia claims poison as a likely cause of death:
In 1481 Mehmed marched with the Ottoman army, but upon reaching Maltepe, Istanbul he ...
4
votes
1answer
683 views
How did historical peoples deal with choking?
These days, the use of the Heimlich Maneuver to deal with choking is so well-known that one might be surprised to learn that it was not invented until the 1970s, so this seemingly simple treatment is ...
5
votes
1answer
384 views
Prior to 1790, before dentist chairs, did dentists put the patient's head between their knees?
I read here (and similarly in a book of facts from the TV series QI), that in the 1700s, the dentist would have held your head between his knees as he operated.
I have read that before dentist chairs,...
11
votes
2answers
2k views
What oath did medical students take in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945?
The World Medical Association responded to Nazi
medical atrocities not by reasserting the time-tested
Hippocratic oath, but by asserting a new modern
oath, subject to change every 10 years. Source: ...
5
votes
1answer
3k views
How were knee injuries treated in Ancient Greece?
Today knee injuries, for example ACL tears*, are a pretty common injury, especially with fighters (Judo, Wrestling, BJJ, MMA, …). Since the Greeks practiced a lot of wrestling and pankration, knee ...
9
votes
3answers
562 views
When did western doctors first start predicting prenatal diseases and disabilities?
At what point did western medicine become invested in the idea of predicting that children might be born with specific illnesses or disabilities prior to their actual birth? And at what point did ...
18
votes
1answer
2k views
Source of quote attributed to Florence Nightingale: To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics
This is another classic quotation in the history of statistics, attributed to Florence Nightingale:
To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics, for these are
the measure of his purpose....
0
votes
1answer
718 views
Was the high consumption of (red) wine in Ancient Rome preventive of scurvy? [closed]
With daily consumption of wine estimated to be about 1 liter/day based on production, vitamin c requirements may be about covered. Was that a reason why these enormous consumption levels were thought ...
0
votes
2answers
167 views
Was the sprouting of seeds for food production known in Europe before 1800?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting
Was this not known in Europe?
7
votes
1answer
582 views
Has Nursing Always Been Female Dominated Like Today (90+%)?
I had a discussion with a nursing friend (male nurse) and he said that he wouldn't be a nurse if he had the chance again due to often being asked to do things no other nurse wants (like getting the ...
9
votes
1answer
791 views
What is the meaning of Verte! at the end of Sisi’s autopsy report?
The following document is a picture of a copy of the autopsy report of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, on display in the Sisi Museum in Vienna. It describes, in French, the wounds and the cause of death ...
8
votes
2answers
754 views
Was there a time when it was easier for slaves than citizens to access state-sponsored medical facilities in Ancient Rome?
The Wikipedia article Medicine in Ancient Rome has this to say on the first hospitals in Rome:
The Roman medical system saw the establishment of the first hospitals;
these were reserved for ...
6
votes
1answer
230 views
What did people die of in 1665 London?
Wikipedia has an example Bill of Mortality from 1665, listing the causes of death for the London area. Many of the terms in it are unfamiliar, though, eg. "Kings Evill", "Rupture", "Livergrown". In ...
13
votes
2answers
1k views
Why did physicians recommend curing the “dancing plague” with more dancing?
The Dancing Plague of 1518 was an event in which nearly 400 people in Strasbourg danced for days on end, some even dying of exhaustion or other causes. One section of the Wikipedia article has me ...
39
votes
2answers
8k views
‘Avoid sleeping on your back’ & ‘breathe in toilet smells’ were seen as precautions against the Black Death. Why did doctors think these would work?
Browsing a school book, Medieval Britain by Brenda Williams, I came across three precautions recommended by doctors to help people avoid going down with the plague. These were:
cover windows
avoid ...
10
votes
3answers
3k views
How was body temperature checked before thermometers?
Medicine always advances, and it's obvious that many decades or centuries ago, some medical procedures were done differently.
I'd like to find out about how body temperature was checked in the past ...
2
votes
2answers
201 views
Why was “consumption of gypsum” seen as relevant medical problem following 'De Materia Medica'?
"It [lye ash] is also drunk against the consumption of gypsum and the bite of the spider."
But why would consumption of relevant amounts of gypsum occur in the first place?
https://en.wikisource.org/...
7
votes
1answer
168 views
Treatments for the Plague
We have all heard of the Plague Doctors, but is there any information on the Treatments that they offered the sick? I have looked at the work of
Guy de Chauliac but I have been unable to find a copy ...
7
votes
1answer
781 views
How did society regard identical twins in the 17th century in Europe?
How did society react about and approach identical twins in Europe, mainly around the 17th century?
2
votes
1answer
639 views
When was it considered fact that rats caused the Black Death?
Although Numerous sources now consider other factors or dismiss the idea that the Black Death was carried by rats, the CDC continues this claim. That issue is not not my interest, but a historical ...
5
votes
1answer
381 views
Birth by Caesarean Section in Ancient Times
[I have asked a variation of this question already on the Judaism Stack Exchange, but am offering a broader version of it here.]
According to US National Library of Medicine, the first recorded ...
19
votes
1answer
4k views
Why wasn't sauerkraut used to combat scurvy?
While reading about age of sail, I've read about scurvy and how it was 'cured' by 'acidity' of citrus. It come to my mind - why didn't they try to use sauerkraut? It seems that it should be more ...
4
votes
0answers
142 views
What were untreated gangrene survival rates before 1860?
During the Civil War, Middleton Goldsmith revolutionized the treatment of gangrene, bringing mortality rates (presumably of wounded soldiers) from 45% to 3%, according to Wikipedia.
Do we have any ...
6
votes
1answer
125 views
Medieval physician Cornelius Shilander?
I am doing a research related to history of military medicine. I came up with a book published 1596 by Cornelius Shilander.
https://archive.org/details/corneliusshiland00schi
I have tried to do ...
6
votes
1answer
567 views
When penicillin was initially introduced, was it effective against all gram positives?
I'm trying to investigate the history of resistance. Just how good was penicillin when it first emerged? Were there any gram positives it couldn't get?
13
votes
2answers
1k views
What's the story behind this photo of hikers who brought white plague cure to President Wilson?
"LOS ANGELES HIKERS WHO BROUGHT WHITE PLAGUE CURE TO PRESIDENT WILSON. AT WHITE HOUSE"
I stumbled upon this interesting photo at the United States Library of Congress site, which seems to refer to ...
