Tag: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine

Images from the Library

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From John Read’s A description of Read’s patent syringe, or, Stomach pump, and lavement apparatus : with directions for its employment in the following operations, viz.: extracting poison from the stomach : administering clysters : introducing tobacco fumes into the bowels : transfusion of blood & venous injections : drawing off the urine : injecting the bladder : female injections : administration of food and medicine : drawing the breasts : injecting the wounds inflicted by rabid animals, thereby preventing hydrophobia, &c. &c. : containing also testimonials of its superior utility, and a tabular view of poisons and antidotes, from professional authority (1830).

As always, for more from the Medical Heritage Library, please visit our full collection!

Digital Highlights: Demonological Studies

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Bookplate from Volume I of "Demonology and Devil-lore."

The supernatural has enduring appeal in pop culture — as evidenced by the popularity of shows like Supernatural, True Blood, and Misfits — but also has a firm place in more academic surroundings. Before the physiological or neurological reasons were known for issues like epilepsy or schizophrenia, demoniac possession or the curse of a deity seemed as good an explanation as any for the symptoms at hand. Continue reading

Images from the Library

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From Probadas flores : romanas de famosos & doctos varones compuestas para salud reparo d’los cuerpos humanos & ge[n]tilezas de hombres de palacio & de cria[n]ça tra[n]sladadas de le[n]gua ytaliana en nuestra española. Nueuame[n]te impressas corregidas: y emendadas con additiones (undated).

As always, for more from the Medical Heritage Library, please visit our full collection!

Digital Highlights: The Grinnell Expedition

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In an earlier post on this blog, we talked about the English attempts to locate Sir John Franklin, unsuccessful searcher after the Northwest Passage. Franklin left England in 1845 with two ships, the Erebus and Terror, on his second attempt to locate the Passage, one of the rocs’ eggs of nineteenth century navigation. The second voyage resulted in a worse disaster than the first — Franklin and some of his men had staggered back overland from the first attempt; the second resulted in the total loss of both ships and men. Continue reading

Digital Highlights: Eugenic Tracts

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Title page of "The Problem of Race-Regeneration."

In the April 1912 edition of Eugenics Review, an E. Schuster wrote about a new series of pamphlets, “New Tracts for the Times”: “We welcome the publication of this series, aiming as it does at awakening ‘an enlightened social conscience’…” (94) Continue reading

Digital Highlights: Medical Necrology

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Cover of "A Necrology..."

In 1899, David N. Patterson assembled a necrology of physicians “in Lowell and vicinity” for the North Massachusetts Medical Society. A “necrology” is technically nothing more than a list of the dead, usually those from a certain place or time. In this case, Patterson created something more like a group biography or hagiography. Continue reading

Digital Highlights: Bathing Medicine

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Image of a hypocasium from a Roman bath at Chester.

The history of ‘alternative medicine’ does not begin in the twentieth century. The arguments between allopaths and homeopaths formed part of mainstream medical dialogue in the nineteenth century and alternatives to ‘heroic’ medicine or mainstream medical treatment have always enjoyed a greater or lesser degree of popularity. Today, therapies like acupuncture and medical massage are receiving critical attention; in the nineteenth century in Britain, the Turkish bath enjoyed a similar vogue. Continue reading