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  • Article

When monarchs healed the sick

Our current Queen fortunately doesn’t have to spend hours laying hands on the sick to cure them. But it was a different story for monarchs of the early modern era, whose touch was a sought-after treatment for scrofula.

  • Article

Female masturbation and the perils of pleasure

Dr Kate Lister exposes the brutal 19th-century ‘cures’ for women who indulged in masturbation.

  • Article

The meanings of hurt

In the early modern period, gruesome incidents of self-castration and other types of self-injury garnished the literature of the time. Alanna Skuse explores the messages these wounds conveyed.

  • Article

Guerrilla public health

From safe-use guides to needle exchange schemes, Harry Shapiro reflects on 40 years of drug harm reduction in the UK.

All stories (15)

Images

  • John Brown. Photograph.
  • John Brown (Bruno). Line engraving.
  • John Brown. Photograph by Moffat.
  • Portrait of John Brown in "Elementa medicinae"
  • John Brown [Bruno]. Aquatint by J. Cary.
  • Portrait of John Brown, smiling, in oval
  • John Brown. Reproduction after an etching by [R].
  • John Brown. Photogravure after Sir G. Reid, 1881.
  • John Brown (Bruno). Etching by J. Kay, 1791.
  • John Brown, walking. Etching by J. Kay, 1819.
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