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Stories

  • Article

The shocking ‘treatment’ to make lesbians straight

Being a lesbian has never been a crime in the UK, but 50 years ago, some psychologists experimented with treatments to try to ‘cure’ women of their orientation. Find out what this involved.

  • Article

Surviving a flesh-eating disease

Nearly dying from a skin infection gave Scott Neill a chance to start again after an early life marked by grief and depression.

  • In pictures

A visual history of cancer

Cancer has a reputation as a modern disease, but these historical images show that it’s been part of our lives for centuries.

  • Long read

Rehab centres and the ‘cure’ for addiction

Guy Stagg takes us on a brief history of rehab centres and their approaches to addiction and recovery.

All stories (39)

Images

  • Plague apparatus from a lazaretto in Venice, used to disinfect clothing. Photograph.
  • Plague apparatus from a lazaretto in Venice; a machine for disinfecting letters and papers. Photograph.
  • Plague apparatus from a lazaretto in Venice: an oil cloth mask with a bronze beak and a terracotta model of a foot and leg. Photograph.
  • Plague apparatus from a lazaretto in Venice: an oil cloth mask with a bronze beak and a terracotta model of a foot and leg. Photograph.
  • Plague apparatus from a lazaretto in Venice, two objects: left, to disinfect coins, right, to disinfect letters. Photograph.
  • Dice representing gambling with health; an advertisement for the Genito Urinary Medicine Clinic (GUM) for treatment and advice on sexually transmitted diseases like Aids by The Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland. Colour lithograph.
  • Laparotomy operation at the Broca hospital, Paris. Heliogravure by J. Heuse, 1901.
  • Laparotomy operation at the Broca hospital, Paris. Heliogravure by J. Heuse, 1901.
  • Chinese woodcut: Instruments of petty surgery (5)
  • Two trees being cultivated by doctors; symbolising the differences claimed by James Morison between the 'organic' and his 'hygeist' approached to health. Lithograph, c. 1835.
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Catalogue

All works (16)