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  • Photo story

Wool, fleas, plague

During the bubonic plague epidemic of 1665-6, the residents of Eyam in Derbyshire quarantined themselves to help prevent the disease spreading. Simon Norfolk tells the story of this small community’s sacrifice.

  • In pictures

The celebrity physician and the plague

The iconic “plague prevention costume” invented by a 17th-century French doctor secured his fame in royal circles. But other aspects of Charles de Lorme’s career made him a controversial figure.

  • Article

The father of handwashing

Doctors performing autopsies and then delivering babies – with not a hint of soap in between – was the grim recipe producing a lot of motherless offspring in the 1800s. But one man’s gargantuan efforts to upend accepted medical thinking turned the tide.

  • Article

Words of hope and anger

Author and spoken word poet Penny Pepper remembers her childhood dreams, and speaks out against the barriers society uses to prevent disabled people from fulfilling their potential.

All stories (7)

Images

  • Directions for the prevention and cure of the plague. Fitted for the poorer sort / [Anon].
  • India: metal rodent traps, for plague prevention, being distributed in an Indian city. Watercolour by E. Schwarz-Lenoir, 1915/1935 (?).
  • India: a laboratory in which dead rats are being examined as part of a plague-prevention programme. Watercolour, by E. Schwarz, 1915/1935 (?).
  • India: a line of men carrying metal traps for plague prevention on their heads, from the Health Department stables to be distributed in the nearby city. Watercolour by E. Schwarz-Lenoir.
  • The Christians refuge: or heavenly antidotes against the plague in this time of generall contagion. To which is added the charitable physician, prescribing cheap and absolute remedies, for prevention and cure thereof. Published for the benifit [sic] of all families.
  • The Christians refuge: or heavenly antidotes against the plague in this time of generall contagion. To which is added the charitable physician, prescribing cheap and absolute remedies, for prevention and cure thereof. Published for the benifit [sic] of all families.
  • The Christians refuge: or heavenly antidotes against the plague in this time of generall contagion. To which is added the charitable physician, prescribing cheap and absolute remedies, for prevention and cure thereof. Published for the benifit [sic] of all families.
  • Certain necessary directions, as well for the cure of the plague, as for preventing the infection with many easie medicines of small charge, very profitable to His Majesties subjects / Set downe by the Colledge of Physicians by the Kings Majesties speciall command. With sundry orders thought meet by His Majestie, and his Privie Councell for prevention of the plague. Also certaine select statutes ... Together with His Majesties proclamation for further direction therein and a decree in Starre-Chamber. Concerning buildings and in-mates.
  • A physician wearing a 17th century plague preventive
  • A physician wearing a seventeenth century plague preventive costume. Watercolour.
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