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Stories

  • Article

The case of the cancerous stomach

Steak and schnitzel were on the menu again after Theodor Billroth successfully excised a woman’s stomach cancer in 1881. Remarkably, today’s surgeons still perform the same procedure, with slight modifications.

  • Article

Cocaine, the Victorian wonder drug

Today, cocaine has a very poor public image as one of the causes of crime and violence. But for the Victorians it was welcomed as the saviour of modern surgery.

  • Article

The search for a cure for endometriosis

Discover how a white American doctor’s experimental operations on black female slaves laid the foundations for modern gynaecological surgery.

  • Book extract

The castration effect

Discover how testosterone – or the lack of it – affects the male body, from eunuch slaves to castrato singers, and on to hormone reduction in modern prostate cancer treatment.

All stories (11)

Images

  • 19th century dental surgery
  • title page of "Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery", 1820
  • Plate 6, Ligature of iliac and common femoral arteries.
  • Plate 72, Surgical removal of a stone from the bladder.
  • Plate XIX-XX, Surgical instruments for the treatment of diseases in the ureter and prostate.
  • Plate VII, Surgical instruments used for perforation.
  • Fig. 90. Cripps Colotomy Dilator
  • Plate 20, Excision and amputation of the thigh and hip joint
  • pls viii "Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery", 1820
  • Plate 13, Ligature of the anterior tibial artery.
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