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  • Article

The extraction of the excruciating bladder stones

Among those vying to find alternatives to major surgery for bladder stones, young doctor Jean Civiale stood out, painstakingly honing a method that was to become the norm.

  • Article

Revelations of blindness in the Middle Ages

Medieval texts, from Islamic medical treatises to Christian books of miracles, reveal surprisingly varied and complex experiences of blindness. But when medieval scholar Jude Seal experienced visual impairment themselves, they gained an even deeper understanding of the lives they were studying.

  • 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.

  • Interview

Inside the mind of Ayurvedic Man’s curator, Bárbara Rodriguez Muñoz

The choices a curator makes – what goes in? what stays out? why? – are often as fascinating as the exhibition itself.

All stories (4)

Images

  • Set of 25 surgical instruments; steel
  • A surgeon setting a leg with the aid of three assistants, observed by onlookers, in front of walls on which various surgical instruments are arranged. Engraving by Jacob van Meurs, 1657.
  • Lithotomia Douglaffiana
  • Hypodermic Syringes. Manufacturer's catalogue, p. 322.
  • Eleven decorated initials from the Basel 1555 edition of Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica. Woodcuts, 1555.
  • Eleven decorated initials from the Basel 1555 edition of Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica. Woodcuts, 1555.
  • Eleven decorated initials from the Basel 1555 edition of Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica. Woodcuts, 1555.
  • Ancient anatomists in discussion around a cadaver. Engraving by G. Appelmans, 1674.
  • Ernst von Bergmann operating in an amphitheatre. Photogravure, 1907, after F. Skarbina, 1906.
  • Parody coat of arms of a united company of surgeons and barbers. Drawing (?) by John Marshall, 1798.
All images (16)

Catalogue

All works (69)