Stories
- Article
The secret lives of Britain’s first Black physicians
Dr Annabel Sowemimo explores the web of connections between early Black British doctors, the role of empire in West Africa and the pernicious reach of scientific racism.
- 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
Epidemic threats and racist legacies
Epidemiology is the systematic, data-driven study of health and disease in populations. But as historian Jacob Steere-Williams suggests, this most scientific of fields emerged in the 19th century imbued with a doctrine of Western imperialism – a legacy that continues to influence how we talk about disease.
- Article
Between sickness and health
In early 2020, the subject Will Rees was studying – imaginary illnesses – took on a new relevance as everyone anxiously scanned themselves for Covid symptoms each day. But this kind of self-scrutiny is nothing new, as he reveals.
Catalogue
- Archives and manuscripts
Unsigned paper arguing for lower duties on medicinal plants imported from the East to Great Britain
Date: Late 18th century - early 19th centuryReference: MS.7226/1Part of: Medicinal Plants: miscellany- Audio
The history of legal medicine in Britain and Europe.
Date: 9-11 April, 1987- Books
- Online
The evolution of Greater Britain's antiseptic house & town sewage-drainage systems of the twentieth century and after - for all time : with descriptions of the inherent defects of the 19th century systems and how to overcome those defects at great saving of expense : in an address to the President of the Local Government Board, pleading for a reform of the prevailing methods with explanatory, illustrative and critical appendices, copious drawings and diagrams, and full hydraulic, pneumatic and thermo-dynamical tables, corrected to the present date / by Isaac Shone.
Shone, Isaac.Date: 1914- Books
- Online
A history of botany in the United Kingdom from the earliest times to the end of the 19th century / by J. Reynolds Green.
Date: 1914- Pictures
A doctor taking the pulse of his patient - convinced that his prescription of a clyster has been successful - unaware that she has eaten the clyster-pipe. Coloured etching by G. Grinagain, 1804.
Grinagain, Giles, active 1804.Date: 2 January 1804Reference: 11831i