Trace 12,000 years of discoveries and developments, and meet the pioneers who transformed diagnosis and treatment Inside you will discover: ◆ A timeline of milestones, from prehistoric dentistry to polio vaccines and the eradication of smallpox ◆ Key figures in science and healthcare, including Florence Nightingale, Edward Jenner and Marie Curie ◆ Past perspectives on ailments, from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman cures to 20th-century attitudes to syphilis ◆ Scientific discoveries covering the placebo effect, circulation of the blood, anaesthesia and penicillin ◆ The social and economic impact of diseases such as leprosy, Spanish flu and the Black Death ◆ The evolution of healthcare, from medieval hospitals to the introduction of the National Health Service
WELCOME
History of medicine • Caroline Rance traces 12 millennia of developments in diagnosis, healthcare and surgery
DEATH & DISEASE
HEALTH AND HEALING IN ANCIENT EGYPT • The fertile plain alongside the river Nile was indeed a land of milk and honey – but also of parasites, workplace injuries and dental abscesses. Carole Reeves explores the diseases, diagnoses and treatments of ancient Egypt
Gynaecology in antiquity
LEPROSY THROUGH THE AGES • DisFIgured outcasts, announcing their uncleanliness with a clanging bell, dominate historical images of leprosy – but as Elma Brenner explains, such depictions are both reductive and misleading
SNAKES & LADDERS WONDER CURES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD • Ancient Greece and Rome boasted many physicians and drug-sellers – who offered a wide range of solutions for healing people’s ills. Laurence Totelin explores seven memorable remedies
THE STONE OF MADNESS
MARKED BY PLAGUE • Charlotte Hodgman talks to Professor Mark Ormrod about nine places connected with the Black Death, one of the most devastating scourges ever to a"ict Britain
THE BLACK DEATH THE HISTORIANS’ VIEW • Was it inevitable that plague would sweep Europe in the Middle Ages? How long did it take su!erers to die? And what was life like in its a"ermath? Here, a panel of experts re#ect on some of the big questions of a disease that repeatedly ravaged Europe over hundreds of years
John Snow • Studying a cholera outbreak in London revolutionised our understanding of the transmission of disease
CALL THE (ROMAN) MIDWIFE • Even today, childbirth can be arduous, even dangerous – so how did mothers deal with the challenges in antiquity? Laurence Totelin introduces the midwives of the Roman empire and explores their techniques
Whose breast is best? • The question of whether mothers should breastfeed their own babies was a thorny one in ancient Rome
PORTRAITS OF THE PLAGUE • Between 1855 and 1959 – more than 500 years after the medieval Black Death – a new plague pandemic ravaged the globe, killing some 12 million people. Images collected in an innovative project vividly depict the outbreaks
The Third Plague Pandemic
THE FATAL FLU THAT GRIPPED THE GLOBE • In the !nal few months of the First World War, a new horror swept around the globe – a disease that eventually a"icted up to one-third of humanity. Laura Spinney traces the course and consequences of the great Spanish #u pandemic
DIAGNOSIS & TREAT MENT
7 SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE • Throughout history humans have sought to combat disease, relieve pain and postpone death. Caroline Rance shares seven fascinating revelations from medicine’s long and often shocking past
TAKING THE SEX CURE • Dr James Graham won renown in the late 18th century as the ‘world’s !rst sex therapist’ – only to be dubbed the ‘emperor of quacks’. Lydia Syson argues that his infamy has overshadowed his truly enlightened ideas
The great Celestial Bed: A fertility aid...