/r/historyofmedicine
A place to discuss the history of medicine, the fascinating evolution of medical science, the anecdotes of the people who have made medicine what it is today. Topics of discussion may include (but is not limited to!) the history of medical procedures, treatments, and devices, historical persons of interest, the history of epidemiology and public health, and other related areas of interest.
This subreddit is dedicated to the discussion of the history of medicine, as well as the histories of epidemiology and public health. Submissions and comments should be on topics related to these subjects except when otherwise permitted.
Also check out our wiki (Note: wiki is in development. Have a suggestion? Message the moderators).
This is a subreddit for civil and informed discussion. No hate material or open hostility is acceptable. Those users found to be in violation of this rule will have their comments removed and will be warned. Any subsequent violations of this rule will result in a ban.
Please follow the twenty-year rule: only post and comment about topics prior to 1993. This is to avoid the discussion of current events, which is more appropriate for other subreddits.
When posting, find the most relevant source. All controversial or possibly insensitive materials should include a thorough bibliography of sources. Blogspam is not acceptable. If you would like to post a link to a blog, that is fine, but multiple postings of singular blog entries by a single user will be considered spam, and that user will be banned.
Joke answers, memes, pun threads, reaction .gifs, MFWs and anything of the sort are strictly forbidden.
Downvote for irrelevancy, low content, or unhelpful content. Upvote for rich and interesting content.
If you have any questions, concerns or comments about the subreddit, please message the moderators directly.
Users are allowed to create their own flair.
You may include whatever you like as the text - either a primary area of interest or an area in which you consider yourself and expert.
In order to further distinguish novices and experts - if your flair represents an area of interest please select the color blue; if you consider yourself an expert on a topic, please select the color red.
Expert defined as either: extensive knowledge of a subject usually obtained through the completion of an undergraduate degree, or extensive self-study - please be willing and ready to expand on an issue or provide good sources, if asked.
/r/historyofmedicine
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Buffalo Red Cross Nurse during the Polish Soviet War
Praxeda Fronczak was a Red Cross Nurse from Buffalo who went to Poland after World War One during the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921) to help combat a typhus epidemic, teach nursing, and evacuate and treat refugees. She did amazing work in Poland and kept an extensive diary and scrapbook of her time there.
https://library.buffalo.edu/news/2023/12/21/praxeda-fronczak-a-red-cross-nurse-in-poland-1919-1921/
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/973910e6aa854000bb62895199933b1
19:19 UTC
Who first used the term ‘lub-dub’ to describe heart sounds?
I know the steth was invented by Laennec, but curious as to who first used the phrase lub-dub to describe the sound of the heart
01:32 UTC
Louis Pasteur succesfully administers the anti rabies vaccine to 9 yr old Joseph Meister on this date in 1885, after the boy was bitten by a rabid dog. He produced it by growing the virus in rabbits, and then weakening it. It laid foundation for other vaccines too.
04:32 UTC
Lf books or papers about history of case studies
Hello, I'm looking to see if there are any books or papers that deal with the history of case studies especially things wrestling with the positive medical benefits but potential ethically concerns. This is a really broad topic so any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
17:21 UTC
Looking for books and authors on the history of anxiety
Hi team! Anyone read any good books (or chapters in books) about how anxiety has been treated as a symptom or diagnosis across time? Podcast tips also welcome!
13:11 UTC
Michel Foucault’s Archaeology of Scientific Reason: Science and the History of Reason — An online reading group starting Sunday June 23 (12 meetings in total), open to everyone
20:15 UTC
Why give two purgatives simultaneously?
On February 16, 1806 Meriwether Lewis applied Dr. Rush's pills to George Gibson. The pills were a compounded mix of calomel (a purgative) and jalap (another purgative). What was the purpose for that?
16:59 UTC
Dr. Edward Jenner conducts the first ever successful vaccination ( against smallpox) in 1796, when he administers the vaccine to 8 yr old James Phipps. It would pave the way for complete eradication of small pox later on. Often called father of immunology.
14:21 UTC
Culpeper's remedy
I'm reading a play called 'The Welkin' set in mid 1700's and a midwife references 'Culpeper's remedy'. It then describes that remedy as 'In the. On the bed. When you. You know. With your hand and the. Ointment and the. Rubbing.'
I've tried to research what they believed to be going on and why it has that name, but can only find stuff on Culpeper's herbal medicines. Does anyone here know?
13:41 UTC
WWII, Cancer, and Pharmacology
During WWII, all sides agreed not to use poison gas, based on the horrific experiences of WWI, however neither side fully trusted the other to completely abide by this. To prepare for this possibility, the US developed mustard gas bombs to be used if Germany broke the treaty first. Unfortunately, on 02Dec1942, an unanticipated disaster ensued.
An American Liberty ship, the USS John Harvey, was docked in Bari, Italy with 2,000 secret mustard gas bombs on board, when a Luftwaffe air raid destroyed her. Since the cargo was top secrets, nobody knew that the oily mixture in the water, on surfaces, and atomized in the air were poisonous, until days later when patients started presenting with difficulty breathing, burns and blisters. They were diagnosed with "Dermatitis NYD" (not yet determined), and there were 617 casualties, including 83 deaths. The top brass knew what happened, but that information was suppressed and not communicated to doctors treating the victims.
Several years later, two clinical researchers at Yale reviewed the clinical findings from this disaster and noticed that mustard had a strong suppressive effect on cell division, and they used that knowledge to develop mechlorethamine, the first effective treatment for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. This discovery launched what is now call "chemotherapy" for cancer.
And, if you studied pharmacology over the last few decades, you may be familiar with the "Blue Bible of Pharmacology", Goodman & Gilman's Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. G&G were the two researchers at Yale who discovered mechlorethamine for the treatment of NHL.
Source: https://www.history.com/news/wwii-disaster-bari-mustard-gas
13:20 UTC
1873 guy bonks his head, knocks himself out, but is otherwise totally fine. Three years later, he has a seizure, then forgets those three years.
23:55 UTC
how did they keep the eyes open during icepick lobotomies?
07:18 UTC
What was Russian healthcare like for foreigners in the 1920s (1923)?
Hi, I hope this is the correct subreddit for this question. I am writing a short story for a school assignment and it features a student from Warsaw in Petrograd who falls ill to leukemia. He does not have citizenship. I found some articles about Russian medicine in 1923, but I haven't found much that specifies if everyone qualified for free healthcare. What would treatment in this case for him be like?
Thank you for any answer in advance!
09:22 UTC
ISO Power code for vintage ECG machine
Hello all, not sure if this the right place to look, but I recently acquired a vintage Cambridge Instruments Simpli-Scribe Electrocardiograph machine and all that is missing is the power supply. I would like to test its functionality however I am coming up empty handed in my search for the proper power cord online. Any advice or leads would be very much appreciated! Thanks again
01:40 UTC
Treatment for Sepsis
I'm doing research for a novel I'm writing, but I'm struggling to find information on sepsis. The book is set in the late 1800s.
In the scene, a character receives an appendectomy after the appendix has burst. He then goes into sepsis and dies. My question is: What treatment would doctors give for sepsis back then? Bloodletting? Anything else?
19:34 UTC
When they added anti-freeze to an antibiotic in 1937 to make it sweet.
The Elixir sulfanilamide disaster that killed more than a hundred people and hastened the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/histories-product-regulation/sulfanilamide-disaster
01:49 UTC
Prehistoric medicine
Could any one suggest to me a book/article that covers some big points about the development of medicine from its earliest beginnings(prehistoric medicine) to the ancient Egyptian civilization.
20:58 UTC