Those who survived the perilous journey westward faced towns that offered little relief, where injury and illness were frequent and unrelenting. In such places, doctors were more often viewed as agents of pain, sought only when a person was on the brink of death.
Category: Individuals
Shiro Ishii and the Unimaginable Horrors of Unit 731
Driven by extreme nationalism, he sought to ensure Japan’s dominance by mastering the use of biological weapons to devastate its enemies.
Clean Hands are a Mother’s Best Friend: Updated
Doctors were performing autopsies, then taking their unwashed hands which contained cadaveric particles, and infecting the women they later assisted in childbirth.
Electrified Baths and Animated Dead Frog Legs
He discovered that the legs of dead frogs would twitch and flop about when electricity was applied.
The Cries of the Unheard: Forced Nazi Sterilization
The Nazi Party subscribed itself to pseudoscientific ideas regarding genetics in order to push their racial ideologies to the brink of extremism.
Electric Hair Brushes and Magnetic Cure-Alls
George Scott was an English businessman who had no formal medical training whatsoever, yet he made a killing off of several “medical” devices he had invented for home use.
Becoming Blue: The Effects of an Overexposure to Silver
Although argyria is not thought to be fatal, it does have severe cosmetic impacts that can affect a person emotionally and socially.
Angel of the Battlefield: Clara Barton
Clara Barton’s story shows that the impact of a compassionate woman can not only change lives, but save them.
Lili’s Right to Life: The Birth of Lili Elbe
Lili Elbe, born as Einar Wegener, became one of the first people to undergo experimental gender reassignment surgery
Goat Testicles for Virility: John R. Brinkley
Between 1917 and the mid-1930s, John Brinkley made a fortune on his “revolutionary” surgical procedure which involved placing goat testicles into men’s scrotums to cure infertility and improve virility. What a BAAAHHH-d idea
The Colorado Brown Stain: Fluorosis
Let’s talk about how the brown stains on the teeth of Colorado Springs residents helped reform cavity prevention.
Performing a Cesarean Section on His Own Wife: Dr. Jesse Bennett
Historically, most c-sections were performed for one main purpose, to save the baby. Mothers were expected to die from shock or complications resulting from infection.
Excavating Bladder Stones with Knitting Needles
The Lithotomy was described as far back as the 1st century A.D. by Greek physicians. The procedure only required three main tools, the knife, a hook, and a pair of forceps.
Remembering the Merit of Women: Elizabeth Thorn
While the battle raged on around them, many of the women living in Gettysburg in 1863 left their cellars and found ways to courageously serve humanity.
Losing Their Left Legs: The Walker Brothers of North Carolina
What is the likelihood that two brothers would be forced to undergo amputation of their left legs in the same spot just a few weeks apart from one another?
The wound That Took 50 Years to Kill Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the infamous college professor turned war hero, helped advance catheterization methods after he was wounded at Petersburg in 1864.
Bloomer Suits and a Medal of Honor: Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
Mary Edwards Walker, a progressive woman from New York, managed to kick down barriers throughout her lifetime, and she did so wearing bloomer suits.
Dead Except to Pain: Phantom Limb Phenomenon
An estimated 60,000+ amputations occurred over the course of the Civil War, leaving men maimed and forever physically altered. Due to the high levels of amputations that took place in field hospitals across the country, it was during this time that medical professionals began really documenting instances of phantom limb.
Remembering Jonathan Letterman
Dr. Letterman’s story, despite his importance to the field of military medicine, has been largely, forgotten. I hope that this post changes that.
The Devil with a Cyanide Syringe
Petiot was arrested in 1944 and admitted to killing at least 60 people.