Thomas Morris
I spend a lot of time in libraries reading old medical journals. Every time I open one of these fascinating volumes I find three stories more extraordinary and unexpected than the one I was looking for. This blog contains some of the most quirky, bizarre or surprising cases I've encountered in my research, all drawn from the pre-twentieth century medical literature.
Categories used most frequently by the blogger:
Unfortunate predicaments Remarkable recoveries Mysterious illnesses Horrifying operations Unusual treatments Notable deaths Hidden dangers Bewildering research Prodigies and monsters Medical shenanigans Uncategorised Primitive equipment Dodgy predictions
20 July 2019
This painful case was recorded in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences in 1839. The author, Dr Isaac Hulse, was the surgeon in charge of the US Navy hospital in Pensacola, Florida:...
14 July 2019
It is not often that an author in a major medical journal thinks it necessary to state that they are not mad. But in 1891 Dr W.J. Galbraith, Professor of Surgery at Omaha Medical College,...
5 July 2019
A couple of months ago I wrote about a case from 1812 in which a patient with a massive facial injury was kept alive by lemonade injected into the rectum. Coincidentally I’ve...
29 June 2019
It’s been a little while since I’ve had the time to write a blog post. The reason for this hiatus is that my wife and I have been preparing for our move to Canada, where...