Blog category: Medical History
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Taking the Waters at Saratoga Springs and Ballston Spa
May 29, 2020
“Taking the waters,” the practice of drinking and bathing in mineral springs to treat illness and promote health, was a popular habit in 19th-century America. Two of the most renowned resorts were Saratoga Springs and Ballston Spa in upstate New York.
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Quarantine in the 19th Century: Some Vignettes
March 20, 2020
Quarantine, or the practice of enforcing isolation upon people to prevent the spread of disease, goes back to at least the seventh century BC. The word quarantine comes from 14th-century Venice, where ships were required to lay at anchor for 40 (quaranta) days before landing, in an attempt to curb the outbreak of bubonic plague known as the Black Death. Quarantine was the main method of combatting the spread of transmissible disease in the 19th century, when there was no effective medical response. Here are some accounts of what quarantine was like in practice.
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Medical Advice for Travellers to Mexico in the Early 19th Century
February 21, 2020
Scottish physician James Copland provided medical advice to British collector William Bullock, who travelled to Mexico for six months in 1823.
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Blood Transfusion History: Infusing Life
October 5, 2018
In 1818, British obstetrician James Blundell performed the first human-to-human blood transfusion. Although the patient died, Blundell’s transfusion experiments, and his certainty that human patients required human blood, led to advances in transfusion medicine that continue into the present. Here’s a bit of blood transfusion history. There’s even a Bonaparte connection.
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The Girl with Napoleon in her Eyes
October 6, 2017
In the years after Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1815 defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, London hosted numerous exhibits related to the fallen French Emperor. Napoleon’s carriage was displayed, his battles formed the subjects of panoramas, the events of his life were depicted, and his portrait and various effects appeared on show. The oddest exhibit was a girl with Napoleon in her eyes.
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Cancer Treatment in the 19th Century
August 18, 2017
Cancer treatment in the 19th century had not advanced much beyond the methods used during the time of Hippocrates (circa 460-370 BC). These consisted of diet, bloodletting and laxatives. Surgery was also used, but operations were extremely painful and had a poor prognosis.
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Drinking Cold Water & Other 19th-Century Causes of Death
October 21, 2016
Many people died young in the 19th century. Here’s how even drinking cold water could kill you.
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Remarkable Cases of Longevity in the 19th Century
July 15, 2016
Napoleon Bonaparte died when he was 51 years old. Even factoring out infant mortality, the life expectancy for white men in the early 1800s was probably less than 60 years. People looked to the very old for clues about how to live a long life, just as they do today.
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Félix Formento and Medicine in 19th-Century New Orleans
April 25, 2014
An Italian immigrant who served in Napoleon’s Grande Armée, Félix Formento became a prominent medical practitioner in 19th-century New Orleans.
We must confess that fate, which sports with man, makes merry work with the affairs of this world.
Napoleon Bonaparte