Colorado Springs: A City Built Upon Tuberculosis
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 17, 2020
One of the leading causes of death in Europe and in the United States during the 19th century was tuberculosis, a disease that has plagued h...
Showing posts with the label Medicine
The Healing Soil of Boho
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 11, 2020
In the Boho highlands of West Fermanagh Scarplands in Northern Ireland, there is a longstanding belief that the soil from the local churchya...
Alexis St. Martin: The Man With A Hole In His Stomach
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 8, 2020
By the early 19th century, physicians had a clear understanding of the human anatomy (from dissecting cadavers) but knowledge about the role...
Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov’s Two-Headed Dog
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 5, 2020
In 1955, at a meeting of the Moscow Surgical Society, a sensational exhibit was presented to the assembled guests. On the platform close t...
Fatal Familial Insomnia: The Disease That Kills by Sleep Deprivation
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 25, 2020
Everybody suffers from a little insomnia once in a while, but what if you were unable to sleep for months? Early studies conducted on do...
Sweating Sickness: The Forgotten Epidemic
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 10, 2020
The Sleeping Beauty, by John Collier During medieval times, diseases were a constant threat to people’s health, brought about by lack of...
Nicholas Senn: The Doctor Who Blew Hydrogen Gas Up His Patient's Asses
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 19, 2020
Say, you get shot in the stomach. You go to a doctor. The doctor pulls down your pants and starts pumping hydrogen gas up your ass. Then he ...
Child Birth by Centrifugal Force
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 28, 2019
In 1965, George and Charlotte Blonsky, a childless New York couple were granted patent for a peculiarly weird invention—an ”Apparatus for F...
The Last Victim of Smallpox
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 12, 2019
In the summer of 1978, the World Health Organization stood on the brink of a remarkable achievement—smallpox, the disease that terrorized pe...
Chinese Medicine Dolls
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 10, 2019
For hundreds of years until the early 20th century, getting medical help for a Chinese woman was tricky. In those times the Chinese placed e...
Fanny Burney’s Gruesome Mastectomy
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 26, 2019
In the days before anesthesia, the prospect of having to go under the knife was far more horrific than the affliction the procedure was supp...
Gloria Ramirez: The Toxic Lady
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 23, 2019
Do you have people in your lives that you can’t stand? A co-worker perhaps, or a family member, or a grumpy neighbor. You may call them “tox...
The Radioactive Energy Drink That Kills
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 16, 2019
Ebenezer Byers was a well known American socialite, son of industrialist Alexander Byers. In his youth Eben showed promising talent at sport...
Cunningham Sanitarium
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 17, 2019
On the shores of Lake Erie, in Cleveland, the United States, there once stood a giant steel sphere sixty-four feet tall. Inside the sphere ...
The Wheel of Urine
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 16, 2019
A pot of urine can tell a lot about your diet and health. It can tell whether you are adequately hydrated, or how well your kidneys are func...
