Physicians' Gallery Blog

Major Arthur Hurst Medical diseases of war 1940, 2nd ed. Soon after the beginning of WWI, military doctors noticed that soldiers started to show neurological symptoms like dizziness, tremor, tinnitus,...

Girolamo Fracastoro  (1478-1533) Della sifilide di Girolamo Fracastoro Veronese a Pietro Bembo libri tre Verona, 1739 Girolamo Fracastaro was a Veronese doctor whose medical poem Syphilus sive morbus gallicus gave...

Alchemists believed that the codes and puzzles contained in these texts mapped out a way to transform base metals like tin and lead into gold.   According to...

This month we have received a donation of an exciting collection to the archive: the notes of Dr. D. B. Cater, Head Officer for the Public Health Organisation at...

Adapted from a Presentation to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh In mythology the moon relates not just to madness, but to love. And that’s very convenient from my...

On the 8th June 1809, the foundation stone of the then-named Royal Edinburgh Asylum was laid in the hospital grounds at Morningside, marking a turning point in the history...

The word melancholy literally means an excess of choler, or black bile. The Humours Its origins lie within the humoural system, which dates back to at least the time...

Fear of false imprisonment was a growing concern in eighteenth century Britain.  Private madhouses, where the inmates were paying customers, were particularly susceptible because there was little oversight of...

These illustrations, take from a study by Belgian physician Joseph Guislain, show examples of some of the new methods of mental health treatment developed in the 1800s.  ...

John Moncrief, The poor man's physician (1731) This book, authored by church minister John Moncrief, is a compilation of the recipes of numerous physicians and folk-healers. It was...

These sketches and letters are the work of William Blacklock, created after he was admitted to the Crichton asylum in Dumfries. Blacklock was born in London in 1816 and,...

The original source of the phrase ‘bruised reeds’ is Biblical, referring to the kindness of Jesus…  He will not quarrel or cry aloud,       nor will anyone hear his...