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Edward Jenner: pamphleteer
Dr Rob Boddice presents the evidence for his discovery of a lost work by Edward Jenner in the Wellcome Library. Edward Jenner, father of immunology, pioneer of the vaccine against smallpox and all-round good egg, is well known for his… Continue reading
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Women pharmacists demand the vote
On Ada Lovelace Day, pharmacy historian Briony Hudson discovers the pioneering role of women pharmacists in the women’s suffrage movement. In April 1913 Bernard Gill submitted an article for publication to the Pharmaceutical Journal that arrived in a charred envelope.… Continue reading
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Test of an expert witness
When in 1836 James Marsh announced his test for the presence of arsenic, the news was greeted with huge relief. Unknown numbers of deaths, it was feared, were being attributed to diseases such as dysentery or food poisoning when the… Continue reading
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Seeing the world through invisible glasses
Why, Miss Smith, without your glasses you’re beautiful! (…. as Miss Smith removes her spectacles and shakes down her hair….) Be-spectacled librarians and archivists are only too well aware that the wearing of glasses carries all sorts of cultural baggage… Continue reading
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Pregnancy Testing on ‘Making History’
The latest episode of the Radio 4 series Making History (tx 16th April 2013), includes a segment on pregnancy testing in the 1950s and the surprising laboratory methods used in this process. The segment highlights the research of Jesse Olszynko-Gryn… Continue reading
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Out of the ether… Papers on the history of anaesthesia now available
Most people have heard of John Snow as the man who traced the source of the 1854 cholera outbreak in Soho to one pump in Broad Street. However, Snow’s primary work as a pioneering anaesthetist is often overlooked. Richard Ellis,… Continue reading
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Tissue Culture in History, Public and at the Wellcome Archives
Duncan Wilson is a Wellcome Trust Research Associate at the University of Manchester’s Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM). Here, he describes the background and research to his new book, Tissue Culture in Science and Society:… Continue reading
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A History of British Sports Medicine
Dr Vanessa Heggie is a Research Fellow in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Here, she describes the background and research to her new book, ‘A History of British Sports Medicine‘. When I… Continue reading
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At the Military Academy
On first impression, this photograph appears to be of a military figure. The epauletted tunic, the shuttered blinds… perhaps a pre-1914 army planner, taking a break from planning his country’s defence from a foreign force? The photograph was indeed taken… Continue reading
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X-Ray Anniversary
On this day 115 years ago, Wilhelm Röntgen became the first person to observe X-Rays. Like many a groundbreaking discovery, this process occurred rather fortuitously. Röntgen, a German physics professor, was in his laboratory in Wurzburg, Germany, testing if cathode… Continue reading