Medicine & Disease

Philip Ziegler describes how the devastating Plague reached South-west England in the summer of 1348.

Philip Ziegler describes how, in the mid-fourteenth century, about one third of the population of Western Europe perished from bubonic plague.

Ann Leighton explains how food, folklore, and tradition all influenced the pilgrims' battle against disease.

Malaria was one of the scourges of the British Indian Empire. William Gardener writes how a remedy was at last provided by the introduction of a South-American tree.

Medical explanations of human character and conduct are by themselves (as William James pointed out) usually “destructive and insufficient.” It seems highly possible that Joan of Arc suffered from tuberculosis. But this analysis of her medical background, write John and Isobel-Ann Butterfield, does nothing to lessen our admiration for her heroic and inspired life.

Jerome Carson and Elizabeth Wakely explore the mental illnesses suffered by some famous historical figures and consider the impact on their lives and achievements.

Henry Bashford looks back at the birth of one of modern medicine's pillars.

Henry Bashford traces the development of a key aspect of modern medicine.

Sarah Wise admires an assessment of lunacy in 19th-century London.

In recent years the reputation of Mary Seacole as a pioneering nurse of the Crimean War has been elevated far beyond the bounds of her own ambition. Meanwhile that of Florence Nightingale has taken an undeserved knocking, as Lynn McDonald explains.