Under The Knife, Episode 6 – Bodysnatchers vs Vampires
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYwbh0WyhCc?rel=0] In Episode 6 of Under The Knife, I take on an internet myth involving iron cages, old graveyards, and the undead. Check out our new video on the history of mortsafes in ‘Bodysnatchers vs Vampires’! If you enjoy the series, please consider becoming a patron of our project by clicking here. And don’t forget […]
Under The Knife, Episode 5 – Human Skin Books
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHKqBaAmzfU?rel=0] In Episode 5 of Under The Knife, I discuss the dark history behind anthropodermic bibliopegy, or binding books with human skin. Why was it done? And how exactly did tanners use human skin to create covers in the past? If you enjoy our series, please consider becoming a patron of our project by clicking […]
Relic Face-Off: Trailer
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQSFYAT8J-g?rel=0] We’re excited to release the trailer for a new mini-series on Under The Knife! In Relic Face-Off, contestants will be invited onto the show and asked to bring with them an object related to a chosen theme. I will then try to ‘one-up’ them with an object of my own, and the audience will […]
Death is All Around Us: The Plague Pits of London
If you walk down Victoria Street in London on a beautiful, sunny afternoon, you’ll find dozens of picnickers sitting in Christchurch Gardens. Some will be suited up in jackets and ties, clutching briefcases in one hand and local supermarket sandwiches in another. Others will be tourists taking a moment to rest their wary bones before […]
Resurrecting the Body Snatchers: The Halloween Edition
I’ve written about body snatchers several times on this site, and each time, readers ask for more. Given that it’s Halloween, I thought I would give into that request and return to the subject in a longer, more comprehensive article about these fascinating creatures from the early 19th century. Happy Halloween! It is half past […]
Ten Terrifying Knives from Medical History
I’m excited to announce that I’ve just finished filming the first episode of my new YouTube series, Under The Knife, and will be releasing it very soon (please subscribe to my channel for video updates). Unsurprisingly, that got me thinking about, well, knives. Here’s a list of some rather terrifying knives from our medical past. VALENTIN […]
Being a Medical History Blogger
The year was 2010. I had just completed 9 years of university education which culminated in a PhD from the University of Oxford in the History of Science, Medicine & Technology; and I was about to start a 3-year postdoctoral research fellowship with the Wellcome Trust. I was on top of the world, academically-speaking. Yet, for me, there […]
The Double Casket of Thomas & Mary Souder
I remember rummaging through an old trunk in my grandmother’s house when I was a child and coming across what seemed to me at the time a very unusual photograph. It was a monochromatic image of a beautiful, young woman lying in a white casket (not dissimilar to the photo on the left). Curious, I […]
The Syphilitic Whores of Georgian London
People think I’m obsessed with syphilis, and maybe I am. But it’s only because of my recent indoctrination into 18th-century history by aficionados of the period, such as Lucy Inglis, Adrian Teal and Rob Lucas. I can’t read 10 pages of a medical casebook without coming across a reference to lues venerea. By the end […]
DO NOT SIT! A History of the Birthing Chair
I was standing on the second floor of Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh waiting for my film crew to begin rolling for my upcoming documentary, Medicine’s Dark Secrets, when I spied a chair (left) in the corner. At that point in the day, I was exhausted and my attention to detail was diminishing with each passing […]