Chris’ father was a doctor in Glasgow. For this talk Chris brings along his father’s medical bag, full of the original ‘kit’.
Have you ever wondered how to ward off the plague!? Or have you ever wondered how a ‘peck of garden snails’ might be useful in curing consumption? Book this talk to hear all about some strange medical ‘cures’ and how medicine has developed over the years, from ‘bleeding’ and ancient recipes to inoculation and public health developments.
The early Greeks and Romans took their medicine seriously and an ancient site at Pergamum (Turkey) included a temple of healing complete with baths and an amphitheatre. Mediaeval times plunged medicine back many years but physicians, despite their reliance on measures like ‘bleeding’ and interpreting the ‘humours’ remained an important part of society.
Parish registers, especially recording burials, reveal all kinds of ‘fevers’ and some entries traced the history of individual illnesses in remarkable detail. For some parishioners medical relief came from the parish and after the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act parishes could combine to build workhouses that often became more like hospitals.
The impact of some individual medical pioneers is highlighted, like Herman Boerhaave of Leyden and Edward Jenner of Gloucester who undertook pioneering work on inoculation.
The history of medicine, while intriguing inevitably touches on the ‘basics life & death’. It was sometimes a case of ‘Kill or Cure!’
