This Won't Hurt A Bit

Medical Caricatures from 1736-1932 at Lowcountry Digital Library. Other than the fact that the guy has gout, I'd say the second illustration here is just for the risqué.

Lily The Pink

Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound (advertisement from the Barnstable Patriot). Revered in song.


The Scaffold – what an unlikely group. "Jack Bruce, Elton John, Graham Nash and Jimi Hendrix were among the session musicians who performed on The Scaffold's early records (since none of the trio were musicians)."

Human Anatomy

The Royal Physician André du Laurent (1558 – 1609), Regius Professor of Medicine in the University of Montpellier. Link…

Medicine Men

From the Alaska Digital Archive. Link…

White-Nose Syndrome

A mysterious disease is ravaging the bat populations in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Link…

Quinine

John Eliot Howard. Illustrations of the Nueva Quinologia of Pavon, 1862. Link…

Dentistry

There was a book sale at Sydney University this weekend and I picked up a copy of Text-Book and Atlas of Dentistry, Gustav Preiswerk, edited by George W. Warren (1906). It is well illustrated but I detected a hint of anxiety in the patient's faces. When I read the section on anesthesia I realised why this might be. Here is the introduction:

Dental operations, especially extraction of teeth, are frequently very painful, and, therefore, we are compelled, in nervous and sensitive patients, to resort to pain-alleviating or pain-destroying remedies.
The action of such anesthetics is limited, either to the part being operated upon (local anesthesia), or to the whole body (narcosis).
Local anesthesia may be produced by thermic action (cold), mechanical action (swelling of the nerve fibres and pressure upon the same) and by chemical action.
Anesthesia by means of cold is best obtained with evaporating substances, such as ethyl chlorid (chlorethyl), which finds its greatest field of usefulness in dentistry. Before applying ethyl chlorid, the neighbourhood of the tooth to be extracted should be protected, so that it will not be affected by this liquid. This is done by covering the neighbouring teeth with a layer of softened wax, cotton rolls, or a napkin. The commercial ethylchlorid, which is obtained in tubes, is then directed both upon the labial and lingual side of the alveolus of the tooth to be extracted. Since ethyl chlorid boils at 11° C., the tube may be held quite some distance from the field of operation, for the heat of the hand is sufficient to cause the expansion of this preparation, and to force a strong stream to be be sprayed forth. After the spray has been allowed to act upon the gum for from ten to fifteen seconds, a shiny white coating of frost is formed, which indicates that that the operation may be begun. The latter is thus made decidedly more bearable, and especially so, if in association with the the local action of the cold, a light general anesthesia is produced by inhalation of gas. Ethyl chlorid is also recommended for minor operations upon the mouth, such as removals of growths, etc. It is sometimes also of good service in the extraction of living pulp. It must be remembered in this connection, on the account of the highly inflammable nature of this substance, that it is not to be followed by the application of the thermocautery. The consequences of such a mistake are illustrated by the following case: "When this method was still new, the writer wished to burn away an epulis frozen in the above manner. As the oral cavity was approached with the red-hot cautery, a flame blazed forth from it. Luckily no burn-wounds developed, and, aside from the shock, there will be no ill effects."

Further, the section on general anesthesia concludes:

In conclusion, we wish to particularly advise that anesthetization be never instituted without professional assistance, for, aside from the fact that frequent erotic dreams, in which the unconscious patient imagines she was ruined, have led to penal law suits, an assistant is also required for the institution of artificial respiration.
By fulfilling all of these requirements, one may have a clean conscience if an accident happens, and also the eventual resulting legal decision will not be unfavourable.

Peter Parker

No, not that Peter Parker. This Peter Parker was a medical missionary and diplomat to China. In the 1830's he commissioned the Western trained Chinese painter, Lam Qua to produce portraits of patients at a Canton Hospital with large tumors or other major deformities. [Be warned, the pictures I've posted here are some of the mildest, there are some really gnarly portraits on the site proper]. Link…

Deafness In Disguise

Concealed hearing devices from the Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine. If you're wondering how the first three pictures relate to listening devices, search for 'audiophone' and 'dentaphone'. Link…