Medicine and health

An Egyptian mummy receiving a CT scan

Looking inside ancient Egyptian mummies

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The Black Death and Tudor adventurers . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The Black Death, the effects of which are pictured in this medieval miniature, took little more than seven years to wipe out around half of mankind. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

History explorer: the catastrophe of the Black Death . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Disability history

British microbiologist and discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming. (Photo by Ipsumpix/Corbis via Getty Images)

A big day in history: Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

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The end of slavery and headaches in history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Portrait of physician Elizabeth Blackwell. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Timepix/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

My history hero: Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two women from South America. Six centuries ago South American civilisations matched the west in some respects. (Getty Images)

The wonder of the west

A woman puts a foundling, or her own unwanted child, into a revolving doorway in a hospital or orphanage wall, intended for unwanted children. (Getty Images)

A mother’s love: tokens left with London’s foundling babies

Illustration of couple with bubonic plague

Where the Black Death happened: 9 places connected to the plague

A pregnant woman receives a piece of beef

“A taste for husbands’ buttocks”: the bizarre history of pregnancy cravings

Some household cures would aim to rebalance the body's humours

Household medicine: sickness, salves and skillets