Doctor bleeding a patient

Medicine and health

A woodcut of the brain from Andreas Vesalius’s groundbreaking 1543 treatise On the Fabric of the Human Body

The Elizabethans' complex relationship with mental wellbeing. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Plastic surgery: transformed by WW1. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The birth of insulin: a scientific drama. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dr DA Henderson examines children’s smallpox vaccination scars in Ethiopia

Why we should remember…Target Zero Day. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 6How the pandemic transformed societies. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Catherine the Great: inoculation pioneer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 5Death, sin & spirituality. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Domenico Fetti painting illustrating a melancholic woman in the early 17th century

The Anatomy of Melancholy: how Robert Burton helped shape our understanding of the mind. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 4Medieval medical thinking. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 3Living through the plague. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 2Origins & spread. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A young woman sat in front of a mirror applies lipstick, 1967

The price of beauty: the dangerous cosmetics used until the 20th century

The history of beauty: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 1Introduction. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A stone statue of a woman's torso with a drop of blood over the abdomen, representing women's bodies and menstruation

General History

A history of menstruation

Gardens and the scientific revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Periods, fertility & childbirth: a pre-modern history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Outbreak of dance mania

The medieval dancing plague: what caused people to dance themselves to death?

Turning points1348: The Black Death. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman slops here chamberpot from a window onto pedestrians in the street below in this woodcut

Were medieval cities really filthy?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 14th-century illustration of a farmer leading a pack animal through the ice and snow

The surprisingly modern Middle Ages. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&AWhat is gaol fever and how was it caused and spread?

A mother receives her newborn baby in a c1490 text written for Henry VII. Childbirth in the Middle Ages exposed both mother and child to great peril but, writes Elma Brenner, midwives had the expertise to intervene when complications arose. (Photo by Bridgeman)

The medieval childbirth guide: 6 tips for pregnant mothers in the Middle Ages

Giving birth in the 17th century. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Gulielma Lister: the female botanist who became the queen of slime moulds. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An allegorical depiction of the plague in ancient Rome, an angel batters down a door while people lie sick on the ground

The reign of Roman disease: why did disease hit a flourishing empire?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Plagues of our past. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

German doctor Otto Warburg at work in his laboratory

Otto Warburg: the Jewish doctor and the Nazi war on cancer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An image of Hippocrates from the 14th century, sitting and holding a book open in front of him

Hippocrates and humours: medicine in ancient Greece

From transfusions of lambs’ blood to tooth replacements, Paul Craddock chronicles the strange history of transplant surgery

Transplant surgery: an eye-opening history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.