Doctor bleeding a patient

Medicine and health

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.

Dancers in a nightclub

Aids: the epidemic that changed Britain

A 'teacher' in Milgram's study is instructed to administer an electric shock to a 'learner'.

Experiments in evil: the shocking efforts to understand the atrocities of the Holocaust. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration showing the traders who made a fortune during the wake of the Black Death

Merchants of doom: the traders who profited from the Black Death. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Emma Dabiri“Anarcha Westcott should be hailed as a ‘mother of gynaecology’”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A medieval illustration showing a doctor bleeding a patient

QuizCan you spot the real historical remedies?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Joep de Beer of Holland throws a javelin at the Stoke Mandeville Games

Q&AWhen and where were the first Paralympics held?

Mary Wortley Montagu: the scourge of smallpox

A group of men observe a body lying on a table.

Early-modern cannibal doctors: why mummified corpse was considered medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Why were the Georgians fixated with fatness?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elinor CleghornThe History of Unwell Women. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Fern Riddell

Contraception, consent & erotic connection: sex through history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Healthcare before the NHS. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

From hysteria to wandering wombs: women and medicine through history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Joseph Bazalgette, a civil engineer who planned a groundbreaking new drainage system to serve London

Joseph Bazalgette: how the man who transformed London paved the way for your loo

Pregnant woman before giving birth in the 13th century

16 things you (probably) didn't know about the rituals behind royal births, from the medieval era to the present day

"Make love not midnight snacks": a social history of slimming clubs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bloodied feet, outrageous breasts and the sinister power of a hair cut: a history of the body

Triumphant Death chases Londoners from their city

How 17th-century London reacted to the Great Plague

Second century relief portraying a Roman ophthalmologist examining a patient. (Photo By DEA / A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

Roman medicine: 6 ways people stayed healthy in ancient Rome

A set of dentures belonging to George Washington. The first US president wore fake teeth for much of his life

Q&ADid George Washington have wooden teeth?

A Red Cross worker in the United States, 1918

Spanish flu: the virus that changed the world

Women 'take the air' in an attempt to ward off the Spanish Flu

"Far too little, too late": what happened when Spanish Flu hit Britain?

Mary Seacole is best known for her work during the Crimean War, where she cared for injured soldiers. But she was also well-known as a hotelier, traveller and author – a celebrity of the Victorian era. This is a contemporary painting of her

Mary SeacoleVictorian celebrity, joyful hotelier and Crimean nurse

17th-century London: a city shaped by catastrophe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the US

Elizabeth BlackwellThe ‘first female doctor’, who entered medicine to prove a point

Illustration of the Black Death from the Chroicles of Gilles Li Muisis (1272-1352), Abbaye Saint-Martin de Tournai (Photo by Alamy)

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

Student nurse Dorothy Norris

A brief guide to the history of the NHS

The NHS: a brief history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.