Doctor bleeding a patient

Medicine and health

(L to R) Isaac Newton, Henry VIII and Bal Gangadhar Tilak

How did people cope with ‘lockdowns’ of the past? And were they really all so productive?

19th century advert for snuff

Q&AWhat was snuff?

Edward Jenner

Q&AWhen did medical practitioners start to be called ‘doctor’?

Alfred Nobel (Bettmann/Getty Images)

The history of the Nobel Prizes

Roman toilet

Tales of the toilet: a historical A–Z

Map of the universe, miniature from The Tales of Luqman, Arabic manuscript, 1583. (Photo by Getty Images)

Ingenious medieval science. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dr Edward Jenner, a British physician, performing his first vaccination on James Phipps, a boy of eight, in 1796. (Photo by Getty Images)

The history of vaccination: from Edward Jenner to anti-vaxxers

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

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

Covid-19 saw the UK’s universities, such as the University of Glasgow (above), cancel in-person teaching. The logistics of teaching and studying during the pandemic are proving complex. (Photo by Dreamstime)

How Covid-19 is forcing universities to change

Photographs documenting the facial reconstruction of a soldier whose cheek was extensively wounded during the Battle of the Somme

What happened to the 8 million people who were disabled during WW1?

Dr Michael Mosley holds up a tapeworm

Tapeworms, arsenic and magic soap: fact-checking history’s weirdest fad diets and weight-loss gimmicks

Why was there a backlash against face masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918?

The birth pains of the NHS: how Britain's National Health Service was created

The bikini was showcased to the world for the first time in July 1946. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

8 historical events that happened in July

Japanese school girls wear protective masks to guard against the influenza outbreak, February 1920. (Photo by Getty Images)

A history of pandemics: from Spanish Flu to Covid-19. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Saturday lecture: Medieval disease and medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An engraving depicting a scene of chaos at Bethlem Royal Hospital

Bethlem Royal Hospital: why did the infamous Bedlam asylum have such a fearsome reputation?

Surviving the Great Plague. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A couple get amorous in this 14th-century illustration

Call the medieval sex doctor: how 7 problems might have been treated in the Middle Ages

Elma Brenner on medieval wellbeing: "People in the Middle Ages were absolutely focused on staying healthy"

Dissection of human cadaver by physicians

Ask the medieval doctor: 6 ailments and their treatments

Clothes infected by the Black Death are burned in medieval Europe, c1340. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Black Death facts: your guide to "the worst catastrophe in recorded history"

Why Florence Nightingale was so much more than the ‘Lady with the Lamp’

Florence Nightingale

The life and legend of Florence Nightingale. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The effects of the disease known as the Black Death

History quiz: how much do you know about the Black Death?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dance of Death, printed by Jacob Meydenbach, Germany 1492. (Photo by Alamy)

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

Photograph of John Snow in 1856

The Broad Street cholera outbreak: how bad was it and how was it contained?

A portrait of Florence Nightingale

Nursing by numbers: how Florence Nightingale campaigned for better conditions

c1656: A plague doctor in protective clothing. The beak mask held spices thought to purify air, while the wand was used to avoid touching patients. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&AWhy did 17th-century plague doctors wear peculiar beaked masks?