Doctor bleeding a patient

Medicine and health

Photograph of John Snow in 1856

The Broad Street cholera outbreak: how bad was it and how was it contained?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Florence Nightingale

Nursing by numbers: how Florence Nightingale campaigned for better conditions. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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?

The effects of the disease known as the Black Death

Black Death quarantine: how did we try to contain the most deadly disease in history?

Henry VIII

Q&AWhat was the Sweating Sickness? And how did Henry VIII ‘self-isolate’?

Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet

Jane Austen’s tips for “health and happiness”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photo of flu patients during the First World War

First World War

Q&AWhy was the 1918-19 pandemic known as Spanish Flu?

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A short history of quarantine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wartime evacuees wash their hands

“The very sight of her hands did almost turn my stomach”: a brief history of hand-washing. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The (not so) stinky Middle Ages: why medieval people were cleaner than we think

Medieval medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A medieval monk praying in front of a table of apothacary's herbs

Beating the Black Death: did medieval medicine help people to survive?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Midwives and babies in the sun

Midwifery and childbirth: a historical A–Z guide. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

On 20 July 1969, Lunar Module 'Eagle' touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the moon. (Photo by NASA/Newsmakers via Getty Images)

From ‘moon-germs’ to motion sickness: health and safety on NASA’s 1969 lunar landing mission. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

US soldiers in Vietnam

From the Napoleonic Wars to Vietnam and Iraq: a history of war trauma. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval trepanning

General prehistory

Q&AWhat is trepanning?

The ancient Greek physician Dioscorides

General ancient history

Happy plants and laughing weeds: how people of the ancient world used – and abused – drugs

The story of Madame Tussaud. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

After her recovery from smallpox, Queen Elizabeth I started using a ceruse foundation on her face, neck and chest. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

5 weird habits of royals through history

An illustration from 1883 shows the phrenology chart of the skull

The Victorian phrenology craze. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An ancient Roman relief shows a midwife delivering a baby. Many midwives had other occupations, and undertook the task as a contribution to their community. (Wellcome Images)

Call the (Roman) midwife

Lady Sybil Grey, an indomitable Englishwoman who, as a nurse in Russia, led a field hospital and had a grandstand view of the February 1917 revolution that toppled the tsar. (Illustration by Sue Gent for BBC History Magazine)

The LibraryLady Sybil Grey: a lady in the line of fire. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Paul Morland. (Photo by Frank Monks)

Books interview with Paul Morland: “Even the Spanish flu pandemic wasn’t enough to stop population growth”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The First World War promoted advances in medicine, and in sectors such as aviation, that had not just military but also peacetime benefits, says David Stevenson. Here Captain Francis Derwent Wood treats the face of a patient, creating a mask which matches as closely as possible to the man's faces before he was injured, c1916. (Photo by Horace Nicholls/ IWM via Getty Images)

The First World War: what was it good for?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The miller Samuel Wood, whose arm and scapula were torn off when entangled in a rope attached to a moving mill machinery in 1737. (Photo by Alamy)

7 bizarre cases in the history of medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Kill or cure? 10 medieval medical practices and their effectiveness

Nurses serve lunch to patients at a Birmingham hospital, 1939. (Photo by Humphrey Spender/Picture Post/Getty Images)

What was healthcare like in Britain before the NHS?

A New York opium den. Although US legislators cracked down on opiates in the early 20th century, organised crime networks continued to fuel the illegal trade in narcotics. (Photo by Getty Images)

Books interview with Lucy Inglis: “Opium has held mankind’s hand since the beginning”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval medicine: killer or cure?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.