Doctor bleeding a patient

Medicine and health

A man sneezes into a handkerchief, c1936. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

General History

6 facts about the history of hay fever

Mona Baptiste, a Trinidad-born blues singer

“London is the place for me”: David Olusoga on the Windrush generation

A bite-sized history of teeth

Bearded Victorian man. (Photo by Getty Images)

A brief history of beards

A 14th-century Flemish illustration depicting the burying of plague victims in coffins in Tournai in 1349. (Photo by Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Black Death: “Oh father, why have you abandoned me?”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A contemporary pictorial depiction of the Great Plague.

The Black Death: the historians’ view. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

A badge promoting the Tufty Club, an organisation launched by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to educate children on road safety, 1941. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Safety first: 20th-century health and safety messages

The history of today. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Spanish Flu pandemic. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In pictures: Diversity in nursing

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

‘Quacks’: the terrors and theatrics of Victorian medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait depicting Mary, Queen of Scots.

History quiz - surgeons and Mary, Queen of Scots. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The operation

John Hunter and the horrors of 18th-century surgery

History quiz – Anglo-Saxons, Bright’s disease and the Byzantine army. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A giant leap for mankind: William Harvey reveals the circulation of the blood

The Franciscans treating victims of the plague, miniature from La Franceschina, c1474, codex by Jacopo Oddi. Perugia, Biblioteca Capitolare (Library). (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

The hospital experience in medieval England

16th century engraving depicting a man with leprosy

Q&AHow did doctors treat leprosy?

A group of girls taking a bath as part of a contest to see who can wash the fastest.

General prehistory

Q&AHow old is bathing?

Chinese plague

Q&AWhat was the Third Plague pandemic?

Photo of female cyclist in 1885

Q&AWere there health scares caused by new technology in the past?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Man smoking a pipe, early 17th century

Q&AWhen was tobacco first thought to be dangerous?

Photo of pipe and tobacco

Q&ADid people smoke anything before tobacco was discovered?

Snail poultices and blood potions: 9 weird medieval medicines

Photo of marble relief depicting Hippocrates

Why did Hippocrates eat earwax?

Diorite stela inscribed with the laws of King Hammurabi of Babylon, around 3,800 years ago. Hammurabi sits enthroned at top of the stela. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&AWho first attempted to regulate medicine?

Top 10 Plantagenet podcasts – from the Black Death to Richard III

An illustration of a Tudor street

“Mooke, fylthe and other vyle things”: Tudor dirt and dung

Illustration of the Zodiac Man

General ancient history

Q&AWhy did physicians ‘bleed’ their patients?