Thomas Hodgkin, a Quaker doctor who identified lymphatic cancer but was blacklisted by his own hospital
In the early decades of the nineteenth century, Guy’s Hospital in London was one of the world’s foremost…
Rudolf Virchow: The Father of Modern Pathology Who Declared That “Politics Is Nothing But Medicine on a Grand Scale”
In the middle of the nineteenth century, human disease was still largely understood through vague, macro-level concepts. Doctors…
John Snow: The London Doctor Who Mapped Out Water Pump Handles to Prove Cholera Is Waterborne
In the summer of 1854, a terrifying outbreak struck the Soho neighborhood of London. Healthy individuals woke up…
Carbolic Acid: The Quiet Surgeon Who Eliminated Post-Amputation Hospital Rot by Joseph Lister
It was not just painful to undergo a surgical procedure in the mid-19th century; it was also a…
Harvey Cushing: The Obsessive, Demanding Pioneer Who Taught Brain Surgery How to Be Precise
It was considered by most surgeons to be a futile endeavor at the turn of the 20th century…
Dr. William Osler: Takeing students out of lecture halls and placing them at patient’s bedsides
As far back as the mid-19th century, studying to become a doctor was primarily an exercise in memorization.…
The Wealthy Businessman Who Went Bankrupt to Create the Geneva Convention: Henry Dunant
On an urgent personal errand, a dashing, wealthy Swiss businessman arrived in Northern Italy in June 1859. Dunant…
Clara Barton: The Feisty Clerk Who Established the American Red Cross
When Clara Barton was a young girl, she worked at the United States Patent Office in Washington, D.C.…
Dame Mary Seacole: Jamaican doctor who was an active participant in the Crimean War
A devastating conflict raged in the mid-19th century marked both by intense battlefield combat and a catastrophic breakdown…
From Florence Nightingale’s “Lady with the Lamp” legend to her genius as a data innovator
Florence Nightingale is remembered as an angel who walked by candlelight. In traditional myths, she glides through dark…