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A ‘rye’ tail – the fatal illness of Lord Boringdon, a Regency tragedy

The anonymous privately-printed book, Some Account of Lord Boringdon’s Accident, describes in deferential terms a case of aspiration of a foreign body and its sequelae. Today aspirated foreign bodies are serious but curable injuries; before the invention of the bronchoscope...

The Dilemma of Beethoven’s Deafness

Beethoven was one of the world’s greatest musicians, and his deafness is well known. Many details of his medical conditions are known, and various theories of his hearing loss have been proposed. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 in...

Erasmus Darwin and the larynx – but why is it where it is and when?

Charles Darwin’s grandfather was not only on to where we all came from by the end of the 18th century, but dared to declare it in verse whilst resident in Lichfield Cathedral Close. This needed exceptional temerity, since not only...

Erwin Geising and the fall of the Third Reich

It’s mid 1944. The allies have landed at Normandy, the Germans have abandoned Rome and are retreating from the Russians on the eastern front. The Fuhrer was in way over his head and out of his depth. Watching this series...

Did you ever meet Draffin on your travels?

Draffin’s rods or bipods are a well-known ENT instrument. Before their invention in 1951, the attendant anaesthetist or nurse was obliged to support the mouthgag during tonsillectomy. Their originator, David Alexander Draffin (born in 1917 in Ballybey, Co Monaghan), was...

The ear, nose and throat anaesthesia practice of Dr John Snow (1813-58)

News of the first successful public demonstration of general anaesthesia in Boston, Massachusetts in October 1846 reached Britain in mid-December of that year. James Robinson, a London dentist, gave the first anaesthetic in the United Kingdom when, on 19 December,...

The golden nose – reshaping the nose 100 years ago

Wolf Lűbbers (with the golden nose). Who with a crooked nose would not embrace the chance to go to bed in the evening wearing a surgical device and wake up the following morning with a straight one? And all this...

The first compact auriscope: the 1865 speculum auris of Dr Brunton

Bringing light into darkness can also be a task for the physician. With the advent of endoscopy (initially by reflecting light into body cavities), new methods of diagnosis and treatment became available to the otologist. In 1865, the Scotsman John...

The Matchgirls and Phossy Jaw: a striking tale of industrial action

Poor working conditions, long hours, low pay – and the prospect of a dangerous and disfiguring osteonecrosis of the jaw. These were the triggers for the 1400 ‘matchgirls’ of the Bryant and May factory to strike in July 1888, a...

Reflected glory: the race to claim the laryngeal mirror

“None of today’s young doctors can start to imagine the feeling of professional helplessness and despair that prevailed before the invention of the laryngeal mirror. Thousands of people died, whom we were not able to help, or even bring relief...

The pong of poverty: George Orwell on the problem of olfactory classism

Throughout his fiction and non-fiction, George Orwell incorporated references to olfaction to invoke strong reactions in his readers. For example, in Nineteen Eighty-Four the protagonist Winston describes “the pleasant smell of [Julia’s] hair”. Orwell emphasises the invasiveness and emotional force...