An amazing #histmed story👇
James Harrison, whose blood donations saved over 2 million babies, has died. www.npr.org/2025/03/03/n...
James Harrison, whose blood donations saved over 2 million babies, has died
Harrison, whose plasma contained a rare antibody, rolled up his sleeve 1,173 times from 1954 to 2018. The Australian is credited with helping 2.4 million babies and advancing scientific research.
www.npr.org
March 3, 2025 at 11:24 PM
An amazing #histmed story👇
Upon graduating medical school in 1881, Arthur Conan Doyle did a doodle of himself waving his diploma over his head. The caption reads: "Licensed to Kill."
My new book SLEUTH-HOUND is about Conan Doyle's professor, Joseph Bell - the real-life Sherlock Holmes. Out Oct 20! linktr.ee/drlindseyfit...
My new book SLEUTH-HOUND is about Conan Doyle's professor, Joseph Bell - the real-life Sherlock Holmes. Out Oct 20! linktr.ee/drlindseyfit...
September 26, 2026 at 1:27 PM
The climatologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The epidemiologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The activist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The historian told me
that nobody
listens to historians.
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The epidemiologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The activist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The historian told me
that nobody
listens to historians.
January 29, 2026 at 6:33 AM
January 31, 2025 at 8:40 AM
SMH. Trying times for #histmed.
I finally read this. And it just caused me pain.
Don't try to sanewash crackpots please.
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
Don't try to sanewash crackpots please.
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
Ancient miasma theory may help explain Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine moves
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apparently embraces the outdated "miasma theory" of disease instead of the widely accept "germ theory" of disease, which may help explain some of the actions he'...
www.npr.org
June 16, 2025 at 8:08 AM
SMH. Trying times for #histmed.
November 26, 2024 at 11:14 AM
🩺💭’It wasn’t that people were anti-medicine. Instead, historical injustices1 meant scepticism had become a necessary tool for navigating healthcare.’
Read the interview with @caitjan.bsky.social, author of Healthy Scepticism, in @bmj.com @bmjmedicine.bsky.social 👇
www.bmj.com/content/394/...
Read the interview with @caitjan.bsky.social, author of Healthy Scepticism, in @bmj.com @bmjmedicine.bsky.social 👇
www.bmj.com/content/394/...
Medicine needs critics: Why scepticism is both healthy and important
In a climate of increasing anti-vaccination sentiment and conspiracy theories, scepticism can be perceived as a threat to medical institutions. Historian Caitjan Gainty, author of the new book Healthy...
www.bmj.com
September 22, 2026 at 11:17 PM
“Something was in me that shouldn’t have been in me.”
Retin-A, liquid diets, & tampons are just a few of the products made in Dr. Albert Kligman's experiments on incarcerated women. @kimkelly.bsky.social cites Tamar Sarai's 2023 reporting, underscoring survivors' unanswered demands for reparations.
Retin-A, liquid diets, & tampons are just a few of the products made in Dr. Albert Kligman's experiments on incarcerated women. @kimkelly.bsky.social cites Tamar Sarai's 2023 reporting, underscoring survivors' unanswered demands for reparations.
March 3, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Nurses outside Homer G. Phillips Hospital - St. Louis, Missouri
#womenshistorymonth
#womenshistorymonth
March 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
The Library Company of Philadelphia announces the donation of a collection of more than 1500 volumes on the history of sexuality. 📜
(via John Overholt on Mastodon) librarycompany.org/2025/01/31/a...
(via John Overholt on Mastodon) librarycompany.org/2025/01/31/a...
Announcing an Unparalleled Gift from Dr. Charles E. Rosenberg – The Library Company of Philadelphia
librarycompany.org
February 4, 2025 at 8:30 PM
2/9/1854 — b. Aletta Jacobs, Dutch physician, #birthcontrol pioneer, suffragist, pacifist. The first woman to complete a university course in the Netherlands;the first female Dutch physician(1879). Champion of advancing opportunities for wmn #womenshistory #WomenInSTEM #MedSky #HistMed #womensrights
February 9, 2026 at 3:20 PM
2/9/1854 — b. Aletta Jacobs, Dutch physician, #birthcontrol pioneer, suffragist, pacifist. The first woman to complete a university course in the Netherlands;the first female Dutch physician(1879). Champion of advancing opportunities for wmn #womenshistory #WomenInSTEM #MedSky #HistMed #womensrights
"Valuing five centuries of unpaid breastfeeding in England" by economic historians Henderson & Humphries. Looks important not only for ♀️'s history but #histmed, too. 🧪🗃️
Breastfeeding is important work. A study computes the economic value of breastfeeding in England throughout history, as a share of GDP. Its proportional value has consistently exceeded 0.1% of GDP [AR2.1]and peaked in the year 1540 at 6.58%. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/ufGl50ZRuce
September 25, 2026 at 7:31 PM
"Valuing five centuries of unpaid breastfeeding in England" by economic historians Henderson & Humphries. Looks important not only for ♀️'s history but #histmed, too. 🧪🗃️
Join us for our talk on medieval disability next week. 5 May 2pm. To attend online: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/zMBAKAxSpP. All welcome. Free. #medievalsky #histmed #disabilitystudies #disability
May 3, 2026 at 9:37 AM
Alice Sollier (née Mathieu-Dubois) French doctor. 1887 1st Black French woman to qualify as medical doctor. 1st French female physician to be director of private healthcare facility. 1 of 72 women whose names proposed to be added to #EifffelTower b. #OTD 3 Apr 1861 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_S...
April 3, 2026 at 8:25 PM
Alice Sollier (née Mathieu-Dubois) French doctor. 1887 1st Black French woman to qualify as medical doctor. 1st French female physician to be director of private healthcare facility. 1 of 72 women whose names proposed to be added to #EifffelTower b. #OTD 3 Apr 1861 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_S...
If you're enjoying my #histmed content, check out my #startpack to find other STEM writers and science/medical historians on #bluesky👇
go.bsky.app/3DuVT6Z
go.bsky.app/3DuVT6Z
November 15, 2024 at 8:41 PM
If you're enjoying my #histmed content, check out my #startpack to find other STEM writers and science/medical historians on #bluesky👇
go.bsky.app/3DuVT6Z
go.bsky.app/3DuVT6Z
In 1835, the Irish lexicographer James Knowles had to pause writing his dictionary to have a bladder stone removed. The operation went so well that he gave the doctor a shout-out in his dictionary by inserting a last-minute entry for the revolutionary procedure he’d undergone.
August 30, 2024 at 3:57 PM
Omg, @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social made the landing page of @bookshop-org.bsky.social with her new book! 😃 🥳
January 23, 2025 at 4:58 PM
#histmed 🗃️
After about a million years, my book will be out this April. www.dukeupress.edu/the-product-.... As an avid introvert and committed pessimist, I really wouldn't know how to talk it up. But I do like the cover very much. Look at it.
January 4, 2025 at 11:32 PM
#histmed 🗃️
A page from "The table of Salernitan Remedies glossed by Bernard Provincialis". This copy of a medical manuscript was made in the 13th century with colourful decoration and different fonts (WCL Q52 f.98r).
January 7, 2026 at 10:05 PM
RFK Jr's lawyer wants the FDA to revoke approval for the polio vaccine, so it seems like a good time to remind people why that vaccine was so important, and how many lives it saved. See my thread below🧵 #vaccineswork #histmed
With science falling under increasing attack, this medical historian is here to remind people of the power of vaccines. THREAD👇
Hard-hitting polio advert from 1958. In the first half of the 20th century, polio was the leading cause of death in children and young adults. 1/7 #history #skystorians
Hard-hitting polio advert from 1958. In the first half of the 20th century, polio was the leading cause of death in children and young adults. 1/7 #history #skystorians
December 14, 2024 at 12:12 PM
RFK Jr's lawyer wants the FDA to revoke approval for the polio vaccine, so it seems like a good time to remind people why that vaccine was so important, and how many lives it saved. See my thread below🧵 #vaccineswork #histmed
Today a #histmed🧵of Scottish female medical pioneers. 1st Sophia Jex Blake, who completed Dr training but couldn't graduate cos of her gender. She helped set up London School of Medicine for Women in 1874 & donated her house as a women & children's hospital in Edinburgh. Legend.
May 6, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Today a #histmed🧵of Scottish female medical pioneers. 1st Sophia Jex Blake, who completed Dr training but couldn't graduate cos of her gender. She helped set up London School of Medicine for Women in 1874 & donated her house as a women & children's hospital in Edinburgh. Legend.
A urine-doctor, holding a urine bottle, examining the urine, just like every #earlymodern urinoscopist would do. For reasons. #histmed
October 30, 2025 at 2:52 PM
A urine-doctor, holding a urine bottle, examining the urine, just like every #earlymodern urinoscopist would do. For reasons. #histmed
