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Queen Victoria’s Labor Anesthesia
In the spring of 1853 Queen Victoria was 34 years old and pregnant with her fourth child. Her first three children had been born at Buckingham Palace with her personal physician James Clark in...
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Harrison Act and Why Is It Important to Physicians and Patients?
The Harrison Act has been called the single most important piece of drug legislation in the history of American medicine. Approved in 1914 and enacted in March, 1915 by the 63rd Congress (Woodrow...
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Ephraim McDowell, Pioneering Surgeon
Kentucky physician and surgeon Ephraim McDowell Kentucky physician Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830) has the distinction in American surgery of being the first surgeon to perform an intraabdominal operation...
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Dr. Thomas Addison
Thomas Addison, M.D. was the chief physician at Guys’s Hospital in 1855 when he published his famous paper first describing the connection between disease of the adrenals and the then fatal...
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James Garfield Mortal Wound
James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, was assassinated in 1881 by gunman Charles J. Guiteau firing into his abdomen. He also suffered a grazing bullet wound to his arm. President...
View ArticleCherry Flavored Tongue Depressors?
In an attempt to make better tasting (and hence easier to use) tongue depressors, physicians in the 1920s at Johns Hopkins Hospital had the carpentry shop make tongue depressors out of cherry wood. No...
View ArticleWilliam Osler’s Brain
William Osler, MD, was the first physician-in-chief at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. A dedicated physician, on his deathbed in 1919 of pneumonia, he requested that his brain be sent to the Wistar...
View ArticleJohns Hopkins Hospital’s Charity Origin
Johns Hopkins will mandated that the hospital named after him must care for those patients who could not afford medical services. Staying true to its original mission, the Hospital operated at a...
View ArticleCivil War Amputation Surgery Mortality Rates
Civil War amputation surgery was distressingly common and carried a high mortality rate. Contrary to common thinking, almost all amputation surgery was carried out under ether or chloroform anesthesia...
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