A longer version of this article first appeared in Staffordshire Life November 2017 – Sara Most of us are familiar with having our pulse taken routinely as part of any examination at the doctor’s. Medics use the second hand on their watches to time a minute and record the number of
A Famous Fistula
The Spanish Ambassador to James I of England suffered from an anal fistula which was common knowledge. John Reynolds’ imagined conversation between the late King Henry, Queen Anne, and Queens Mary and Elizabeth in 1624 includes the comment that Count Gondomar had the permission of King James to spend the
Thomas Gibson’s Life and Times
The name of Dr Thomas Gibson (1648/9–1722) isn’t one with much impact outside those studying the history of medicine, yet his story is one full of interesting details. Gibson was born in High Knipe, in the parish of Bampton, Westmorland.1 This is near Penrith in modern-day Cumbria. Gibson’s ODNB entry and his
Poking fun at Physicians
For another project I have been reading lots of early modern joke books and I thought I’d share some of what I’d found here. Books of amusing songs, poems, funny stories and jokes, known as jest-books sold a lot in the seventeenth century. These were not a new form, as
Good to Meet You
This week, Early Modern Medicine’s contributing editor, Sara Read, chatted to The Guardian newspaper as part of their Good to Meet you series. The interview mentions her first monograph Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013. To read more from this book, visit