Secondary Source

Context. Perspective. The media, writers, technologists, and every facet of modern medicine bandy about these words. Yet, context and perspective is exactly what the new History of Medicine section is all about. Through the pages of History of Medicine On-Line the history of medicine will be told such that it provides context and perspective on the current and future state of medicine.

Two great curses haunted natural childbirth from ancient times, the shrunken pelvis and obstructed labour. With urbanization and hospitalization, puerperal fever became common. Because so often mothers died in childbirth and children in infancy, attitudes towards birth and babies were different from ours. Parents expected that children would die in infancy, and death in childbirth was an expected tragedy.

We believe in the power of history to enrich the present and enlighten the future by providing people a setting to grow as individuals and as community members. MOHAI is the definitive place for everyone with a passion, curiosity, or question about the history of Seattle and King County since 1850.

The Exhibition Program of the National Library of Medicine presents lively and informative exhibitions that enhance the public and scholarly awareness and appreciation of the National Library of Medicine’s collections. The Program conducts scholarly research in science, medicine, and history; interprets that research for presentation to diverse audiences; designs and develops engaging displays; and produces educational outreach programs. The Exhibition Program makes traveling versions of its exhibitions, which are hosted by America’s libraries and medical centers. The Exhibition Program promotes public education about science, medicine, and history through its creation of interactive exhibitions, multimedia displays, traveling exhibitions, web sites, symposia, films, lectures, and publications. The Program expands the local community’s knowledge about the Library’s collections though outreach to community groups, senior centers, schools, universities, and professional groups. The Exhibition Program manages a robust tour program for Library visitors, which features special presentations by National Institutes of Health scientists and other Library programs.

One hundred fifty years ago, in the operating theater on the top floor of the MGH’s Bulfinch Building, one of the greatest moments in medicine occurred. On Oct. 16, 1846, William T.G. Morton, a Boston dentist, demonstrated the use of ether during surgery, ending the indescribable pain — and the overwhelming dread — that had been associated with the surgeon’s knife.

Using a specially designed glass inhaler containing an ether-soaked sponge, Morton administered the anesthetic to Gilbert Abbott, a printer who had come to the MGH for treatment of a vascular tumor on his jaw. After several minutes, Abbott was rendered unconscious. John Collins Warren, MD, one of the most widely recognized surgeons of that time, then surgically removed the tumor. Upon wakening, Abbott informed the curious and skeptical physicians and medical students in the theater that he had experienced no pain.

What if Hitler had been able to get what he wanted in Munich, so appeasement had actually worked? What if Goddard, von Braun, Oberth, Sanger, Korolev, Tsiolovsky, and other rocket scientists had been taken more seriously and had been properly funded? Would Germany have put the first man into space? Could Goddard, had he lived, have put a man on the moon without von Braun? Come and join the discussion, click either picture above.

The Forest History Society links the past to the future by identifying, collecting, preserving, interpreting, and disseminating information on the history of interactions between people, forests, and their related resources - timber, water, soil, forage, fish and wildlife, recreation, and scenic or spiritual values. The focus is from a North American perspective within a global context. Established in 1946 and incorporated as a nonprofit educational institution in 1955, the Forest History Society has grown steadily in response to increasing public concern about our forest heritage. It is affiliated with Duke University

Welcome to the world of physicist, biophysicist, and "scientist of conscience" Leo Szilard (1898-1964). How do you say it? Say SIL-ahrd.

Szilard's ideas included the linear accelerator, cyclotron, electron microscope, and nuclear chain reaction. Equally important was his insistence that scientists accept moral responsibility for the consequences of their work.

In his classic 1929 paper on Maxwell's Demon, Szilard identified the unit or "bit" of information. The World Wide Web that you now travel, and the computers that make it possible, show the importance of his long-unappreciated idea.

General
Ages of Technology
Science and Technology Timeline
Technology and Leisure in Britain after 1850
Carlyle and the Institution as Technology
Sublimity, Urbanization, and Technology
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution: An Overview
The Industrial Revolution: A Chronology
Science, Technology, and the Industrial Revolution: Selected Readings

Hippocrates was a very educated man and he was a pioneer in shifting the medical view of the world. Hippocrates was a key component in the movement to rid Ancient Greece of medical beliefs, which revolved heavily around the religious beliefs of the time. Demonic possession or evil spirits were seen as the main reason for an illness. The “doctors” would try to rid the patient of the demon causing the illness. Hippocrates shifted the cause of illness to a mostly scientific cause. Hippocrates had acquired immense knowledge of natural sciences including chemistry, physics, and biology. “