PIONEERING PATIENT
Louis Washkansky, a 53-year-old South African grocer, was the first recipient of a human-to-human heart transplant in 1967. The operation was a success, but he died 18 days later from pneumonia.
TOXIC TREATMENT
From the 17th to the 19th century, a medicine called blue mass – the main active ingredient in which was toxic mercury – was a popular remedy for depression, syphilis, toothache and constipation, even taken by Abraham Lincoln.
DOCTOR NOSE BEST
One 17th-century Dutch physician, IJsbrand van Diemerbroeck, proposed an unusual treatment for nosebleeds – he suggested that they could be prevented by filling your nose with hog or donkey dung.
FIRST PHYSICIANS
The earliest named physician may have been Imhotep, a chief official to the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Djoser in the 27th century BC.…
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History Revealed (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2024