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The Shocking Medical Histories Behind Everyday Objects
What do the red and white stripes on the barber’s pole have to do with blood letting? Where did 18th-century dentists find teeth to make dentures? What was the surprising original use of Listerine? And how did the hands of a doctor’s lover lead to the invention of rubber gloves? This talk explores everyday objects with shocking medical histories behind them.
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Nobody’s Hands Are Clean: A Cautionary Tale from Medical History
Today, we think of the hospital as paragons of sanitation. However, early Victorian hospitals were anything but. Surgeons rarely washed their hands or their instruments, and carried with them a cadaverous smell of rotting flesh which they cheerfully referred to as “good old hospital stink.” The stench was so offensive that the staff sometimes walked around with handkerchiefs pressed to their noses. In the midst of all this filth was a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis, who tried to implement a system of hand-washing in Vienna’s General Hospital in the 1840s. He was demonized by his colleagues for his efforts, and put into an insane asylum, where he died a lonely death.
Nowadays, the term “Semmelweis reflex” is used as a metaphor for the knee-jerk tendency to reject new evidence because it contradicts established norms, beliefs or paradigms. But Semmelweis’s story reminds us that we need to remain open to creative solutions that don’t necessarily chime with accepted methodologies. After all: what we believe to be true today is not necessarily what we will believe to be true tomorrow.
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Plastic Surgery’s Humble Beginnings
Today, people can choose from a seemingly infinite number of cosmetic procedures: breast implants, tummy tucks, liposuction, face-lifts, and more. The public’s growing fascination with plastic surgery—partly driven by the proliferation of reality TV shows featuring plastic surgeons and their patients— has created a boom industry that is now worth billions of dollars. But plastic surgery has a long and harrowing history that began on the bloody battlefields of the First World War, when mankind’s military technology wildly outpaced its medical capabilities. This talk reveals the astonishing true story of the pioneering surgeon Harold Gillies, who restored the faces of a brutalized generation, and in the process ushered plastic surgery into the modern era.
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Under The Knife
The greatest men and women in history had one thing in common: mortality. From George Washington, whose doctors hastened his death by removing half a pint of his blood, to Winston Churchill, who underwent one of the earliest appendectomies, this talk looks at famous figures from the past who went under the knife and shows how the outcome changed world events.
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Bullets & Bandages
Throughout history, war has proven that necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention. Over the course of every human conflict, medicine has adapted, evolved, and triumphed. The French surgeon Dominique Jean Larrey created “flying ambulances” to provide rapid transport of the wounded during the Napoleonic Wars. During the First World War, the hematologist Oswald H. Robertson pioneered the idea of “blood banks” by packing glass jars of blood in an ice-filled chest that he had constructed from ammunition cases. And huge advances were made in the field of plastic surgery when Archibald McIndoe began experimenting with skin grafts on the “Guinea Pig” pilots who had been severely burned during the World War II. This talk explores the human cost of war, and the medical innovations that arose from its horrors.
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Fail Like A Scientist
In the 19th century, the surgeon W.H.B. Winchester designed an amputation saw that ran on a self-winding mechanism. Unfortunately, it was difficult to control and lacked the precision of other surgical instruments. When Winchester trialed it in the operating room, he ended up slicing off his assistant’s fingers! Fortunately for Winchester’s staff, the instrument never made it out of prototype. But the surgeon’s epic failure did teach others in his field a valuable lesson about the need for precision over speed. This talk looks at how failure is an essential part of medical progress, and at how triumph and disaster are two sides of the same coin.
See Lindsey Fitzharris in action.
Medical Historian and Author
Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris is a New York Times bestselling author, television host, and medical historian with a PhD from the University of Oxford. She writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, The Guardian, The Lancet, and New Scientist.
In 2017, Lindsey released her debut book, The Butchering Art, about the grisly world of Victorian surgery. It received many prestigious literary awards and high-profile reviews. To date, the book has sold over half a million copies worldwide and has been translated into 20 languages. In 2021, Lindsey hosted the tv series, The Curious Life and Death of…, on the Smithsonian Channel. The show explored some of the most mysterious deaths in history.
Her new book, The Facemaker, is about the pioneering surgeon Harold Gillies who rebuilt soldiers’ faces during the First World War. It was an “instant New York Times Bestseller” on its release in June. It also debuted at #4 on the LA Times Bestseller List, and received rave reviews from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and many more US and international outlets. She has recently appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, NPR and other major networks with her book.
In addition to writing, Lindsey curates medical history content for over 500,000 followers on social media, and actively develops TV shows for multiple high profile production companies. Her next book, Sleuth-Hound, will be a whirlwind tour of Victorian forensics from the perspective of the medical detective, Joseph Bell, who loaned a voice and razor sharp logic to Baker St.’s famous resident: Sherlock Holmes
Our speakers get attention.
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‘The Facemaker’ Review: Repairing the Wounds of WarSeeing the horrific disfigurement suffered by soldiers in World War I, a surgeon set out to master the art of reconstructing faces.
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Lindsey Fitzharris: The FacemakerMy guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Lindsey Fitzharris – whose new book is The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I.
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‘The Facemaker,’ a Grisly but Inspiring Story of Surgery During World War ILindsey Fitzharris’s new book recounts the life and work of a pioneering reconstructive surgeon whose technical skill and bedside manner helped disfigured soldiers.
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Facial Reconstructive Surgery In WWIAn estimated 280,000 soldiers suffered facial trauma in WWI. Medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the story of Harold Gillies, the surgeon who pioneered reconstructive surgery, trying to restore function and…
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Disfigured soldiers of World War I found a hero in their healerIf the face is the mirror of the mind, as Saint Jerome observed, then what happens when the face is disfigured by the savagery of war?
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Famous strange demises get a second look in The Curious Life and Death of…Infamous historical cold cases get a scientific face-lift in The Curious Life and Death Of..., a new documentary series from the Smithsonian Channel. Hosted by author and medical historian Lindsey…