British Society for the History of Medicine

The Croydon Medical Society now has an affiliate membership of the British Society for the History of Medicine so we will be keeping you up to date on newsletters and links to online talks via the website.

January 2026

Quirks, Quacks and Cul-de-sacs: new volume of Topics in the History of Medicine now available – free online

The fifth volume of Topics in the History of Medicine, Quirks, Quacks and Cul-de-sacs, is now available free online. Topics in the History of Medicine is a is a peer reviewed, fully open access, online only journal published annually by the British Society for the History of Medicine (BSHM).
The journal promotes scholarly work on all aspects of the history of medicine and healthcare by publishing a variety of articles, including original research, biographical accounts and literature reviews.

Topics in the History of Medicine – Volume 5

Editor-in-chief: Hilary Morris, President BSHM
Guest editor: Bryan Rhodes, Vice-President and President Elect of BSHM.
Journal editor 2021-2025: Edward Wawrzynczak, immediate past President of BSH

ISSN 2753-9695

For more information, contact BSHM hon secretary, Lee Coppack.

Contents

Five and Counting by Hilary S Morris
Navigating the Publication Process by Edward J Wawrzynczak
Hailing a New Festive Salve by Bryan Rhodes
‘No Sex (Glands) Please, We’re British’: The Response to the 1920s Rejuvenation Craze by Dominic Hodgson
A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Opium Go Down: Two Centuries of the Quaker’s Black Drop by Nicholas Jones and Bryan Rhodes
Mr Langworthy, Dr Haygarth and Perkins’s Metallic Tractors by Peter Carpenter
Homeopathic Hospitals and the Battle with Allopathy in Colonial Australia by Neville D Yeomans
Maude Dickinson, The Dongor Hygienic Company and ‘Radio-Activity in the Service of Man’ by Lucy Jane Santos
Revealing the Profile of Confrontation: The Bonesetter, the Coroner and the Lord Chief Justice by Bryan Rhodes
Film and Filament: Early Techniques in the Surgical Treatment of Aortic Aneurysms by Craig A Miller
Dr Erasmus Darwin’s Management of Consumption: Cul-de-sacs and Prescient Insights by Lisetta Lovett

More…

A Disgusting and Useless Substance? Hyraceum between Folk Medicine and Pharmacopoeia by Tarquin Holmes
The Italian Medusas: Unusual Preservation in Nineteenth-century Italy by Cat Irving
Mosquitoes, Medical Officers and Mental Asylums: Malariotherapy in the UK and the Rise of the Horton Laboratory by Graham Ash and Gordon DL Bates.