NYTimes Bestselling Author. Medical Historian. Breast Cancer Survivor.
Kids' book: PLAGUE-BUSTERS (Oct 10, 2023) Married to @TealCartoons.
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An outbreak in Brooklyn in 1916 led to the widespread closure of cinemas, parks and swimming pools. The names and addresses of the infected were published daily in newspapers. Warning notices were nailed to their doors, and entire families were forced into quarantine. 2/7 
From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: Europe’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed.
The war claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. Not all soldiers had access to surgery, nor did everyone wish to undergo months (or years) of painful operations. 
(2/8) The need for reconstructive surgery was driven in part by the horrific damage caused by a new type of ammunition: the conical-shaped bullet known as a “Minié ball,” which flattened and deformed upon impact, creating a shock wave for maximum destruction. 
(2/15) Never before had the world faced such slaughter. During WWI, medical staff applied 1.5 million splints, administered 1,088 million doses of drugs, fitted over 20,000 artificial eyes & used 7,250 tons of cotton wool while applying 108 million bandages to injured combatants. 
The war claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. Not all soldiers had access to surgery, nor did everyone wish to undergo months (or years) of painful operations. 
(2/12) Watts referred to Alice Ayres, a nursemaid who died in a fire after she saved the lives of her employer’s children by throwing a mattress out the window and dropping them to safety. She was then overcome by the fumes and stumbled out of the window to her death. 
(2/7) It was a cold, blustery morning in 1651 when Anne Greene, an unmarried woman, was led to her place of execution at Cattle Yard in Oxford. Just days before, she had been found guilty of murdering her newborn baby and hiding its corpse in her employer’s house. 
(2/9) This tradition was probably derived from the earlier practice of "sin-eating," whereby the sins of the deceased were transferred to a person who, for a fee, consumed food & drink handed to him over the coffin. 
(2/9) On 7 April 1853, Queen Victoria became the first monarch to use chloroform to ease the pains of childbirth. Prince Leopold was born within 53 minutes of administration of the drug, which Victoria described as "delightful beyond measure.” 
#1) During WWI, a stretcher-bearer’s job was not only dangerous, but strenuous. It could take 10 hours to travel 400 meters across the mud of a blasted battlefield. The most decorated rank-and-file British soldier during the conflict was Private W. H. Coltman: a stretcher-bearer. 
(2/8) The need for reconstructive surgery was driven in part by the horrific damage caused by a new type of ammunition: the conical-shaped bullet known as a “Minié ball,” which flattened and deformed upon impact, creating a shock wave for maximum destruction. 
(2/10) One of the first records of mistletoe being used medicinally comes from Hippocrates (460 – 377 BC) who used the plant to treat diseases of the spleen and complaints associated with menstruation. 
(2/10) Under normal circumstances, appendicitis is not life-threatening. But Rogozov (pictured here) was stuck in the middle of the Antarctica, surrounded by nothing but thousands of square miles of snow and ice. He was the only doctor on his expedition. 
(2/16) Never before had the world faced such slaughter. During WWI, medical staff applied 1.5 million splints, administered 1,088 million doses of drugs, fitted over 20,000 artificial eyes & used 7,250 tons of cotton wool while applying 108 million bandages to injured combatants. 
(2/6) "In 1941, a black cat shipped out from Pennsylvania on a daring mission to undermine Nazi Germany. Named Captain Midnight, he was sent to Britain...to be flown across Europe in an RAF bomber until he eventually crossed the path of Adolph Hitler, and thereby cursed him." 
(2/11) People believed that those who failed to do this would be damned to search for the lost teeth in a bucket of blood located deep within the fiery pits of Hell on Judgment Day. Stories like this help us to understand why people in the past feared the anatomist’s knife. 
(2/10) Under normal circumstances, appendicitis is not life-threatening. But Rogozov (pictured here) was stuck in the middle of the Antarctica, surrounded by nothing but thousands of square miles of snow and ice. He was the only doctor on his expedition. 
(2/11) Anxiety about premature burial was so widespread during the Victorian period that in 1891, the Italian psychiatrist Enrico Morselli coined the medical term for it: taphephobia (Greek for “grave” + “fear.”). 
(2/17) The physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed to the National Assembly that capital punishment should take the form of swift decapitation "by means of a simple mechanism.” Thus, the guillotine was instated in France in 1791. 
Paul is an amazing photographer and storyteller. He's also a great lover of all things feline. He has a book coming out this fall called A CAT'S TALE - all about cats from history. It's the delightful distraction we all need in our lives: amazon.com/Cats-Tale-Jour… 