Browsing all posts in "speculum".

Modesty Rules!

The Victorian Age is widely heralded as an era obsessed with modesty and prudery, especially about sexuality. This reputation is not ill-deserved. As more and more men entered the practice of midwifery, there was, perforce, some interaction with the delivering woman’s, um, privates. The less interaction there was, however, the better. And the less the [...]

Algebra, Alchemy and Albucasis

Before we reenter European obstetrics, where the Dark Ages were being swept away  by rays of sunlight from the Arab world, we should take a moment to visit the infidels and find out just how much they actually knew about science and medicine. The Islamic world was, at the time, a hotbed of scientific research. [...]