Episodes
| Title | First Broadcast | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| A Long And Ghastly Kitchen | 20070221 | A major narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. Napoleonic France witnessed the second big event that made medicine scientific - Dr Magendie's experiments on live animals, which were conducted to find out how the animal and human body works. English observers found this new field of experimental physiology mere self-indulgent cruelty in the pursuit of knowledge, despite Magendie laying out his position at length. But what did this first generation of researchers discover which was considered to have an important impact on medicine? The readers are Peter Capaldi, David Rintoul, Scott Handy and Jason Watkins. Napoleonic France witnessed Dr Magendie's experiments on live animals. |
| A Yankee Dodge | 20070228 | Andrew looks back to the origins of pain relief and how chloroform. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Anatomy And The Invisible Hand | 20070216 | A major new narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. 10/30. Anatomy and the Invisible Hand Anatomy teaching was big business in the 1700s. Anatomists such as the ambitious William Hunter hoped to profit by supplying anatomical teaching - but in doing so created a huge and unsavoury demand for fresh bodies for use by medical students. Amid rivalry and huge public debates, every anatomist wanted to make some new discovery and build a reputation. So how did this period come to be known as 'the perfection of anatomy' and secure one of the few medical disciplines that would survive the political upheaval that was about to engulf Europe? The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy. How did this period come to be known as 'the perfection of anatomy'? |
| Changing Disease Identity | 20070222 | A major narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. We assume all diseases are eternal. But a side-effect of progress in medical thinking is that diseases often had their identities changed over time. New measuring tools meant that it was impossible to say whether a disease, before and after scientific medicine developed, was in fact the same disease. Andrew examines the many changing identities of consumption - soon to become known as tuberculosis - a widespread disease throughout 19th century Europe, affecting people of all ages and from all walks of life. The readers are Tamsin Greig, Scott Handy and Peter Capaldi. A side effect of progress in medical thinking is that diseases had identities changed. |
| Culturing The Germ Theory | 20070305 | How a country doctor from Prussia traced the life cycle of an anthrax bacteria cell. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Dark Side Of Obstetrics | 20070227 | Andrew discusses the work of Ignaz Semmelweis in Vienna. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Fever | 20070213 | A major new narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. 7/30. Fever In the 17th Century, fevers were the main concern of physicians, who believed that nature had a natural way of responding to any disease by eliminating the offensive matter in the body. But it was through the pioneering work of 'The English Hippocrates', physician Thomas Sydenham, who rejected all current theory, that gave us some of the first accounts of the symptoms and the fevered course of each epidemic disease. Trial and error would lead to some impressive cures. The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy. In the 17th Century, fevers were the main concern of physicians. |
| Flinging The Tropics Open To Civilisation | 20070308 | What role did European medicine play in spreading European culture across the Empire? Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Free At The Point Of Need | 20070314 | The National Health Service was set up in 1948 to provide free healthcare for everyone. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| God's House, The Hospital | 20070206 | The hospital is one of the main innovations made in Christian Medieval times. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Hot, Cold, Wet And Dry | 20070205 | Origins of religious and western-learned medicine can be traced to Hippocrates and Galen. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| It Looks Like A Miracle | 20070313 | The first antibiotic, penicillin, appeared to be a miracle medicine. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Learning From The Illiterate | 20070214 | A major new narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. 8/30. Learning from the illiterate By the early 18th Century, smallpox was taking between 10-15% of all lives in Europe and physicians were constantly arguing about how best to cure it. But a new method of treatment was gradually coming to attention - something which peasants and slaves had known for centuries. This episode explores the work of the inoculators which would force medics to contradict all that they had learned. But would their work guarantee safe long-term protection from smallpox infection? The readers are Tamsin Greig, Annette Badland, David Rintoul, Scott Handy and Jason Watkins. Smallpox was taking between 10-15 per cent of all lives in Europe. |
| Little Reading, Much Seeing And Much Doing | 20070219 | A major narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. The French Revolution ushered in new ambition and a new scientific clinical approach that is still taught to all medical students. Andrew explores this hugely significant moment in transforming medical thinking, training and practise in the early 1800s into an approach we recognise today. Chemist Antoine Forcroy's demand for 'Little reading, much seeing and much doing' would have far reaching effects, as a new hands-on method to try to work out what was going on inside a patient's body began to get taken up. The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy. The French Revolution ushered in new ambition and a new scientific clinical approach. |
| Making Signs | 20070220 | Series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. Systematic post mortems revolutionised the study of disease. It enabled physicians armed with new instruments such as the stethoscope to translate the signs they were reading on the outside of the body into what was going on inside. Andrew explores how doctors in the Paris hospitals could now link the symptoms of many different patients with particular diseases. But what did this mean for the patient who up until the 1800s had always expected to be seen as special and unique? The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Near Pavilions | 20070309 | The influence of Florence Nightingale and the sanitarians. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Paracelsus And The People's Medicine | 20070208 | A major narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. The 16th century witnessed the birth of a new kind of natural philosophy and medicine. Its chief advocate, Swiss medical reformer Paracelsus, rejected the traditional medicine of the Greeks because of its heathen roots in favour of both a spiritual and alchemical approach. This captivating figure and scourge of the medical establishment clashed with the authorities wherever he went yet, as we hear, became hailed for his innovative use of chemical drugs. The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy. |
| Science Has No Sex | 20070226 | A series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, presented by Andrew Cunningham. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Sisters Of Charity | 20070223 | A major narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. According to the Nursing Record, a typical nurse in the 1830s was like Sarah Gamp in Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit - a domestic servant who was incompetent and rough with patients. By the 1880s, a nurse was young, neat and uniformed and had been formally trained. How did this change come about? As Andrew reveals, an enterprising Florence Nightingale gave us a new kind of nurse - offering a vocation that girls 'of good character' increasingly were called to undertake. How the nursing profession was transformed thanks to an enterprising Florence Nightingale. |
| Stopping The Rot | 20070302 | History series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine. 20: Stopping the Rot:. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| The Anatomical Renaissance | 20070209 | A major narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. Noses, ears and lips were often lost during swordfights in defence of honour. Yet thanks to a renaissance in anatomy during the 16th century, the art of surgery had been perfected in Bologna to the extent that artificial but living noses, ears and lips could be supplied in their place. The rediscovery of Galen's ancient book The Method of Healing, and a new generation of emerging anatomists in the mid 1500s, such as the young physician Andreas Vesalius, meant that the approach to human anatomy and good surgery would be completely reinvented. The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy. In the 16th century, surgery had been perfected to allow artificial noses, ears and lips. |
| The Coming Of The Gp | 20070215 | A major new narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. 9/30. The Coming of the GP Samuel Foote's riotous hit comedy The Devil Upon Two Sticks offers intriguing insight into a dramatic siege that took place in 1767 outside the Royal College of Physicians in London between old guard physicians and a new breed of general practitioners from Scotland. The individual practices of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries were now under threat. It was to mark a major change in the skills and qualifications of medical men with the coming of the general practitioner, and as we discover, a violent outbreak of class war within medicine. The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy. The clash between old guard physicians and a new breed of general practitioners. |
| The Crippler | 20070315 | Andrew traces the impact of the great polio epidemics and the ethical dilemmas they posed. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| The Disease Is Its Own Preventative | 20070301 | The story of Louis Pasteur's development of the anti-rabies vaccine in 1885. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| The Early Transfusion Experiments | 20070212 | A major new narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham. 6/30. The early transfusion experiments For almost 2,000 years in the West, medical men had been taking blood out of their patients to cure them. It wasn't until 1660 that anyone thought of putting blood in! Andrew Cunningham explores how William Harvey's important and controversial discoveries of the circulation of the blood and the pumping force of the heart led to ideas of 'extending the circulation of the blood beyond the boundaries prescribed for it by Nature' and to pass blood from one person to another. The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy. It wasn't until 1660 that anyone thought of putting blood back into patients. |
| The First Sexual Epidemic | 20070207 | By 1490, the population of Europe had recovered to the level it had been at when the Great Plague had killed up to one in three people across the continent. But a mysterious new disease broke out among the French army in 1492, terrifying everyone and sparing no one. New mores of sexual behaviour that emerged during the late medieval period would mean that this epidemic of the pox would not be the last. How did the medical medieval practitioners enact cures and preventions - and what were the beliefs behind so-called miracle treatments? The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi and Scott Handy. A mysterious new disease broke out among the French army in 1492. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| The Ministry Of Healing | 20070307 | Needing to consult laboratory workers was seen as a threat to physicians' authority. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Transforming Plague | 20070306 | When bubonic plague broke out in Hong Kong in 1894, European rivalry continued. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| Transplant | 20070316 | In 1967, Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant operation. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |
| You Are What You Eat | 20070312 | How medics discovered that the absence of a vitamin could be the cause of a disease. Narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine |