Based on a case-study of the introduction of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine in the Netherlands two decades ago, using documentary and archival sources, this paper examines the way evidence is used in policymaking. Starting from the question of 'what counts as evide...

On the evening of Saturday 31 August 1901, the celebrated French novelist Marcel Proust wrote to his mother with characteristic intimacy, recounting his struggle to quell a severe attack of asthma the previous day. Having suffered from periodic attacks of asthma since t...

In the long-running debate over standards of living during the industrial revolution, pessimists have identified deteriorating health conditions in towns as undermining the positive effects of rising real incomes on the ‘biological standard of living’. This article revi...

This article examines the fortunes of one particular surgical innovation in the treatment of gallstones in the late 20th century; the percutaneous cholecystolithotomy (PCCL). This was an experimental procedure which was trialled and developed in the early days of minima...

Summary The history of childbirth in England has gained increasing momentum, but no studies have been carried out for Wales, and therefore the nature of childbirth in early modern Wales remains largely unknown. This article seeks to redress this imbalance in two ways: F...

Some historical remarks are made on the background information leading to the international symposium on taeniasis/cysticercosis and echincoccosis with focus on Asia and the Pacific.

The book club format has enabled expert and nonexpert exploration of infection and epidemiology as encountered in popular literature. This exploration reveals that fiction focusing on apocalyptic disease often uses the zombie as embodiment of infection, as well as an ex...

Body mass prediction from the skeleton most commonly employs femoral head diameter (FHD). However, theoretical predictions and empirical data suggest the relationship between mass and FHD is strongest in young adults, that bone dimensions reflect lean mass better than b...

While some historians have noted the absence of animals in medical history, few have made the animal the central object of their historical gaze. Twenty years ago W.F. Bynum urged medical historians to follow historians of science in paying attention to the role of non-...

This article explores the early years of the campaign for ‘ordinary’, not politically-aligned, prisoners’ rights in Ireland. It argues that this campaign has often been overshadowed by the activities of ‘political prisoners’, who only constituted a small minority of pr...