A personal favourite treatment... To cure a whitloe (lesion) put your finger in a cat's ear

New podcast series! We’re exploring different objects on display in our Physicians’ Gallery. This week, we’re talking about a 1600s book called Erotomania, which explores the addictive nature of unrequited love. Listen now 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/ero...

On the doctor's orders - wine as a cure for melancholy, at breakfast, lunch and dinner. archive.org/details/b216...

Our new permanent gallery and learning centre are now open! Be one of the first to check out our alchemical scroll, examine medicines from the Battle of Culloden and try out our family-friendly puzzles and activities. Find out more 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/joy...

This image is from an 18thc text, 'Man-midwifery dissected'. Its author, John Blunt, wrote that women who employed male midwives were 'female brutes' who 'have stoically forgotten to blush, unless it be by the assistance of rouge'

These are both opium-based medicines. Paregoric was given to young children to relieve teething pain and send them to sleep. Other opium-based medicines for children included Mother Bailey’s Quieting Syrup and Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup Find out more in Hooked www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/hoo...

We're on the way! Very excited to see our new public gallery taking shape. Opening on 3rd November and free entry - see you there! Find out more 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/joy...

‘A Satyr against Snuff’ caused a bit of a stir in the 18thc with its risqué health warnings: ‘now, tis by every sort And Sex adorned, But ask a Wench how Oysters sell? If nice, She begs a pinch before she sets a price’ Find out more in our exhibition www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/hoo...

Santorio Sanctorius’s 17thc weighing machine. For over 30 years he weighed everything that went into, and came out of his body, comparing the weight of his food and drink with his urine and excretia and keeping a detailed diary of his findings

"We are sun-starved" Not sure a Collaro Sunray Lamp is the answer.... This advertisement is from September 1939, when people had a lot more on their minds than the lack of sunlight.

Sore legs? Considered putting herrings on your feet? - Handy 1785 medical tip

We’re excited to announce that on 3rd Nov we’re opening a 🎉 free 🎉 entry new gallery and learning centre! Join us to explore stories from medicine – from alchemy to straitjackets, along with family-friendly activities and puzzles. Find out more 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/joy...

Dr Ebenezer Sibly, using his miracle tincture, the occult, and mesmerism to 'cure' a patient, ('A Key to Physic and the Occult Sciences')

18thc medical advice for #internationalcoffeeday – try opium in your coffee for ‘the Coffee takes of the narcotic quality of the Opium’ cullenproject.ac.uk/docs/5939/

This is the first known illustration of a straitjacket (1794). Despite many seeing it as an extreme method of restraint, it was introduced as a humane solution. Although still dehumanising, it was an improvement on manacling and chaining patients to walls

Old and stale urine of a man anyone?

Looking at this 18thC model of female pelvic anatomy, you see three foetuses. This isn’t showing pregnancy with triplets - it’s an intended to show different types of ectopic pregnancy. You can see ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal. It was produced by sculptor Francesc Citarelli to teach obstetrics

Magiae Naturalis or Natural Magic. This book includes a recipe for Witches’ Unguent that supposedly allowed witches to fly at night… or at least they thought they could, due to its hallucinogenic properties!

Chomp! Love this little guy taking a bite out of the gastronomy map of France (Cours gastronomique, ou, Les diners de Manant-ville, c.1809) 😋

1800s medical kit containing Spanish fly. Also known as Blister Beetles because they were applied to the skin in order to create blisters which supposedly forced the sickness out

Blog post! Prohibition stories... Anti-tea and coffee spokespersons had once decried those drinks as creating ‘tea mania’ and ‘coffee drunkards’. But by 1920 the Temperance Movement was advocating for more coffee shops and tearooms as an alternative to pubs. 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/her...

Chinese utensils used in preparing and drinking tea, from a 1600s work by Simon Paulli Find out more about the history of tea in our exhibition ‘Hooked’ www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/hoo...

The hematologist Oswald H. Robertson pioneered the idea of "blood banks" in WWI by packing glass jars of citrated blood from universal donors in an ice-filled chest that he had constructed from ammunition cases. Learn more in my book THE FACEMAKER: drlindseyfitzharris.com/the-facemaker/

Fishwives, or ‘oyster lasses’, were common figures in the streets of 1700s Edinburgh. Oysters were so plentiful that they were considered to be cheap snack food. The shells themselves, when ground up, were taken to relieve heartburn

Class card belonging to Murdoch Cameron, a pioneer in caesarean section under antiseptic conditions. The card shows attendance at Joseph Lister's Clinical Lectures on the Cases of Surgical Patients, held in 1867 at Glasgow Royal Infirmary

I think I prefer the summer treatment…winter is a bit too uriney

Charcot was a French neurologist who studied hypnotism in cases of hysteria. He held public displays of his skills which were attended by actors, authors and others, including a young Sigmund Freud. They were viewed as salacious as they often involved semi-clad young women

A strong start to your 1600s surgical textbook when you begin with allegorical winged and cloaked death images like these – a stark reminder to all medical students

This 16thc text contains descriptions of over 200 spas as well as collecting together the works of over 70 classical, Arabic and contemporary writers on the subject of bathing. This illustration shows visitors bathing, drrinking and defecating at the spa

Stop by today! It is our 🎉 FREE 🎉 #Edinburgh science fun day! 10am – 2pm 🔬 Try testing ‘urine’ in our lab 🐍 Meet a real snake and learn what snakes have to do with bladders 💪 Get sparkly with glitter tattoos 🩺 Listen to talks from real doctors FREE Find out more www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/sna...

Condom, or ‘rubber sheath’, over 100 years old. This was used as evidence in the court case of a quack imposter physician ‘Dr’ Massie in Edinburgh in 1914

Visit our free #Edinburgh exhibition Hooked. Exploring pills, drink, snuff and cigarettes, we uncover the many faces of addiction and the many attempts to combat it. 📍 Physicians’ Gallery, 11 Queen Street, EH2 1JQ 📅 Mon – Fri, 10am – 4.30pm Find out more 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/hoo...

Blog! The science behind murder, exploring the murder weapon collection of forensic expert Sydney Smith 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/her...

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh first opened its doors #OTD 1729 after a fundraising campaign by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. It was known as the Little House and, showing it was a hospital for all of Scotland, its first patient came from Caithness

18thc copy of ‘Aristotle’s Masterpiece’, a sex manual and midwifery guide. According to one theory, the hairy woman on the frontispiece served as a warning – if you lusted after a man other than your husband during pregnancy, both you and your child could become deformed.

Fancy a pint of frogspawn?

A large anatomical ‘fugitive leaf’ from Cassell’s People’s Physician, Vol. 5, published in the 1930s. These kind of anatomical illustrations with fold out sections functioned as paper dissections, and were intended to help non-medical audiences learn about anatomy.

Vapo-Cresolene lamp. A 19thc invention where a small flame was used to vaporise the chemicals in coal tar. Used as a treatment for chest complaints including bronchitis and asthma, in 1908 its efficacy was, unsurprisingly, debunked but it continued to be used into the 1950s

Come along to our 🎉 FREE 🎉 fun day and learn all about the bladder! Sat 16 Aug 🔬 Try testing ‘urine’ in our lab 🐍 Meet a real snake and learn what snakes have to do with bladders 💪 Get sparkly with glitter tattoos 🩺 Listen to talks from real doctors Find out more 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/sna...

Tincture of Castoreum, extracted from beaver anal scent glands. Used in the 18thc as a stimulant and antispasmodic, particularly in cases of hysteria and epilepsy

Join us and @sexhistorian.bsky.social on 10 Sept to explore women’s experiences of HIV/AIDS care and activism in Scotland Book your ticket now 👉 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/womens-his...

This pipe was made in a factory in the East End of Glasgow. Slave-produced goods like tobacco were the main items of trade in the city. Along with tobacco came other related trades – snuff production, tobacco spinning and clay pipe production Find out more in Hooked www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/hoo...

You heard it here first – a 17thc cure for love addiction ‘he must drinke… no wine upon any tearmes: because that wine inflames the blood, and makes men the more prone to lust’ Find out more about the history of love addiction in our exhibition ‘Hooked’ www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/hoo...

The Royal Edinburgh Hospital accepted its first patient #OTD 1813. Although funded by public donations, for the first 30 years they only accepted patients who could pay their one guinea fee. The city’s poor would have to wait a little longer for access to treatment

Today marks the start of South Asian Heritage Month. To celebrate we have a wonderful new blog post by Dr Theeba Krishnamoorty, discussing the very 1st South Asian women to qualify to practice medicine heritageblog.rcpsg.ac.uk/2025/07/18/a... #SouthAsianHeritageMonth #RootsToRoutes #womeninmedicine

Parsley, leek, bread, polenta and cheese...another 18thc recipe where the nice food gets applied on the skin and the patient has to eat dung

Check out #ThePeoplesDispensary – our free new online resource about charitable medicine in Edinburgh. It includes a fully transcribed and digitised archive of over 10,000 pages of Georgian patient case notes from the Edinburgh Public Dispensary 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispe...

On 12 Aug join the @rcphysicians.bsky.social, @rcpsgheritage.bsky.social & @rcpedin.bsky.social heritage teams in a virtual discussion to share early research into records of South Asian doctors migrating to the UK since the 1840s. Book free👉 stories_of_medicine_and_migration.eventbrite.co.uk #SAHM

In this episode we explore the Rs. Find out about the history of rabies, radium girls and rosacea on our podcast. 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/rad...

The morbid art of flaying human skin for anatomical study - one student visiting Leiden university wrote that they had seen a skeleton on display with ‘a shirt made of his own bowels and shoes of his own skin’