I started writing this post quite a while ago, but only got around finishing it now. io9 is not new anymore, of course, but that doesn’t put an end to its awesomeness.
If I could choose again, I’d definitely go and study history of medicine. Take this column on the new and absolutely awesome io9 website, called titled Control Hammer (actually, the column is called Entropist and the column title is Control Hammer…but anyway, both are fine). It’s about the Museum of Psychological Instruments in Toronto. The exhibits are almost indescribable, like alien probes or props from a Cronenberg movie. These weird tools were considered
to be a vital part of “experimental psychology,” a new field whose central proposition was that psychology itself could be measured and mapped; even the most subtle reactions, on the level of conscious thought and unconscious reflex, could be predicted and repeated elsewhere, these experimentalists believed, under laboratory circumstances.
The column is worth reading and do bookmark io9 – you won’t regret it.
ONWARDS! Another great place to sneek and peek around medical devices from times long gone is Phisick, a collection of antique medical devices. This is a great website and I won’t comment on the picture below. You gotta guess what it is, but here’s a hint: it’s ‘Made in Germany’ in 1894…
And be sure to check their extensive links page! If you’re looking for a place to start looking for medical antiques and oddities, you’ve found it. Of course, the always wonderful BibliOdyssey just posted some amazing scans from a 1829 surgical album which a definitely worth checking out (the entire set is on view at Humboldt University’s edoc service). I don’t know whether they just signed up on Flickr or have been there for a while and I was just to dumb to find them, but here is their photostream where you can just immerse yourself in bibliophile goodness.
And last but not least, check out this article on trepanation on Neurophilosophy (current location here). It is really great and instead of summarizing or quoting from it, I’ll just kindly lead you there with this little link.
Filed under: Bizarre-O-Rama, Books, Documentary, History, Science, Vintage Stuff , blog, History, medicine, Science, science fiction, surgery, trepanation, vintage
