Medicine through time

Pomanders were balls made to hold perfumes. Due to a belief that bad smelling air (miasma) could cause disease. Pomanders were worn or carried as a way to ward off disease. They could be hung from a chain around the neck or attached to a girdle or belt. Some contained several partitions to hold a variety of scents.

Pomanders are first recorded in the mid-thirteenth century and were initially large silver or gold balls. Over time they became shaped like nuts and ships, or even as buttons or rosary beads.

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Humans have been using enemas, also known as clysters, for thousands of years, to treat diseases, provide nutrients and for religious cleaning.

They are used to clean the bowel, and would be inserted into the anus.

From the 1870s through the early 20th century, physicians (doctors) frequently relied upon enemas to help patients suffering from bowel obstructions and other disorders of the gastrointestinal system.

Before 1800, many people died in surgery due to blood loss, infection and pain. In 1867, Scottish physician Joseph Lister discovered that spraying carbolic acid on surgical instruments could prevent infection spreading

His methods were successful, reducing the mortality rate of his patients from 46% to 15%.

Carbolic soap is still used today and is often pink or red in colour. The Red Cross and other relief organisations distribute it to disaster victims for hygiene purposes.

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Spectacles were a common medieval device in the Victorian era, worn by both men and women with vision impairments.

They were considered a basic right for the elderly, and necessary for children to attend school and adults to work.

The London Spectacle Mission was founded in 1896 to ensure that people could get visual aids if their eyesight threatened their livelihood.

When the NHS was introduced in 1948, free spectacles were offered to all citizens.

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The profession of apothecary can be dated back to at least 2600 BC to ancient Babylon. The word "apothecary" comes from apotheca, which means a place to store spices, herbs and wine. Apothecaries were chemists who mixed and sold their own medicines, and also dispensed herbs and medicine to patients.

By 1700s, they were replaced by chemists, and pharmacists experimented and made many medical breakthroughs, especially between 1837 and 1901.

Some of the remedies could be dangerous; lithium was used to treat psychosis, mercury was used to fight syphilis and arsenic was used in asthma medication.

Apothecaries kept drugs in jars in their shops so they could prepare mixtures on demand.

There were a variety of surgical tools in ancient Rome. For example, bone levers were tools used to remove diseased bone tissue from the skull and to remove foreign objects (such as a weapon) from a bone.

• Trapanning tools, for drilling holes in the skull. It was used to treat fractures, head wounds, epilepsy and headaches.
• Cataract device and tweezers, used by inserting into the eye and break up the cataract.
• Bloodletting cup, for removing too much blood from the body, which they believed caused diseases.
• Bone saw, for amputations.

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) became known as "The Lady with the Lamp" after a newspaper reported that she carried a lamp while walking among the beds of wounded soldiers at Scutari Hospital during the Crimean War to check on them at night.

She helped to transform nursing into a profession, creating training for nurses and setting standards for hospitals.

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World War I led to many medical advances, including blood transfusions, x-rays and plastic surgery. New weapons made injuries common and deadly, so an effective response system was needed.

Stretcher bearers would be the first to attend to an injured person, and would be responsible for collecting men from No-Mans Land. They would carry basic supplies to provide immediate first aid, before taking the casualty to an aid post within the trench.

The plague broke out in England in 1665 and 1666, killing 68,596 people in London alone. The government attempted to limit the spread of the plague, but there was still little understanding of how people caught the disease.

As people believed that bad air (miasma) caused diseases, they wore plague masks to shield themselves. They might have also put herbs in the long nose to eliminate the bad air.

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During World War I, many soldiers lost limbs due to the scale of the war and new weaponry, such as shrapnel, machine guns and shell fire.

Amputations were performed to treat severe injuries from bullets, exploding shells, frostbite, and infections that didn't respond to antibiotics.

After surgery, soldiers were fitted with artificial limbs and helped adjust to life with them at specialist centres.

One of the main purposes behind offering soldiers artificial limbs was to allow them to work. For artificial arms, attachments could be provided to help with completing specific tasks.

Urine has been used in medicine throughout history as it is helpful in diagnosing illnesses.

In the Middle Ages, doctors used urine samples to diagnose and predict death, and to identify conditions such as jaundice, kidney disease, and diabetes. This practice was called uroscopy, and doctors used glass flasks called matula to collect urine.

They would then observe the urine's colour, smell, sedimentation and sometimes taste.

The use of herbal remedies dates back to the Paleolithic age, around 60,000 years ago.

During the Middle Ages, people used herbs to treat a wide range of illnesses. They often used plants that grew locally in their gardens, such as mint for stomach issues, dandelions for colds and gallstones, and chamomile for sedatives for digestive issues. They also used plants from the countryside and imported plants from other countries.

This practice continued for centuries, and some herbal remedies are still used today.