I walk into the examination room, dreading what is about to happen. My heart’s racing. First, they take my warm […]
Public Theater and Health Care in the Early Modern Spanish World
In May of 1646, don Duarte Fernando Álvarez de Toledo Portugal, the Viceroy of the Kingdom of Valencia, wrote a […]
Lizards and the Idea of Mexico
In the summer of 1782, Don Juan de Luna, a respected elder citizen of the City of Mexico, nearly choked […]
New Medical Tourism on St. Kitts
The late William Halford of Southern Illinois University’s School of Medicine spent his life developing what Hollywood director Agustín Fernández […]
Dying to Heal: Women and Syphilis in Colonial Lima, Peru
In the early modern world, syphilis victims suffered through four stages of disease over a ten- to thirty-year time span. […]
Mary Seacole: Disease and Care of the Wounded, from Jamaica to the Crimea
While Florence Nightingale is legendary in the history of nursing because of her foundational role in the creation of Western […]
The Politics of Sobreparto: Beyond the Medical Dimensions of a Postpartum Condition
Migrant indigenous Andean women living in the lowland Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra often mention sobreparto (“following […]
Climate Calamity: Lice, Typhus, and Gender in Mexico
By tucking themselves away in the corners of beds and the folds of clothes, insects have long evolved alongside humans. […]
Poison and Protest: Sarah Bassett and Enslaved Women Poisoners in the Early Modern Caribbean
In 2008, the government of Bermuda erected its very first monument to an enslaved person. The “Sally Bassett Memorial Statue” […]
Health Care in Colonial Peruvian Convents
Last May I had the opportunity to conduct archival research in Arequipa, Peru. I went in search of fodder for […]
