In 1854, a cholera outbreak erupted in the Soho area of London. At the time, it was believed that cholera was spread by ‘miasma’ or a poisonous form of ‘bad air’ that was emitted from rotting organic matter. Physician John Snow, whose practice was in Soho, was skeptical of the
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Literally meaning “without protection”, anaphylaxis was coined by Charles Richet in 1902, who later won the Nobel Prize for his discovery. Richet and professor Paul Jones Portier accidentally discovered anaphylaxis on a marine expedition in the Atlantic after vaccinating dogs with toxins. The two French scientists immunized dogs via injections with
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From the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, over 50,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States. Walter Freeman performed over 3,400 lobotomies himself. Dr. Freeman became well-known for the pre-orbital lobotomy. The procedure began with electric shock that took the place of anesthesia, followed by the insertion of an ice-pick like
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“It is inadvertently affirmed in the Christian countries of Europe that the English are fools and madmen. Fools, because they give their children the small-pox to prevent their catching it; and madmen, because they wantonly communicate a certain and dreadful distemper to their children, merely to prevent an uncertain evil.”
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