Going into lockdown

LEECHES and baked owl might not be the first remedies we reach for when feeling poorly, but in the Middle Ages, that was just what the doctor ordered. Medieval medicine was a mix of magic, myth and cu

Strange murder mysterie s from times gone by

In AD 897, Pope Formosus was put on trial for the crimes of perjury, coveting the papacy and violating canon law by holding more than one bishopric at a time. In truth, the whole thing was a spectacle

A child in Liverpool has died after catching measles, and cases across the UK are on the rise. Dr C describes the symptoms and how to protect your family

FT has covered these a number of times, with one of the earliest and most disastrous examples taking place in Hammersmith in 1804 (see FT296:42-45, 310:30-35, 452:16-18). Then a semi-rural village on

The statistics are terrifying. The burial entries in most parish registers from the 18th and 19th centuries show an appallingly high rate of infant and child mortality. Looking at some registers recen