History
-
Home Children
Home Children was the child migration scheme founded by Annie MacPherson in 1869, under which more than 100,000 children were sent from the United Kingdom to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The programme… Read more.
-
Transportation
Penal transportation or transportation was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their destination. While the prisoners may have… Read more.
-
Slavery in ancient Greece
Slavery was an accepted practice in ancient Greece, as in other societies of the time. Some Ancient Greek writers (including, most notably, Aristotle) described slavery as natural and even necessary.[2] This paradigm was notably… Read more.
-
The mental illness where former slaves say get off my lawn
Picture this: It’s 1851, and Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright, fresh off his groundbreaking discovery of drapetomania, has stumbled upon another “totally legit” medical condition. Behold, Dysaesthesia aethiopica – the malady… Read more.
-
the mental illness of refusing to submit to slavery
In the annals of medical history, there are few tales as delightfully absurd as drapetomania, the “mental illness” that made running away from slavery a diagnosable condition. Because, you know,… Read more.
-
Samuel Adolphus Cartwright (“the most prominent physician, surgeon, and medical scientist in antebellum Mississippi”)
Samuel Adolphus Cartwright (November 3, 1793 – May 2, 1863) was an American physician who practiced in Mississippi and Louisiana in the antebellum United States. Cartwright is best known as the inventor of the ‘mental illness’ of drapetomania,… Read more.
-
The crew of the Dutch ship Gelderland used the names “griff-eendt” and “kermisgans” for the dodo in 1598, in reference to fowl fattened for the Kermesse festival
The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius. Kermesse, or kermis, or kirmess, is a Dutch language term derived from ‘kerk’ (church) and ‘mis’ (mass) that became… Read more.
-
Helmut Ringsdorf
Helmut Ringsdorf, a luminary in polymer chemistry and the father of modern drug delivery systems, was not directly connected to the WHO Task Force on Vaccines for Fertility Regulation—but let’s… Read more.
-
Leech Therapy
Leech therapy was classified by the US Food and Drug Administration as a medical device in 2004 Read more.
-
“The gas was brought by a car bearing the International Red Cross sign”
“All have entered. A gruff order was heard. ‘Will the S.S. and special commando leave the chamber.’ The doors were closed and the lights were turned off from outside. “At… Read more.






