Acetylsalicylic acid was synthesized by Gerhardt in 1853 and even put on the market during the 1880s by the firm Merck.1 Yet the proper history of this medicine begins only in 1897, now more than a hundred years ago, when this miracle amongst medicines was again synthesized at the dyestuffs factory of Friedrich Bayer and the chemical factory of Friedrich von Heyden. About eighteen months later ...

JUST OVER A century ago, Daniel Maclachlan, Physician to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, published his book The Diseases and Infirmities of Advanced Life. This was based on his extensive experience among the Chelsea pensioners as well as patients seen in private practice. He begins by stating 'the diseases of advanced and declining life have been comparatively neglected ... they have nowhere recei...

I n this issue of OEM, an article by Tim Carter documents the experience of cutaneous, pulmonary, and abdominal anthrax among wool sorters and others in a rural town (Kidderminster, Worcestershire) in the UK in the early twentieth century. At the start of the twenty first century anthrax was an esoteric topic of study, mostly for those interested in zoonoses. This position changed radically fol...