An illustration of a sick horse in a barn, 1872

Civilization Without Horses: The Epizootic of 1872

We’re all now too familiar with the words “pandemic” and “epidemic,” but how about “epizootic”?
High angle close-up view of a senior Caucasian woman's hands drawing Alzheimer's disease cognitive functions clock test with positive results suggesting illness

Half Past Dementia

Drawing a clock has become a standard test of cognitive impairment, but there’s no consensus on who should do it or how.
Produce is offered for sale at a grocery store on October 13, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.

The Price of Plenty: Should Food Be Cheap?

The supermarket revolution made food more affordable and accessible than ever. But do the hidden costs of food feed into our illusions of justice and progress?
A photograph of a company of Black troops from the archives of the United States Sanitary Commission

The Sanitary Commission’s Other Agenda

The US Sanitary Commission is credited with saving lives during the Civil War, but its leadership hoped it would be remembered for advancing racialized science.
Spoonful of soil

The Question of Geophagy: Why Eat Dirt?

Scientists have three theories about why people and animals eat dirt.
A black and white newspaper advertisement titled The Abortion Handbook. Lana Clarke Phelan and Patricia Maginnis are names listed below the title.

When San Francisco Feminists Rated Mexican Abortions

The California activists played the role of a health agency to ensure women received safe and competent health care in Mexican clinics.
A nurse bottle-feeding a baby at St Vincent's Hospital, Montclair, Mexico, 1955

The Milk Banks of New York

Milk banks, a successor concept to wet nursing, are a little discussed part of the contemporary landscape of infant care.
Hospital emergency room entrance sign

Medicalizing Domestic Violence

What happens when experts position domestic violence inside a biomedical model of care?
Patients stand in the Red Cross building in Walter Reed Hospital, c. WWI

The Birth of the Modern American Military Hospital

The founding of Walter Reed General Hospital at the beginning of the twentieth century marked a shift in medical care for military personnel and veterans.
Older woman praying in an almost empty church.

Can Religion Be Helpful for People With Chronic Pain?

A group of researchers asked this question of a group of patients in secularized Western Europe.