Shakespeare son-in-law clue to early modern medicine

Friday March 24th, 2017

Shakespeare's son-in-law was a doctor - and now the public is to be invited to see how he practised medicine in the 17th century.

An exhibition at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is to focus on John Hall, the physician who married Shakespeare's daughter Susanna.

Hall kept detailed case-notes and these were published after his death as "Select Observations on English Bodies".

Visitors to the exhibition in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, will be able to compare medical methods of the period with modern practices.

They will see medical accessories from the period, including a syringe, a urine flask and a drug flask as well as a replica amputation saw and a crown trephine.

Lucy Dale, from the trust, said: “Visitors will learn how John Hall and his contemporaries understood their minds and bodies, health and disease and how this fed into the medicine of the time.

"Throughout the exhibition, visitors will also catch glimpses of modern medical beliefs and practices, taken from interviews with medical professionals including a staff nurse, a professor of muscle physiology and a trainee clinical psychologist.

"These viewpoints allow visitors to compare medicine then and now. By providing a modern comparison, we hope to remind people that while methods vary, the battle against disease is nothing new.”

Tags: General Health | UK News

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