The Library of Medicine's Online Collection

Disability studies blogger extraordinaire Penny Richards brings word that the National Library of Medicine has an extensive online collection.  She has a fascinating post on how technical innovations are often developed "first for disability-related applications and only later translated to wider use."

Though I'll hopefully have more substantive commentary on some of the images for a future Imaging the Medical Humanities post, but given my interest in pain, I pulled these images (below the fold) that may be of interest.

 

Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

 

Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

(I assume, given that the image is from a London newspaper in 1835 that the "cholic" is cholera.)

[UPDATE: Penny Richards notes in the comments below that the "cholic" generally refers to intestinal pain.  Thanks!]

 

Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

Comments

[Penny Richards]

Thanks for the plug! It's a great online resource, and you found some terrific images. The "Cholic" is colic--intestinal pain. This website indicates that the cartoon here is also satirizing corset-wearing (tight lacing) by having the gremlins draw tight bindings around their female victim...

http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/library/wdc-lib/historical/artifacts/caricatures/en6-fashion.cfm