From the influence of the stars and the phases of the moon, to healing chants and prayers, to the knife-wielding barber-surgeon and game-changing scientific experiments, Kill or Cure? takes you behind the curtain of western medicine’s macabre history.
From the influence of the stars and the phases of the moon, to healing chants and prayers, to the knife-wielding barber-surgeon and game-changing scientific experiments, Kill or Cure? takes you behind the curtain of western medicine’s macabre history.
Explore our many treatment rooms with instruments that will make your skin crawl. Hear quack doctors spruiking dangerous cures from behind the interactive walls. Meet the bloodletting man and learn why veins were opened to restore health.
The Library’s extensive rare books collection reveals some of the powerful and enduring ideas from western medicine that have since been debunked, and those we take for granted today.
Margarita philosophica noua : cui insunt sequentia{"type":"image","clickUrl":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/collection-items\/margarita-philosophica-noua-cui-insunt-sequentia","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/thumbnail\/slnswrosetta\/FL20190882?itok=jZoSbwgR","thumbnailLarge":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/large\/slnswrosetta\/FL20190882?itok=AZkk4S2Y","mediaDerivativeUrls":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/thumbnail\/slnswrosetta\/FL20190882?itok=jZoSbwgR","large":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/large\/slnswrosetta\/FL20190882?itok=AZkk4S2Y","responsive__quarter_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__quarter_hd\/slnswrosetta\/FL20190882?itok=LYBB9UY9","responsive__half_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__half_hd\/slnswrosetta\/FL20190882?itok=zEDvsrL-","responsive__full_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__full_hd\/slnswrosetta\/FL20190882?itok=QAYOdOLW"},"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/digital.sl.nsw.gov.au\/delivery\/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=FL20190882&dps_func=stream","mediaMime":"image\/jpeg","transcriptUrl":null,"width":"3996","height":"5000"}
Saunders physiognomie, and chiromancie{"type":"image","clickUrl":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/collection-items\/saunders-physiognomie-and-chiromancie","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/thumbnail\/public\/e60542_0003_m.jpg?itok=EO9X4srD","thumbnailLarge":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/large\/public\/e60542_0003_m.jpg?itok=JIpN-qOe","mediaDerivativeUrls":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/thumbnail\/public\/e60542_0003_m.jpg?itok=EO9X4srD","large":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/large\/public\/e60542_0003_m.jpg?itok=JIpN-qOe","responsive__quarter_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__quarter_hd\/public\/e60542_0003_m.jpg?itok=SddKQusS","responsive__half_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__half_hd\/public\/e60542_0003_m.jpg?itok=rHvpgXqa","responsive__full_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__full_hd\/public\/e60542_0003_m.jpg?itok=t96xIV27"},"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/e60542_0003_m.jpg","mediaMime":"image\/jpeg","transcriptUrl":null,"width":5498,"height":8025}
Medical botany : containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic{"type":"image","clickUrl":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/collection-items\/medical-botany-containing-systematic-and-general-descriptions-plates-all-medicinal","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/thumbnail\/public\/e63886_supergraphic_0001_0.jpg?itok=X-ILRMG6","thumbnailLarge":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/large\/public\/e63886_supergraphic_0001_0.jpg?itok=uAqvyN9z","mediaDerivativeUrls":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/thumbnail\/public\/e63886_supergraphic_0001_0.jpg?itok=X-ILRMG6","large":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/large\/public\/e63886_supergraphic_0001_0.jpg?itok=uAqvyN9z","responsive__quarter_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__quarter_hd\/public\/e63886_supergraphic_0001_0.jpg?itok=W5sj3mqI","responsive__half_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__half_hd\/public\/e63886_supergraphic_0001_0.jpg?itok=e1gqeE1m","responsive__full_hd":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/responsive__full_hd\/public\/e63886_supergraphic_0001_0.jpg?itok=MJbqD1rq"},"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/e63886_supergraphic_0001_0.jpg","mediaMime":"image\/jpeg","transcriptUrl":null,"width":2000,"height":3148}
Elise is a senior curator at the State Library of New South Wales. She has curated several exhibitions highlighting the Library’s nationally significant First World War collections; Life Interrupted: personal diaries from World War I in 2014, Colour in Darkness: images from the First World War in 2016 and Quick March! The Children of World War One in 2019. Her most recent exhibition, Dead Central – an immersive, audio experience, told the story of the Devonshire Street Cemetery, where Central Station now stands. She contributed to and narrated two podcast series, The Burial Files in 2019 and The Gatherings Order in 2020.
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