The Withered Arm is a story by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), who was a famous and important British architect – poet-novelist and a social reformer. The Withered Arm is “ a Gothic ghost story”, and Hardy claimed that it was based on a real story. The story illustrates the two trends during Victorian England: the old superstitious beliefs, dreams and visions, versus the modern scientific-based science and medicine, and the remarkable victory of the psyche over the soma. Discussion on the differential diagnosis of that hand paralysis, is given along with disabilities which appear in books of other Victorians and 19th century authors.
Pharmaceutical marketing is the fastest growing sector of advertising industry, leading to excessive consumption of over-the-counter drugs. If we look back to the nineteenth century we will see that advertisements accompanied pharmaceutical industry from the start. Drugs were advertised by pharmaceutical companies, yet advertising was mainly the domain of those manufacturing “miraculous remedies” and promising full recovery. Information on medicines was found on calendars, playing cards, colouring books, games, posters and toys. There appeared extensive literature, chiefly in the form of leaflets, booklets and brochures of various kinds, thanks to which the patient could learn how a medicine worked, what diseases it acted against, and most importantly, where it could be bought.
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