Could You Survive Victorian Surgery?

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What was it really like inside a Victorian operating theatre? Did people really smoke cigars and eat oysters while they watched high risk surgery taking place? And what were the most common procedures?

In today's episode Kate joins Dr. Monica in the Old Operating Theatre in London, to find out about the sights, smells and screams you would have heard there in the 19th century.

Find out more about the museum here: https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/

This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

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Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Meet John.
0:01.0	Hello.
0:02.0	It's Friday night and he's just dented his partner's new car.
0:05.7	Now he's wondering if he can make a claim before she gets back home on Monday.
0:09.6	Thankfully, Aviva can help solve this car insurance conundrum.
0:13.2	We're available for new claims around the clock,
0:15.7	so John can sort this out right away.
0:18.1	Breaking the news is up to him though.
0:19.7	Um, darling.
0:21.1	Helping solve your car insurance puzzles, it takes Aviva.
0:25.0	Get a quote today at Aviva.co. UK.
0:30.0	Hello, my lovely betwixters it's me Kate Lister I am here once more to protect you from
0:38.4	yourselves and to be honest today's show is one that you might need a little bit of
0:42.1	protecting from because we're talking
0:43.6	about the history of surgery and not in a roundabout theoretical way we're getting up close and very, very
0:49.5	grisly with what was going on in 19th century operating theatres.
0:54.0	So I have to tell you, this is an adult podcast
0:57.0	spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things
0:59.0	in an adult way covering a range of adult subjects
1:01.0	including surgery and you should be an adult too.
1:04.0	And if you're all right with that, I'm all right with that. Okay, on with the show. Waiting rooms are not the most pleasant of places at the best of times.
1:19.0	Rubbish magazines, there's a weird smell in the air usually, constantly wondering what everyone else is in for, but not daring to make eye contact with them.
	...

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