When you’re talking about the history of skin, what is the line between beauty and health? In this episode we examine how doctors treatments of the skin in the past were often as concerned with aesthetics as they were with curing disease. We also uncover the medicalisation of class, race and gender that was explored through the medium of the skin.
And we finish up with some particularly disgusting recipes – including crocodile dung and toads!
Guest historian clip: Dr Mary Fissell is professor in the Department of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University.