Bloodletting was just one of the many methods our ancestors used to cure common maladies
ON THE COVER: GETTY IMAGES X3, ALAMY X1, SUE GENT X1, GHOST ARMY LEGACY PROJECT X1, THIS PAGE: JENI NOTT X1, GETTY IMAGES X1
This month, as millions of people across the globe receive – or prepare to receive – a vaccination against Covid-19, we embark on a journey through the history of medicine, exploring how our ancestors coped with deadly diseases like plague, typhoid and cholera, and charting the great leaps in medical knowledge that have brought us to where we are today. Our essential guide begins in ancient times, when the theory of the four humours ruled supreme and ends with the many monumental medical breakthroughs of the 20th century. Turn to page 26 to get started.
Elsewhere, we take a closer look at the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, a mobile, multimedia, tactical deception unit that used an array of innovative methods – from deploying inflatable tanks to broadcasting fake radio transmissions – to fool the Nazis in the final year of World War II (page 58).