Facial spasms, blindness, deafness and even paralysis were the physical manifestation of shell shock. Now pupils can see video footage of sufferers in a First World War military hospital, thanks to a new online resource, History of Health and Healthcare: Curriculum for Excellence.

The site is run by academics in the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare at Glasgow Caledonian and Strathclyde universities and is centred on the key themes of infectious disease in the 19th century, disease in the developing world, occupational health, mental health, the rise of the NHS, and war and medicine.

It is aimed at late primary to early secondary pupils and can be searched by subject - history, geography or modern studies.

Pupils can read extracts from a report by Dr John Sutherland, a physician whose description of Glasgow demonstrates why cholera spread so quickly after the outbreaks in 1832 and 1848.

“There are large square midden-steads, some of them actually under the houses, and all of them in the immediate vicinity of the windows and doors of human dwellings. These receptacles hold the entire filth and offal of large masses of people and households, until country farmers can be bargained off with their removal,” he wrote.

The film Hospitals for All, made in 1948, explains the new NHS system and the work it does. As well as videos and articles there are images, course outlines, lesson plans, games, tasks and PowerPoint presentations.

The site also links to other online resources such as The Glasgow Story, a collection of material from some of Scotland’s best writers, illustrated with thousands of images from the collections of the city’s libraries, museums and universities, and to material on the BBC Learning Zone.

http:ewds.strath.ac.ukhistorymedicine.