It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
Slate magazine has created an 'Interactive Game of Death' in which you can find out what you might have died of had you been living at various points from 1647 to the present. It churns through historical English and American death records in order to come up with a list of the ailments and accidents which …
In my last post, on English and North American death records from 1647 to the present, I briefly mentioned how the development of the industrial city in 19th century Europe and North America changed patterns of disease and mortality. The dreadful overcrowding in the slums, together with a lack of adequate water supply, particularly encouraged contagious …
Continue reading Filth, disease and Dickens: Jacob’s Island, a London slum
The number of quack cures peddled by doctors and salesmen over the ages never ceases to amaze. Most of the mixtures marketed were at best ineffective, and at worst poisonous enough that prolonged use could prove fatal (lead, arsenic and mercury all spring to mind). In order to make their product more attractive, producers would …