Regency Dietary Treatments for Scarlet Fever
Diane Morris | Thursday, June 8th, 2017 | Disease, Medicine | No Comments
Regency-era doctors threw all sorts of treatments at their patients with scarlet fever: gargles made with hydrochloric acid; gentle potions made with antimony—a compound used to promote perspiration (today antimony is used mainly in industrial processes); and caustic blisters applied to the neck or throat, which surely made the patient miserable both inside and out. “Early, powerful […]
Read More »Regency Medical Treatments for Scarlet Fever
Diane Morris | Thursday, May 25th, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Disease, Medicine | No Comments
Anne de Bourgh, the heiress of Rosings Park in Jane Austen’s popular novel Pride and Prejudice, might have been suffering from a debilitating disease that made her sickly and cross: acute rheumatism, consumption (tuberculosis), tussis (a persistent cough), or a nasty catarrh (in other words, an awful cold). I’ve always thought she might be suffering from […]
Read More »Regency Ideas about the Causes of Scarlet Fever
Diane Morris | Thursday, May 11th, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Disease, Medicine | No Comments
The origin of contagious diseases has been commonly deemed obscure …” — W. Blackburne, 18031 Anne de Bourgh, the heiress of Rosings Park in Pride and Prejudice, might have had scarlet fever when she was a teenager. If so, what caused it? Dr. Buchan described two forms of scarlet fever: a simple variety, which seldom required medical […]
Read More »Is Scarlet Fever One Disease? or Two? or Three?
Diane Morris | Thursday, April 27th, 2017 | Disease, Medicine | No Comments
During the Regency era, scarlet fever was generally recognized as having two forms: a simple version characterized by a mild fever and skin rash, and a malignant version, identified by a high fever and pockets of ulceration in the throat. The latter form was quite dangerous and often fatal, as indicated by Dr. William Buchan, a […]
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