The Regency World’s View of Viruses
Diane Morris | Wednesday, March 21st, 2018 | Medicine, Regency Research | No Comments
This year’s flu epidemic has been extremely challenging, with a high number of hospitalizations and flu-related deaths. The influenza or flu is caused by a virus, a teeny, tiny infectious agent smaller than a bacterium, as can be seen in the illustration below. The word “virus” is derived from the Latin word vīrus, which means poison; […]
Read More »Anne de Bourgh’s Rheumatic Affection
Diane Morris | Thursday, July 6th, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Medicine | No Comments
My previous blogs about Anne de Bourgh’s health asked these questions: What illness made Anne sickly? and Might Anne have had scarlet fever? You may recall that Anne de Bourgh is the heiress of Rosings Park in Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice. In Austen’s novel, Elizabeth Bennet describes Anne as being “sickly and cross.” For nearly […]
Read More »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 […]
Read More »Did Anne de Bourgh Have Scarlet Fever?
Diane Morris | Thursday, April 13th, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Medicine | No Comments
In my previous blog I speculated about the illness that made Anne de Bourgh sickly and cross. Anne features prominently in my novel Cousin Anne, where the seventeen-year-old heiress can be found in London with her parents. While there she falls in love with Mr. Wickham and later becomes seriously ill. (Presumably there is no connection between these […]
Read More »What Illness Made Anne de Bourgh Sickly?
Diane Morris | Thursday, March 23rd, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Medicine | 10 Comments
I keep track of the questions that bring readers and other curious parties to my website. A surprising number of people are interested in Anne de Bourgh’s inheritance, a scheme which I outlined in a 2014 blog post. A 2015 blog post considered Anne’s arranged marriage to her cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy. With this blog post I address one of the […]
Read More »Regency Doctors Threw Tobacco Up the Butt
Diane Morris | Friday, February 10th, 2017 | Medicine | No Comments
Recently I was browsing online and discovered this highly entertaining blog by Terynn Boulton titled “When Doctors Literally Blew Smoke Up Your Arse.” Blowing tobacco smoke up a patient’s bowel was used in cases of “suspended animation” or, in other words, to revive, say, a drowning victim who had stopped breathing but might not be dead. […]
Read More »Flaxseed in Jane Austen’s Day: Infusions and Poultices
Diane Morris | Thursday, January 26th, 2017 | Flaxseed, Medicine | No Comments
I’ve been running with the topic of flaxseed (also called linseed) for three weeks now. First I examined Dr. Duncan’s comments about flaxseed in The New Edinburgh Dispensatory of 1803. Next, I reviewed the health benefits of flaxseed oil. Last week I discussed some uses of flaxseed oil by Regency-era doctors and surgeons. In this […]
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