by Diane Morris | May 11, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Disease, Medicine
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...
by Diane Morris | Apr 27, 2017 | Disease, Medicine
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...
by Diane Morris | Apr 13, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Medicine
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....
by Diane Morris | Mar 23, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Medicine
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...
by Diane Morris | Feb 10, 2017 | Medicine
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”...
by Diane Morris | Jan 26, 2017 | Flaxseed, Medicine
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...
