by Diane Morris | Mar 21, 2018 | Medicine, Regency Research
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....
by Diane Morris | Jul 6, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Medicine
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...
by Diane Morris | Jun 8, 2017 | Disease, Medicine
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...
by Diane Morris | May 25, 2017 | Anne de Bourgh, Disease, Medicine
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...
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...
