Surgeon Sentenced for Manslaughter in a Midwifery Case
Diane Morris | Friday, October 20th, 2017 | surgeons & surgery | No Comments
A previous blog described a case of crim. con. “Crim. con.” is short for criminal conversation or adultery. The accused adulterer or defendant in the case was a member of the clergy, one Rev. Mr. Bate Dudley. I read the case only because Mr. W. Musgrave’s signature, inscribed on the inside of the book, had attracted my eye.1 This […]
Read More »The Practice of Surgeons in 1818 London
Diane Morris | Thursday, February 23rd, 2017 | Regency Research, surgeons & surgery | 2 Comments
In pursuit of background material on a character in my third Regency novel, which is in production, I recently found myself browsing nearly every page in Johnstone’s London Commercial Guide. The full title of this weighty tome is typical of many Regency-era books: Johnstone’s London Commercial Guide, and Street Directory; on a New and More Efficient Principle […]
Read More »Fanny Burney and the Seven Men in Black
Diane Morris | Thursday, October 6th, 2016 | Surgery | 2 Comments
Last Friday, September 30, 2016, was the 205th anniversary of Fanny Burney’s mastectomy—without anesthesia. Here’s her story. “Yet—when the dreadful steel was plunged into the breast—cutting through veins—arteries—flesh—nerves—I needed no injunctions not to restrain my cries. I began a scream that lasted unintermittingly during the whole time of the incision …”1 Writing from Paris to […]
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