smallpox
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When we think of alchemy and alchemists, we tend to categorise them as men. But no. There were women alchemists as well, as I discovered when I came upon this article which lists ten such women through history. One of the ten caught my eye. She lived in the reign of Elizabeth I, who was…
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Royal Autopsy, a documentary series dealing with the recreated post-mortems of Charles II and Elizabeth I….
Alice Roberts, autopsies, Bethlem, Bezoar, blood letting, Brett Lockyer, bronchopneumonia, Charles II, Chelsea Physic Garden, clocks, Edmund King, Elizabeth I, emetics, executions, four humours, hair analysis, Hartshorn, Henry VII, James VI/I, John Dee, Jonathan Goddard, malaria, Mary Stuart, microscope, Nell Jones, parotitis, Rainbow Portrait, renaissance, Richmond Palace, Robert Cecil, Royal Autopsy, Royal Society, scars, sepsis, Sir Charles Scarburgh, Sky History, smallpox, Spanish fly, stroke, succession, sugar, syphilis, teeth, toxicology, Wellcome Collection, white leadI confess to having doubts about watching this two-part series on the Sky History channel because I envisaged CGI overkill with odious (but hopefully by then dead) parasites etc., and so I started viewing with the firm intention of stopping the moment it became too horribly wriggly and gory. No wriggles, but the gory…
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Scandal in Salisbury
Church House, Earls of Castlehaven, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Elizabeth I, executions, Ferdinando Stanley, Henry of Buckingham, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lords Audley, Margaret Darrell, Mary “Tudor”, Mervyn Tuchet, rape, Salisbury, smallpox, sodomy, Stanleys, Sudeley Castle, Tower Hill, William Lightfoot, workhousesRecently I had a rare opportunity to visit Church House in Salisbury. Used for administration of the diocese today, it is an attractive medieval/post-medieval building retaining many original features, and has an interesting but sometimes rather murky past. Originally it was built in the 15th century by a merchant called William Lightfoot, and was known…
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For the last few years we’ve been beset by a pandemic. COVID-19 is the new blight on the block, and has set about knocking us down like ninepins in spite of antibiotics and even immunisation. But modern medicine has done a lot to standing up to the silent menace. In times gone by folks…