By In her first book Sara Read explores the understanding of female bleeding in early modern England. Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England brings together discussions of the key moments of bleeding in a woman’s life; menarche, menstruation, hymenal bleeding and bleeding in childbirth. Read uses both medical literature
Hearts that Ache and Burn
In honour of St Valentine’s day it seemed only proper to have a post themed around the heart. Now, this being Early Modern Medicine, this was never likely to be a happy post about love, although I did consider writing about love sickness or about aphrodisiacs. Instead this is a
Urinary Unease
In numerous medical texts from the early modern period writers described the many different disorders that affected the ability to urinate, including painful urination, dripping urine and a complete inability to urinate. These problems were not just inconvenient they could be deadly: Philip Woodman cautioned in 1722 that a ‘total Suppression