By What would an early modern person do if they found themselves troubled by unwanted lascivious thoughts, take a cold shower perhaps? Well early modern men and women were very well aware that lust was malleable. In particular it could be manipulated through food. Desire could be sparked or increased by
Misfortune Managed
As you are probably all aware I have been reading through the papers of Samuel Hartlib, over the past month or so. I am consistently rewarded with interesting nuggets of information about early modern medicine, health and bodies. Now Hartlib was by no means representative of everyone’s experiences at this
Hats for Headaches and Migraines
Recently a friend asked me what early modern people did to combat migraines. From the seventeenth-century manuscript recipe books housed in the Wellcome Library it would appear that many early modern men and women afflicted with migraines, or ‘megrim’, favoured plasters and medicinal hats to relieve their pain. Some of these
Beans, Nuts and Pulses
‘When Beans were the Food of Lust’, BBC History Magazine (April 2014) In this month’s BBC History Magazine you can find my article all about flatulent aphrodisiacs. You can now read the article in full online here Throughout early modern medical treatises and botanical works writers detailed a range of