By Will there be no more cakes and ale? Sir Toby Belch, Twelfth Night (Act II, Scene 3) We’d be willing to bet that most of us have over indulged on the Christmas goodies at one time or another, and for those in the past this was just as true. In
Under the Mistletoe
Christmas is drawing ever closer and people are decorating their homes, soon, I’m sure, we will start to see sprigs of mistletoe hanging from door frames. We all know that two people under the mistletoe are supposed to kiss. But in the early modern period mistletoe (or misletow, misletoe) was
A Christmas Tragedy with a Miraculous Ending
Every year we aim to bring you a Christmas themed post. We have looked at Christmas Roses, Mince pies, and soon will be bringing you a suggestion for warding off Christmas over-indulgence. Today we bring you a story related to Christmas, although perhaps not one that embodies Christmas spirit. This
Romanticism in the Dissecting Room
For centuries the need for the surgeon to learn more of the anatomy of the human body and to practice his art has required students of medicine to examine and dissect the bodies of the dead – obtained legally or otherwise – in private schools or, from the mid-eighteenth century,
Necessary Compounds: Medicines Explained
At the end of his English Physician (a work that appeared in many editions from 1652), the prolific author and apothecary Nicholas Culpeper included a section explaining what, exactly, was meant by the various compounds which physicians prescribed. Compounds were the opposite of remedies known as ‘simples’ or medicines made