By As we start to see light at the end of this long Covid tunnel, thanks to the new vaccines on the horizon, we thought we’d bring you the story of a book about rabies, another disease in which vaccination has been effective. Like the new Covid vaccines, it also has
By It cost me a cold
Travelling and bathing In June 1645 John Evelyn travelled from Rome to Venice. The journey left him extremely weary and so he decided to visit the ‘Bagnias’ to take a bath. He described the experience as follows: [The bath] treat after the Eastern manner, washing one with hot & cold
Women’s Writing Special Issue
Sara and I are editing a special issue of Women’s Writing! See the details here or head to the Women’s Writing website for more. Women’s Writing on Illness and Disease In light of the current Covid-19 pandemic, it seems timely to consider the ways in which women have written about
Making a Medical Commonwealth
Abigail Harley and Brampton Bryan: Making a Medical Commonwealth By Emma Marshall How were illness and healthcare entangled with power in the past? Abigail Harley (c.1664-1726) of Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire, was part of a famously political family. As an unmarried, childless younger daughter with little obvious authority, she has often
Bloodletting and Pleurisy
Writing in his autobiography Sir Simonds D’Ewes explains that on the 22 February 1631 his father, Paul Dewes a barrister and government official, ‘fell sick of a fever, joined with a pleurisy, of which disease he lingered three weeks before he deceased, during which time I had many sad and