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Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians

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It contains descriptions of everything from men frying penises to a poor woman in a cold dungeon whose only method of insulating herself from the cold was to smear herself with her own dung. If you like this topic, you might also enjoy reading some extracts from Richard Sugg’s new collection of Victorian supernatural stories. Not everything that appears on this blog, including individual ideas or opinions, is necessarily endorsed by the Department of English Studies or by Durham University. In his new book, Richard Sugg presents A Century of Supernatural Stories, a collection of compelling nineteenth-century newspaper accounts of seemingly supernatural phenomena. And yet the myths about cannibals in the furthest reaches of the New World only got started in earnest when cannibalism—sanctioned by church, state, and science—became a thing in the Old World.

I also knew that some remedies in this class continued much longer than anyone in the 21 st century might care to think. A certain urban squeamishness, possibly on behalf of the imagined modern reader (some 2012 Daily Mail readers apparently stoutly refused to believe that Good King Charles II used corpse medicine) pervades some of the accounts as the 20 th century is approached.My recent children’s book, Our Week with the Juffle Hunters, is an eco-fable set between the Welsh coast and the North Pole. Richard Sugg’s account of the surprise of medical historians at not knowing some of the things he has found out is worth reiterating: high time the medical historians set aside the squeamish old prejudices about investigating what the modern period sees as the nastier side of the profession and got down to documenting it properly. I wish certain areas were delved into or prodded a bit to discuss its connection to other things mentioned. Richard Sugg says: “When writing the first edition of this book, I was continually shaking my head in amazement. The new third edition of Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires is not only much cheaper, but substantially updated.

Villagers living in remote areas without much access to medicine or science couldn’t help but rely on superstition and paranoia about their neighbors dwelling over the next hill or living deep in the woods. Still, you’re bound to learn something from the book—learn a lot in fact, perhaps more than you wished to know on the subject. Lastly, there is a dearth of photos and illustrations, an oversight that seems especially egregious when you think about all the intricate engravings and woodcarvings the strangely alchemical subject has no doubt inspired through the ages. This book is full of rich detail, making you both recoil and yet read on, fascinated by our ancestors’ imaginative ways to try and heal the sick.Medicinal cannibalism utilised the formidable weight of European science, publishing, trade networks and educated theory. Sugg refers to its use by John Donne in the 17th century, and supposes that he was better able to deal with the idea because he was (as a clergyman) able to embrace the pigeons as God’s creatures. Sugg's interest in corpse medicine reaches well beyond mumia to inspect all those strange concoctions of human tissue and waste favoured by early modern pharmacology" – Michael Neill, London Review of Books.

The book’s breadth, from Renaissance to Victorian society, is impressive but it is the work’s macabre details which rivets readers to recorded medical uses of the human body.this rare macabre view of European life from royalty to peasant life is a must read for anyone who is in history class or considers herself an expert in European history. And, whilst corpse medicine has sometimes been presented as a medieval therapy, it was at its height during the social and scientific revolutions of early-modern Britain.

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