Ways of Dying in 1665

Marking place, mainly for the book list on p32...

Making spot as I'm fascinated but pressed for time! I did already find out some old relative has been tried at the old Bailey for stealing a petticoat!

Amazing thread seconded!

What an amazing thread!

wow.

three hours I've spent on this- clicked on it to read while I had my last ciggie before bed- HA!!!

fascinating thread

This is the most fascinating and informative thread ever!

I know it's a zombie thread now, but what a great read this has been! smile

Thanks for the bump, this thread has occupied me for several hours and increased my kindle content by about 10 books. Love it!

I know it's a zombie thread now, but what a great read this has been!

NanBullen

I got this book out of the library a few weeks ago. www.amazon.co.uk/Technology-Orgasm-Hysteria-Vibrator-Satisfaction/dp/0801866464/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2FCMLM4X9N9IH&colid=3S21TZBHZZZL.

Eyeopening.

there's a film with maggie gyllenhaal (sp?) coming out soon (or it may have been released already, not sure) about how they use to "treat" hysteria. Just sayin like'

£7.40....you could buy a house for that, nay, a village with a whole load of serfs to empty your close stool and make you pottage. There must be something special in them for that price - pineapple perhaps or ambergris?

Definitely in league with the doctor.

(mind you he may be in league with the apothecary, she charged me £7.40 and AFAIK the pills don't even have any Egyptian mummy, rhino horn or even snake oil in!)

No, he didn't do any of those things. I was a bit and then I realised he wasn't going to charge me! Not a single groat! Good old monasteries NHS!

Oh Tunip, did the doctor not even examine or smell and taste your urine?

I hope you got a good explanation about which one of your humours is unbalanced and what you need to do to rebalance them, thats the very least I would expect. Or was it your uterus choking you again?

Any doctor worth his salt would have taken a little of your blood, please tell me he bled you a little, you'll be dead in a week with all that extra blood floating around your veins.

How disappointing

Hope you feel better soon and that the pills are from a reputable apothecary and not a quack with a cart.

I went to the doctor yesterday, it was great. No leeches, no cupping, no sexual and emotional abuse disguised as treating hysteria powered by either primitive electrical motors or steam. Just some little blue antibiotics which will almost certainly work, because they are BLUE! And everyone knows blue capsules are the most powerful medicine known to humanity

Going back to steam/powered vibrators (well, why not?), it was quite common in the early 20th century for women suffering from hysteria to be treated with an electric-powered vibrator by their doctor. In fact, sometimes the doctor would stimulate a 'hysterical' woman's genitals with his hands until she experienced "hysterical paroxysm"...

Wonky I read those too! And Asimov. I went to the library twice a week for years and read everything from Point Horror to classics to clan of the cave bear.

Odd children grow into very interesting adults

So glad I'm not the only person whose teachers expressed concern over their reading habits
Voracious child reader that I was I ran out of 'suitable ' reading very quick so my mum let me loose on her library... Eyebrows were raised when I read the whole set of Tom sharpe books at 12 but with hindsight I didn't understand the rude bits so when I re-read them as an adult I gained a whole new perspective
Although my physics teacher was quite intrigued how much I liked Asimov at 11 as he assumed that it would be too difficult to grasp - easy writer to read on difficult topics

odd children are the best

Barnaby I think so. Was one of the characters Tanith? Haven't read it in years. The one I remember clearly was 'The Irish Witch'. I got '60 days to live' out of the library in the hope of rekindling my childhood interest, but its awful!

DD is heavily into Star Wars, fantasy and Sci-fi, but she likes history too. Science is her main thing though, mostly because DH can take her into his work and show her expensive equipment and laboratories (complete with geeky female scientists) and I have books and a few artefacts to show her. When she gets old enough to read the books on my shelves though I have hope that I'll win back a little more of her interest.

My mum dragged me along with her to the sites she was helping to excavate (she was a volunteer archaeologist) and one of my earliest memories is being given a box of animal jaw bones to look at and being told which animal was which. I don't think its any wonder I turned out the way I have!

Your DD sounds fabulous, odd children are the best!

OOh,R2 was 'The Devil Rides Out' one of the Denis Wheatley books? My dad had that one and one other whose title I can't remember.I read TDRO when I was at Primary school too and absolutely loved it.

Like you say,it doesn't do you any harm.I'm quite happy for DD1 [8] to choose her own books too.She is an odd child,like her mother I suppose.The other night I went top check on her after she'd gone to bed and she was explaining to her 6 year old sister about how WW2 started,including the invasion of Poland.

My mum had a small but fascinating collection of true crime type books and my dad had some Dennis Wheatley books about devil worship and witches and such. I found these quite early on and read them a few pages at a time when my mum was busy elsewhere.

Jane Eyre was quite an influence with the madwoman in the attic and of course the Greek Myths and Legends with all the bestiality, weird punishments and random killings.

Interesting that it doesn't seem to have done any of us any harm, other than an abiding interest in the more human side of history. DD is 6 and I'll be much more confident letting her have free reign of my shelves when she gets a bit older.

Wow,I don't think I've ever "spoken" to so many people before who had such highly unsuitable reading habits as me as a child :o

My favourite book when I was 10 was MASH...I read the whole series. Although I did have to ask my mum what the clap was :o:o

I'm going to get some of those free ibooks/kindle books to have a browse through - they seem like fantastic bedtime reading...

A thread that may be of interest

Barnaby I read those too! And got the big DVD box set when I got old enough. My mum didn't vet anything I read after I got to 10, when she set me loose in the adult department of the library. Before then it was teen/childrens books only.

Ouch about the kiwi egg. Makes me feel like I need to cross my legs.