Thursday, April 17, 2014

Boxing Her Ears

I was scanning the 1811 Censors report for Vaccines and came across the most amazing line ever!

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In case you can’t decipher it, the piece reads:

There were some cases of mania and melancholia, one in December of Chorea St Vitis in a lady who endeavored, during the paroxysm, to bite her physician. He gave her a smart box on the side of her head which instantly secured decorum. Her hair was cut off, and by cold applications to her head she was speedily relieved.

This was a typical English punishment for someone being bad, and is referenced in Alice in Wonderland and Wuthering Heights. image

Off with her head!

1 comment:

  1. Hi Meg,

    This is Lisa Kraus from MD-SHA's War of 1812 blog. I just posted a short piece about this project - you can check it out here: http://warof1812archaeology.blogspot.com/2014/04/medchi-and-war-of-1812.html

    Let me know if you'd like me to add/subtract/change anything. You can also e-mail me directly at lkraus@sha.state.md.us - cool blog - looking forward to seeing what kinds of stuff you find in the archives. Let me know if you or anyone else at the archive would like to submit a post for our blog!

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