Syphilis: A Little Valentine’s Day Love Story
We don’t know much about her. We don’t even know her name. What we do know is that the woman who wore this prosthetic in the mid-19th century was suffering from a severe case of syphilis.
The Syphilitic Whores of Georgian London
People think I’m obsessed with syphilis, and maybe I am. But it’s only because of my recent indoctrination into 18th-century history by aficionados of the period, such as Lucy Inglis, Adrian Teal and Rob Lucas. I can’t read 10 pages of a medical casebook without coming across a reference to lues venerea. By the end […]
Ray-Ban’s Predecessor? A Brief History of Tinted Spectacles
A recent conversation with Matthew Ward from History Needs You piqued my curiosity about a pair of spectacles in the Wellcome Collection [pictured left]. At first glance, you may think these oddly tinted glasses belong to the wardrobe department of a whimsical Tim Burton film. And yet, these glasses are over 200 years old, made […]