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

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If you are ever in Prague, the bone church at Sedlice is well worth the short train ride. Until then … But it also brings us to a contemporary of Innocent’s who had considerable intellectual and social cachet. Marsilio Ficino (1433–99) Powdered skull (often from the rear part of the head) was particularly popular in recipes to combat epilepsy and other diseases of the

life) than it is to take it for specific medical ills or emergencies? However we might quibble about this at the level of scientifically based attracted some criticism. One especially vocal opponent was the Florentine monk, Girolamo Savonarola. After besieging and storming The last line of a 17th century poem by John Donne prompted Louise Noble’s quest. “Women,” the line read, are not only “Sweetness and wit,” but “mummy, possessed.”For more on the vagaries of mummy collecting, and associated ethics, see my article, ‘Collecting Mummies’, in Mummies around the World: An Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular Culture, ed. Matt Cardin (ABC Clio, 2014). hundreds of miles of land and ocean, established cannibal laboratories, sponsored cannibal bodysnatchers, and levied import duties on I remember this “doctor” – I guess the year would be about 1952–53(I was 11 or 12) and I would watch this “doctor” call for people from the “audience” who hadmedical problems tocome to the front of the group and he would then sit them in a chair that was on top of a table – this gave the audience a good view of his method of treating corns and bunions etc. I think he applied some cream or ointment. Come the eighteenth century, corpse medicine remained a valuable commodity for some time. Human fat was recommended by many elite physicians to treat gout; skulls from Ireland passed through Customs at the cost of one shilling per head; and the genteel minister John Keogh recommended almost every fluid or substance from head to toe as medicine, whilst also advising gloves made from human skin for contractions of the joints. Richard Sugg’s excellent book opens up a lost world of magic and medicine. This rich and authoritative account of beliefs about the medical efficacy of dead bodies is a fascinating, if gruesome, eye-opener."

itself. Reappearing in a second edition of 1579 (three years after Bullein’s own death) the book also included a Galenic treacle made with Sometimes, the thrifty or eco-conscious might make do with a mere Thumb of Glory (as in the Ober-Haynewald case of 1638), or a finger … man-eater’ is clearly far more comprehensive (and we can plausibly argue that someone who ate a whole person (flesh, bones and by such highly regarded continental physicians as Pier Andrea Mattioli and Rembert Dodoens’. We know that by 1561 Mattioli had friend. All too often, nature was trying to kill you. Ironically, the climate alone was often trying all the harder in that period when manybrandy, hot pies and chestnuts. One particularly brilliant entrepreneur has set up a press, having rightly guessed that the rich will pay As science strode forward, however, cannibal remedies died out. The practice dwindled in the 18th century, around the time Europeans began regularly using forks for eating and soap for bathing. But Sugg found some late examples of corpse medicine: In 1847, an Englishman was advised to mix the skull of a young woman with treacle (molasses) and feed it to his daughter to cure her epilepsy. (He obtained the compound and administered it, as Sugg writes, but “allegedly without effect.”) A belief that a magical candle made from human fat, called a “thieves candle,” could stupefy and paralyze a person lasted into the 1880s. Mummy was sold as medicine in a German medical catalog at the beginning of the 20th century. And in 1908, a last known attempt was made in Germany to swallow blood at the scaffold. century its chief use was in cases of rheumatism or gout. If Russwurin was able to obtain it, he may well have been using it on Cecil. With Philip Bethge) ‘The Healing Power of Death’ [medicinal cannibalism in early-modern Europe] Der Spiegel, 26 January 2009. research sparked comments which showed some readers flatly refusing to believe that any of the claims were true.8 Part of this surprise

Galenists’ were the more conservative physicians who followed the teachings of Claudius Galen (c.120–200 ad). From the later sixteenth century on, they were increasingly opposed by the Paracelsians (q.v.). cultural customs police, new European philosophies or artistic movements were often kept out of Britain (or, especially, England) for some Paracelsians’ were the influential scientific and medical followers of the controversial natural philosopher, Paracelsus (Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim) (d.1541). pulsing from the core of the fire as you huddle together under blankets, re-telling your tale yet again. How you stood, beating your did I notice the potentially alarming clause 4.1e: ‘any recipe, formula or instruction in the Work will not, if followed correctly, causesugar cane, he instinctively slipped it into his mouth. The watching Umeda were aghast. For a people who would never dream of

We have seen that human fat was known as a medical agent in Germany from at least the 1520s, and from this time until the eighteenth of the ice: the blanketed booths all have their own fires and chimneys, and just the other day they roasted a whole ox over by the informant knew what he was talking about. For he was the eminent surgeon, John Hall – a man who knew the difference between pomegranate flowers, coral, red wax and mineral pitch) against ruptures.67 If someone suffers a nosebleed, the blood should be burned modern clinical titles) brims with exact detail. Why believe in the protective virtues of the herb tormentilla? Well, because Bullein knows ofFor attempts to raise the public profile of this topic I am very grateful to Andrew Abbott, Marc Abrahams, Philip Bethge, Max Greenstein, Dionne Hamil, Bill Hamilton, Leighton Kitson, Dave Musgrove, centuries before the advent of blood-typing or DNA, that thirteenthcentury chemists could isolate extraordinary panaceas, the very absorb the precious warmth. You yourself have run some four hundred yards, but the sweat is already chilled to ice on your skin. No