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

by Richard Sugg

  54 Works (1616), 951.

  55 On dating see Gary Taylor, ‘Thomas Middleton’, new DNB.

  56 Thomas Potts, The Wonderful Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster (1613), L1v–L2r. I am very grateful to Danielle Yardy for bringing this tale to my attention.

  57 For a broadly similar (though not fatal) type of witch-magic in Montenegro, see: Leo Kanner, ‘The Folklore and Cultural History of Epilepsy’, Medical Life 37.4 (1930): 167–214, 173.

  58 This word (pronouced ‘obeah’) has various meanings, the chief of which is given by the OED as, ‘in the Onitsha and western Igbo area of Nigeria: a king, a chief’.

  59 Medical Tracts (1800), 197.

  60 Horns of Honour: and Other Studies in the By-Ways of Archaeology (London: John Murray, 1900), 187.

  61 A Hangman’s Diary: Being the Journal of Master Franz Schmidt, Public Executioner of Nuremberg, 1573–1617, 176–77.

  62 An Abstract of … Those Barbarous, Cruel Massacres and Murthers of the Protestants and English in … Ireland (1652), 12. Cf. Benjamin Keach, Distressed Sion Relieved (1689), 110, 137. For a vivid illustrated account of what was believed to have been done to some victims, see James Cranford, The Tears of Ireland (1642).

  63 The author himself seems to believe this is possible, but that the effect is achieved by the Devil, not by the candle itself.

  64 Athenian Gazette or Casuistical Mercury (London), 19 December 1691.

  65 Horns of Honour, 187–89.

  66 The Times, 18 April 1836, 7.

  67 The Pall Mall Gazette, 24 November 1888; The Star (Saint Peter Port), 11 October 1888.

  68 Similarly, the Kursk murder was itself frequently dubbed ‘a Whitechapel murder’ by the newspapers of the day.

  69 The Star, 11 October 1888.

  70 ‘Modern Witches of Pennsylvania’, Journal of American Folklore 40.157 (1927): 304–9, 304–5.

  71 Horns of Honour, 190–91.

  72 Horns of Honour, 180–84. Although Elworthy credits the pre-1568 painting to Jan Breugel, he must mean Pieter Breugel the elder (d.1569), as Jan Breugel the elder was born only in 1568.

  73 Horns of Honour, 186–87.

  74 Far from the Madding Crowd (London: Macmillan, 1912), 174.

  75 In 2008 Rosemary Pope, then a pro-vice-chancellor of Bournemouth University, died at aged 49 after a long history of anorexia. By the time she fatally collapsed, her heart had shrunk to the size of a child’s.

  76 Klinike, or the Diet of the Diseased (1633), 347.

  77 Applebee’s Original Weekly Journal (London), 24 September 1720.

  78 Common Sense or The Englishman’s Journal (London), 23 December 1738. Although the place name given beside the incident’s date (6 December) is illegible, this would seem to be Lawford’s Gate in Bristol.

  79 Animism, Magic, and the Divine King (London: Kegan Paul, 1930), 98–101, citing sources from 1886, 1907, and 1908.

  80 ‘Folk-Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans’, 349–50.

  81 Bodies: Sex, Violence, Disease, and Death in Contemporary Legend (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009), 269.

  82 For this and further details, see Devendra P. Varma, in Horrid Mysteries (London: Folio Society), xii.

  83 Horrid Mysteries, 61.

  84 Horrid Mysteries, 64–68.

  85 Cited in Dracula, ed. J.P. Riquelme (Boston: St Martin’s, 2002), 396–97.

  86 The Poetical Works of Rupert Brooke, ed. Geoffrey Keynes (London: Faber & Faber, 1952), 81. Brooke sent the first two stanzas to Jacques Raverat in a letter of 8 November 1910; the full poem was published in The New Age on 16 November 1911 (see: Nigel Jones, Rupert Brooke: Life, Death and Myth (London: Richard Cohen, 1999), 144).

  87 Without wishing to labour the point, it is worth adding that recent oblivion as to the past existence of corpse medicine is further illustrated by the words of Brooke’s biographer, Jones, when he mistakenly declares that ‘the poem’s central image … is grotesquely original’ (Rupert Brooke, 145). This is of course true insofar as Brooke shifts from medicine to aphrodisiac, but Jones seems to have no idea of the medical history of ‘mummia’.

  88 Jones, Rupert Brooke, 145.

  89 It is possible, of course, that Brooke was aware of the medical nature of mummy. But if so he does seem to risk exposing himself to some ridicule by verses which give no hint of such awareness.

  90 Eileen S. Barr and Roger K. Brown, ‘Human Skull for Love Potion’, Western Folklore 17.1 (1958): 61–62.

  91 ‘Strange Medicines’, 758.

  92 Many thanks to Martyn Bennett for this detail.

  93 See: www.solarnavigator.net/earthrace.htm.

  94 The Examiner (London), 21 August 1858.

  95 Death, Dissection and the Destitute (London: Phoenix, 2001), 97.

  96 Healing Threads, 116–17.

  97 Healing Threads, 117.

  98 See Tannahill, Flesh and Blood, 87

  99 Mary Roach, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (London: Penguin, 2003), 49–50.

  100 David Samper, ‘Cannibalizing Kids’, Journal of Folklore Research 39.1 (2002): 1–32, 1–2.

  101 Paul Lewis, ‘Kosovo PM is Head of Human Organ and Arms Ring, Council of Europe Reports’, Guardian, 14 December 2010; ‘The Doctor at the Heart of Kosovo’s Organ Scandal’, Guardian, 17 December 2010. All further quotations are from second article.

  102 See Murder after Death, 166.

  103 For the harsh realities of the vampire diet, see especially the 2008 film Let the Right One In (dir. Thomas Alfredson).

  104 Frank Lestringant, Cannibals: The Discovery and Representation of the Cannibal from Columbus to Jules Verne, trans. Rosemary Morris (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997), 80.

  105 A General Martyrology (1660), 420, 421–22, 423–24, 425.

  106 Whilst Samper has convincingly shown that the often strikingly detailed stories of Latin American children killed for organ theft have never been proved (‘Cannibalizing Kids’, 6–12), we should note that Sonmez has also been linked to illicit transplant operations in Ecuador (Lewis, ‘Doctor at the Heart of Kosovo’s Organ Scandal’).

  Index

  28 Days Later (film) 140

  Abbot, George, Brief Description of the Whole World 75

  Abd Allatif 12

  Accomplish’d Lady’s Delight in Preserving, Physic, Beautifying and Cookery, The (1675) 167

  Ackerknecht, Erwin H. 256, 257, 260

  Adair, James Makittrick 251–52

  Adams, Thomas 28–29, 175

  Africanus, Constantinus 11

  afterbirth 53, 138, 169

  Agrippa, Henricus Cornelius 20, 83, 204

  AIDS 127

  Aikin, John 253; Biographical Memoirs of Medicine in Great Britain from the revival of literature to the time of Harvey 254

  alchemy 39, 43, 51–52, 188–89, 231; blood 12–14, 190–92; Catholic saints vs Protestant science 196–202; as chemistry 190; of the corpse 188–89, 192–96; logic of 195

  Alexander the Great 70

  Alexander of Tralles 9

  Alexander VI, Pope 17, 120

  Allestree, Richard 142

  Alston, Charles 251

  Altun, Yilman 287, 290, 291

  Alviano, Bartholomew 27

  Amherst, Sir Geoffrey 141

  amulets 137

  anatomists 90–92, 187–88

  Andersen, Hans Christian 81

  Angela of Foligno 199

  Angier, Edward 249

  animals and birds 5, 31–32, 43, 47–48, 82, 111, 136–38, 139, 146, 152, 160, 162, 166, 189, 215, 231, 253, 266, 270

  animate corpse 177–78

  Antheus 10

  Anthony, Francis 25

  Antis people 132–33, 194

  Antoninus Pius, Emperor 278

  Antwerp, siege of (1576) 100

  Apollonius 10

  Aponte, Juan Rivera 282

  apoplexy and convulsions 13, 58–59, 62, 85, 166

  Aquinas, St Thomas 180

  Arens,
William 113

  Aretaeus of Cappadocia 11

  Aretino, Pietro 143

  Argenson, Marquis de 156

  Ariès, Philippe 98

  Armstrong, John 267

  Arnold of Villanova 13, 14, 19, 165, 180, 190, 227

  Art and Mystery of the Apothecary, The 259

  Artemon 10

  arthritis 11, 51

  Arundel, Earl of 100

  Arwacas people 119

  Ashmole, Elias 137

  asthma 61, 110, 165

  Aubrey, John 277

  Augustus, Emperor 70

  Aurelianus, Caelius 11

  Bacon, Francis 32, 70, 101, 104, 126–27, 157, 169, 176, 182, 186, 190

  Bacon, Phanuel, The Trial of the Time Killers 240

  Bacon, Roger 61; The Cure of Old Age and Preservation of Youth 13

  Baker, George 24, 25

  Baldwin, William, Beware the Cat 106

  Banister, John 23–24, 91, 137, 143, 233; Antidotary Chyrurgical 23; The History of Man 23

  barber-surgeons 91

  Barbette, Paul 144, 146, 147, 167

  Barker-Benfield, G.J. 264

  Barrough, George 24

  Bartas, Guillaume du 74–75

  Barthes, Roland 154

  Barton, William 131

  Basse, William, Help to Memory and Discourse 208

  Baxter, Richard 56, 101, 125, 147–48, 169; The Saints’ Everlasting Rest 147

  Beale, John 180–81

  Beatrice II, of Este 198, 200

  Beckford, William, Vathek 240

  Beckher, Daniel 185, 187

  Beith, Mary 164–65, 167, 168, 268, 286

  Bell, John 91

  Belzunce, Monsieur de 128

  Bennett, Alan, The History Boys 285

  Berlu, Jean Jacob, Treasury of Drugs Unlocked 237–38

  Best, Efrain Morote 106

  Bethune, Peter 284

  Bierley, Ellen and Jennet 273–74

  Binns, Joseph 144

  Birch, Thomas 231

  birds see animals and birds

  Bittner, Craig Allen 284

  ‘black doctors’ 285–86

  Black Legend 108

  Black, William 254, 257; An Historical Sketch of Medicine and Surgery from Their Origin to the Present Time; and of the Principal Authors, Discoveries, Improvements 249

  Black, William George 268

  Blair, Tony 149

  Bloch, Harry 257

  Bloch, Dr Josef 276

  Blome, Richard 28

  blood 6, 7, 173, 175, 187, 196, 203, 230, 257, 258, 265, 270; alchemy 12–14, 190–92; animal 31–32, 82, 111, 137, 152, 215; children’s 286; consumed by animals 47–48; distillations of 16, 66, 110, 204, 235; dragon’s 144; drinking 56–57, 78–79, 128, 129, 180, 253, 257, 278–83; executions as source of 78–87; gladiatorial 9–10; jam recipe 20; lamp of life 46–47, 61; as love potion 278–83; magical properties of 88–89; nature and powers of 61–63; papal acceptance of 18–19, 55; powdered 15, 39; recipes 41, 43–44, 53, 62, 137–38, 269; washing in 133, 168

  bloodletting 17, 28, 43, 60, 111

  Boaistuau, Pierre 10, 21; Theatre du Monde 21

  bodysnatching 92–98, 285

  Bolnest, Edward 98, 139, 179; Aurora Chymica 51–52; Medicina Instaurata 51, 52

  Bondeson, Jan 150–51

  bones 7–8, 11, 13, 15, 40, 51, 53, 57, 98, 116, 119, 199, 203

  Book of Life, The 19

  Border, Daniel 43–44, 111

  Boswell, James 87

  Boudet, Mr 74

  Boulton, Samuel, Medicina Magica Tamen Physica 50

  Bourg, Monsieur du Petit 130

  Bowlker, Charles 231

  Boyle, Danny 140

  Boyle, Robert 5, 40, 44, 45, 48, 55, 59–64, 79, 82, 92, 98, 101, 103, 110, 111, 145, 152, 164, 165, 191, 224–26, 229, 234, 289; Memoirs for the Natural History of Humane Blood 61, 215; Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects 226; Sceptical Chemist 60; Some Considerations Touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy 62

  Bradley, Richard 230

  Braems, Sir Arnold 168

  brains 10, 40, 46, 57, 126, 130, 137, 148, 195, 196, 203, 236, 257, 258

  Brandes, Bernd Jürgen 116, 283

  Brasavola, Antonius Musa 20, 24

  Braybrooke, Robert, Bishop of London 69

  breast milk 8, 11, 19, 35, 45, 54–55, 117

  Bredwell, Stephen 167

  British Witchcraft Act (1736) 270

  Brockliss, Lawrence 258

  Brooke, Rupert, ‘Mummia’ 281–82

  Brown, John 164

  Browne, Edward 77–78, 79, 215, 253

  Browne, John 57, 146

  Browne, Moses 251

  Browne, Richard 13

  Browne, Sir Thomas 79, 96; Hydriotaphia 214–15, 217

  Broxholme (or Bloxam), Noel 229

  bruises 14, 21–22, 25, 35, 59, 175, 229, 252

  Brunswick, Hieronymus 205

  Brunton, Deborah 229

  Buklijas, Tatjana 95, 96

  Bullein, William 26, 167; Bullein’s Bulwark of Defence Against all Sickness 23

  Bulstrode, Whitelocke 179

  Burbury, John 157

  Burgravius, John Ernest 46

  Burke, Edmund 7

  Burke, Peter 254

  Burke, Ulick 102

  Burke, William 236, 285, 288

  Burton, Henry 200

  Burton, Robert, Anatomy of Melancholy 50

  Byfield, Nicholas 145

  Caius, John 19, 140

  Calatians (or Calantians) 118

  Caledonian Medical Society 285

  Camporesi, Piero 3, 16, 19, 128, 149, 198–99, 265

  cancers and tumours 15, 21, 23, 46, 55, 57, 146, 151, 199, 203, 232

  Canessa, Andrew 105, 108

  cannibalism 1–3, 113–14, 189, 194, 199, 211; aggressive 120–24; auto-cannibalism 8; consensual 4, 119–20; definitions 7; divine 29–32; religious 129–30; ritual 114, 117, 121–22, 130, 131–32, 132; sexual 116, 278–83; social 283–91;

  cannibals 2, 113, 206, 235–37; definitions 7; derivation of name 124–25

  Cardon, Daniel 130

  Carlotto, Roger 282

  Carmilla (1871–72) 281

  Carpi, Berengario da 16, 22, 71, 189

  Cartwright, William, bishop of Chester 64

  Casas, Bartolomé de las 107

  Cassian, Master Amé 27

  castration 137

  cat-woman tale 82

  Catherine of Genoa 199

  Catherine of Siena 159, 199

  Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle 82

  Cecil, Robert 35

  Cecil, William 25

  Cellini, Benvenuto 160

  Celsus 9, 10, 257

  Chamberlen, Dr Peter 158

  Chambers’ Cyclopaedia 253

  Charas, Moise 110, 111, 165, 177, 191, 195–96, 254, 258

  Charles I 1, 35, 77, 86, 101, 142, 149

  Charles II 1, 6, 35, 45, 77, 104, 140, 155; death of 261–63; use of corpse medicine 2–3, 15, 40, 57, 64–65, 169–70, 185, 229, 266

  Charles IX 99, 130, 206

  Charleton, Walter 40, 231

  Chateaubriand, François-René de 128

  Chelsea Royal Hospital 229

  chemistry 39, 40, 43, 44, 52, 62, 184, 190, 194, 196, 198

  Chiffinch, William 64–65

  children 15, 18, 39, 45, 48, 59, 96, 103, 107, 117, 131–33, 144–46, 149, 153, 165, 192, 205–6, 230, 232, 234, 239, 266, 271, 273–74, 282, 286

  Chinese cannibalism 117–18, 123

  Chirihuana people 126, 134

  chocolate 58, 64

  Choice Manual, or Rare Secrets in Physic and Chirurgery, A 53

  Chomel, Noel 230–31

  Christian IV 22

  Christians 5–6, 18, 196–202

  Chun-Fang, Yu 117

  Churchyard, Thomas 103

  Cibber, Colley 242

  Civil War (English) 14–16, 38, 53, 101, 104, 138, 149

  Cla
rke, Samuel 130, 133

  classical era 9–11

  Cleary, Michael 271

  Clerke, Dr 170

  Clive, General Robert 231

  Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelm Digby Kt. Opened, The (1669) 55

  Clowes, William 24, 25, 143, 233

  Cogan, Thomas 140

  Colborne, Robert 252

  Collenucius, Pandolphus 12

  Collyns, Dan 105

  Columbo, Realdo 23

  Columbus, Christopher 113, 120

  Commodus, Emperor 278

  Company of Mercy (Italy) 85

  Conklin, Beth A. 4, 114, 116, 117, 119

  Considine, John 55

  consumption 46, 55, 56, 61, 110, 231

  convulsions see apoplexy and convulsions

  Copertino, Joseph 199, 202

  Cordo, Simon 12

  Cork Examiner, The (1895) 271

  Corley, T.A.B. 232, 247–48

  Cornarus, Jerome 27

  corpse medicine; 18th century literature/ drama 238–45; acceptance of 163, 164–65, 173; ambivalence towards 207–15; beliefs concerning 24, 25–26; Catholic saints vs Protestant science 196–202; concluding remarks 283–91; demand for 104; early opposition to 204–15; ending of 272; Ethiopian recipe 192–93, 201; as horrid medicine 245–55; illicit practitioners of 25; ingredients 163–71; modern examples 286–91; opposition towards 6–7, 204–7; persistence in 18th century 228–38; pervasiveness of 4, 138; power of 92; questions concerning 3, 7; sources of 68, 77–112; superstition 252–55; terminology and caveat 8; and violent or premature death 35, 77–89, 91, 129, 181, 182, 184–88, 192–93, 205, 229, 234, 235, 253, 266–67; whitewash in medical history 255–63; zenith of 40

  Cortez, Hernando 106, 108

  Cosby, Arnold 89

  cosmetics 28–29, 108, 168, 235–36, 283–84

  Cotesworth, William 155

  Cottington, Robert 72, 73

  Cottu, Dr 161

  Cotugno, Domenico 233–34; Treatise on the Nervous Sciatica 109

  Courtall, Lady 219

  Cowley, Hannah, The Belle’s Stratagem 240

  Cowper, William 248

  Cox, Nicholas 28

  Crell, Lorenz 233

  Croll, Oswald 42–43, 51, 56, 181, 192

  Cromwell, Oliver 35, 104, 142

  Crosby, John R. 276

  Crowne, William 100

  Cruso, John 254; A Treasure of Easy Medicines 229

  Cuff, Henry 181–82

  Cullen, William 250

  Culpeper, Nicholas 38–39, 52, 247; Directory for Midwives 38–39; English Physician 39

  Cumberland, Richard 248

  Cumming, Gordon 267, 268

  Curry, Patrick 38