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  • Article

Parasites and pests from the medieval to the modern

Humans have been reluctant hosts to a plethora of unpleasant parasites for centuries. And medieval evidence shows our modern distaste for these little irritations is just as ancient.

  • Article

Why we no longer keep our dead at home

Today in the UK we rarely sit with, touch, or perhaps even see our loved ones after they’ve died. Past practices were very different and, Claire Cock-Starkey argues, were more helpful for those grieving.

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Images

  • A young woman being visited by a member of the clergy while another woman cries beside her. Line engraving, 1813.
  • Crowds of sick people and clergy gathering at the tomb of F. de Paris where people had been cured. Engraving.
  • Charles II touching a patient for the king's evil (scrofula) surrounded by courtiers, clergy and general public. Engraving by R. White.
  • A surgeon bandaging a patient's knee after applying a cautery, a clergy man and a wealthy patron (?) are observing the situation. Engraving.
  • A man on his deathbed surrounded by several members of the clergy, a physician is in the background examining a urine flask. Process print.
  • Seven clergymen watch as a physician bathes the feet of a sick, aristocratic lady; suggesting the uncertainty of the clergy faced with the ousting of the aristocracy in France. Coloured etching by S.J., 1791.
  • A travelling barber shaving a man in a makeshift tent; on the right three members of the clergy are talking; on the left a seated man is smoking a pipe. Coloured lithograph after G. Dura.
  • A parson is being attacked by a mob with hens. Etching by J. Barlow after S. Collings.
  • Caleb Carrington, Vicar of Berkeley. Watercolour and ink by S. Jenner, 1864 (?).
  • Three people praying around the bed of a sick man, one is a priest. Line engraving by I. Taylor.
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