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

Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires charts in vivid detail the largely forgotten history of European corpse medication, which saw kings, girls, gentlemen, priests and scientists prescribe, swallow or use human blood, flesh, bone, fat, brains and skin in an attempt to recover themselves of epilepsy, bruising, wounds, sores, afflict, cancer, gout and anxiety. In this detailed and accessible text, Richard Sugg shows that, far from being a middle ages therapy, remains medication was at its height during the social and clinical transformations of early-modern Britain, enduring well into the eighteenth century and, among the poor, remaining stubbornly on into the time of Queen Victoria. Varying from the execution scaffolds of Germany and Scandinavia, through the courts and laboratories of Italy, France and Britain, to the battlegrounds of Holland and Ireland, and on to the tribal man-eating of the Americas, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires argues that the genuine cannibals remained in truth the Europeans. Selecting our way through the bloodstained shadows of this impressive secret history, we come across medication cut from bodies living and dead, sacks of human fat harvested after a weapon battle, gloves made of human skin, and the first mummy to appear on the London stage. Lit by the extraordinary radiance of a lamp filled with human blood, this 2nd edition includes brand-new material on exo-cannibalism, skull medication, the blood-drinking of Scandinavian executions, Victorian corpse-stroking, and the magical powers of candle lights made from human fat. In our mission to understand the unusual paradox of routine Christian cannibalism we move from the Catholic vampirism of the Eucharist, through the routine filth and discomfort of early modern-day bodies, and in to the potent, numinous source of corpse medication’s ultimate power: the human soul itself. Now accompanied by a buddy site with supplemental short articles, interviews with the author, associated images, summaries of crucial subjects, and a glossary, the second edition of Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires is an important read for anyone interested in the history of medication, early modern history, and the darker, hidden past of European Christendom.

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