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Posted on 06/27/2008 3:48:57 PM PDT by blam
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, available at Amazon
An excellent murder mystery set in a medieval abbey. Beautifully written. One of my favorites.
It was an acute pharyngeal infection. Mercury had zilch to do with it.
EVERYBODY with a fever got calomel (mercurous chloride) because it made you salivate and sweat. The old-fashioned doctors that attended GW were trying to get the "humours" out of his body. A younger physician in attendance tried to suggest a tracheotomy (iirc), but was overruled.
He probably would have died anyway because of the massive infection and lack of antibiotics.
I wish I had a dollar for everybody who bought it because it was a best-seller, then read 5 pages and parked it on the coffee table . . . very worthwhile but not an easy read.
Leprosy has been around a long time. I wonder if this is just a variant form.
Wonder how much mercury you have to be carrying around before you are symptomatic?
incunabulum: interesting word. it may be mis-used in this context since it appears to only refer to printed, not handwritten documents:
incunabulum is a book, single sheet, or image that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe.
Great historical murder mystery “name of the rose” set in a monastery in the Middle Ages.
Movie had Sean Connery as the churchman/detective who solves the case.
Netflix has it but, as yours, it is in German with English subtitles. I plugged the title in eBay and got a number of hits that show DVDs in English, so if you're not in eBay, you ought to be able to find them at other sellers.
BTW, appreciated the subtle clue in your original post.
And, the article is another example of life imitating art even the the art came later.
Sucks to be a rubicator.
Close. Name of the Rose.
Won't spoil it for those who haven't yet read it.
I highly recommend reading (or listening) to it to anyone who hasn't done so yet.
What makes you sure you aren't?
Look at the candidates and tell me you aren't in Hell...
Wow.
You are a god!
I am neither a doctor nor have I played one since I was 3 or 4. I got my information from Thomas Hager’s “Demon Under the Microscope”. He has a master’s degree in medical microbiology and immunology. He stated in the book that GW was treated with massive doses of Mercury and that it may have been responsible for worsening his condition, but you may be right.
LOL
Powdered cinnabar
I don't know the answer to that one, but my guess is that if it did, one might be able to use it as a thermometer. :-D
The mercury was SOP in those days. Calomel was the usual vehicle, and if that killed you quick, everybody would have been dead, because people took it like aspirin. I have my gg grandfather's Civil War letters, he took the stuff all the time. If you OD'd on it, it could loosen your teeth, and eventually you'd get hand tremors.
In other words, I'm sure it didn't do you any good over the long haul, but it didn't kill you quick. GW got sick and was dead in less than three days, iirc he caught cold riding in a cold rain.
But drawing half the blood volume of an elderly man was NOT a good idea (even by the standards of the time)! GW was a strong believer in bloodletting and urged his physicians to remove more blood (sometimes it's the doctor's responsibility to ignore his patient). It certainly made him weaker, but the acute pharyngitis is probably still what killed him.
Oh very good.
Sucks to be a rubicator.
I heard there was going to be a rubicator convention,
but decided to cross the Rubi-Con later.
It bites to be a masticating ruminant.
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