The Lazarus Curse (33 page)

popliteal aneurysm:
A large swelling in the artery behind the knee. A London surgeon, named Wilmer, wrote in 1779 that “there is not, that I know, a single case upon record where that operation has succeeded.” The famous surgeon Percivall Pott (1714–1788) advocated amputation as being the best treatment for popliteal aneurysms that were causing severe pain.

rotten borough:
A small constituency in the United Kingdom with only a few voters that could be used by a patron to gain a seat in the House of Commons.

John Hunter:
A Scottish surgeon and anatomist, born in 1728, and often regarded as the father of modern surgery.

Charles Byrne:
An eight-foot-tall Irishman who exhibited himself in London in 1782–83.

incision:
This fictional account of surgery on a popliteal aneurysm was inspired by observations made by an Italian surgeon, Paolo Assalani, who was present when John Hunter first successfully performed the operation on a coachman in 1785. The account is featured in Wendy Moore’s
The Knife Man
.

clarify the law of England:
During a lengthy court case in 1772, the slave James Somersett was freed by the judge, Lord Mansfield, on the grounds that slavery was so “odious” that the benefit of doubt must prevail on Somersett’s behalf, although, in practice, the law remained ambiguous.

pregnant:
Small bumps around the nipples, called Montgomery’s tubercles, appear during pregnancy and remain afterward.

James Somersett:
See Chapter 49.

carrying the massa’s child:
Sexual abuse was endemic between enslaved women and their enslavers. The Rev. William Smith’s account, written in the early eighteenth century, is one illustration. He wrote of a Negro woman giving birth to both a black child and one of mixed race, pointing out: “Her Husband had carnal knowledge of her, just before he went out to his work, and as soon as he was gone, the White Overseer went to the Hut, and had the like carnal knowledge.”

Source:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-6-resistance-19110.pdf

self-inflicted wound:
Studies show many suicides choose an exposed area of flesh to stab, so their clothing is not damaged.

roundel:
In 1787 the renowned potter and reformer Josiah Wedgwood produced medallions bearing the famous inscription
Am I not a man and a brother.
The inscription
Am I not a woman and a sister
did not appear until 1828.

Congress of the Confederation in Maryland:
The Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784, in the Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House, formally ending the Revolutionary War.

litmus test:
Robert Boyle (1627–1691) discovered that litmus paper turns bluish-green when in contact with alkalis.

George and Dragon:
An early-eighteenth-century coaching inn, still a hotel to this day. A secret tunnel is rumored to run between the hotel and the famous Hellfire Caves. The ghost of a serving girl, who was found dead in the caves, is said to haunt the inn.

West Wycombe Park:
The ancestral home of the Dashwood family is open to the public and provides the setting for several period films and television series, including
Little Dorrit
and
The Duchess.

lithotomies:
The surgical procedure to remove stones from hollow organs.

mandrake:
Pliny the Elder describes how the root was used by ancient surgeons as an anesthetic.

Bedlam:
The full name of the famous hospital for the mentally ill is Bethlehem Royal Hospital, but from the fourteenth century it was often referred to as Bedlam.