9 awful things that were considered normal in the Victorian era

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The pampering of Egyptian mummies, lead and arsenic in food and cosmetics, and the legal sale of women.

1. Parties for unwrapping mummies

British in the Victorian Era This is the 19th century, during the reign of Queen Victoria, the "Golden Age of Britain". were simply gripped by an interest in Ancient Egypt. Therefore, rich gentlemen eagerly collected valuables of that time - like the same George Herbert Carnarvon, who found the tomb of Tutankhamun and later, according to a popular story, allegedly died from the curse of the pharaoh.

The mummies were in the spotlight. They were brought to Britain, and not only to be put in a museum. For example, crushed mummies were used as paints to make Mummy Brown, which was highly prized by Victorian artists.

In addition, the remains were taken internally as a medicine - a tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages. When real mummies became scarce, pharmacists began to forge them, using the bodies of recently deceased patients. Although, knowing the strange customs of that time, it can be assumed that not all of them died a natural death.

But the strangest custom is 1.

2.

3., which was in vogue among the English aristocracy, are parties where mummies were unfolded and examined. Yes, that has happened.

They will bring from Cairo to some lord the just found remains, which he was waiting for, like we were sending a package from AliExpress. The gentleman gathers the guests. They come with their ladies, drink, eat, dance - in general, they spend their time culturally.

And then in a separate, specially equipped room, all the bandages are carefully removed from the mummy. I wonder what is under them.

If any valuable amulets were found in the burial cloths of the deceased, guests could take them for themselves as a keepsake of this wonderful evening.

And a certain surgeon Thomas Pettigrew in the 1830s generally conducted public unfolding of the pharaohs. And not only aristocrats were allowed there, but in general everyone who could buy a ticket.

The obsession with mummies has reached the New World. In America, some wealthy merchants installed them as dummies in their stores. For example, in 1886 this one was displayed in a shop window in Chicago. It's so great to choose candy in the presence of dried human remains.

2. Murderous gas lanterns

In the 19th century, industrialization swept across the British Empire and its many colonies by leaps and bounds. Gas lanterns have become one of the achievements of progress. They replaced those lamps that were served by specially trained lamplighters who roamed the streets with lighter sticks.

Gas lanterns 1.

2. Gas Lighting in Victorian times / Country Life were brighter, more durable and easier to maintain than kerosene and oil lamps. The new lighting reduced the crime rate in Britain, and the cities became safer - the risk of falling out and breaking your neck decreased.

But the technology also had its drawbacks. For example, due to the increased daylight hours, many employers decided that their employees could work longer. However, this was not the worst thing.

Competing gas companies constantly tried to annoy each other and ruined lanterns, pipes, valves and other communications in other people's areas. Because of this sabotage, homes were leaked all the time.

Combustible coal gas was essentially a mixture of methane, hydrogen, sulfur and carbon monoxide. In the process of its combustion, carbon monoxide was released. Add to this the heavy curtains, which were fashionable in those days, and the poor ventilation of the premises. Because of this, the number of accidents, fires, explosions and deaths from asphyxiation jumped sharply in England.

The image of a Victorian languid and pale lady, who almost immediately faints, is caused not only by overly narrow corsets, but also by carbon monoxide poisoning.

The health of people, and so not particularly strong because of the imperfection of medicine, decayed completely. From the ambulance - only smelling salt.

By the way, coal gas could not only kill or deprive one of consciousness, but also caused hallucinations - the brain was starving due to lack of oxygen, which resulted in various impairments of perception. Some researchers have suggested that this explains the growing interest of Victorians in ghosts and spiritualism. When you breathe in carbon monoxide, all sorts of White Ladies and Canterville Ghosts are only so imagined.

3. Lead and strychnine for breakfast

Chemistry in the Victorian era was not particularly developed, so British scientists were mistaken about many things. For example, they sincerely believed that lead was not in the least harmful, but, on the contrary, beneficial to health.

The London Chemical Society emerged in the 19th century to regulate the food industry in the country. But these clever guys did not succeed.

Judge for yourself. During the Victorian period, bakers poked 1.

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3. Into bread with chalk and alum (alkali metals) to make the baked goods whiter. They also did not hesitate to throw white pipe clay, gypsum or sawdust into the leaven. By the way, many manufacturers of bakery products, without a shadow of a doubt, kneaded the dough with bare feet.

And brewers sometimes added strychnine to the drink to reduce hop costs. Now it is being used, for a second, like rat poison. And beer was brewed in lead cauldrons.

Crocoite, or red lead, was used to color Gloucester cheese, while common lead was added to cider, mustard, wine, sugar, and candy. Copper sulfates were used to preserve fruits, jams and wine. Mercury was mixed into various sweets. And the first ice cream, which gained popularity in the 1880s, was not made from milk, but from a mixture of water and chalk.

Similar substances were used 1.

2. not only as nutritional supplements, but also as vitamins. For example, athletes chewed coca leaves during races to feel energized, and took pure cocaine to reduce muscle fatigue. All this was washed down with a 70% solution of alcohol and strychnine.

The latter invigorates in small doses, and better than coffee. And that the face reduces paralysis, makes you smile absurdly and threatens to turn off the respiratory system - nothing, because sport has always been fraught with risks. Faster, higher, stronger, a coward doesn't play hockey - you know.

4. Crazy psychiatry

Given the above features of this strange period, it is not surprising that in good old England the number of mentally ill (or considered such) people has jumped sharply. And loving relatives without a shadow of a doubt placed them in psychiatric hospitals, in the caring hands of the local doctors.

Lawrence's Hospital in Bodmin, Cornwall has 511 patient records from 1870 to 1875. According to them, some of the "warning signs" that could be considered unhealthy included laziness, reading romance novels, superstition, food or sexual intemperance, and male and female masturbation, especially in adolescents.

In women, the main diagnosis was hysteria. But there were also diseases such as "imaginary women's problems", "seizures" and "the desire to leave her husband." The reason was not difficult to establish.

From ancient times until the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed by official medicine that if a girl has a foolish character, it means that her uterus "wanders" all over her body.

Actually, the word "hysteria" in Greek means "womb". There is only one treatment - hysterectomy, that is, the removal of this terrible organ, which brings so much suffering to poor patients. Thus, the superintendent of the London Shelter for the mentally ill, Dr. Maurice Buck, from 1877 to 1902, performed more than 200 gynecological operations.

In 1898, the specialist gave a speech to the American Medical and Psychological Association. Buck described a case in which one of his patients, a certain L. M., had seizures and a tendency to violence. She was diagnosed with "severe inflammation of both ovaries," and after their removal, she "felt quite healthy." This doctor was highly respected in the medical community in Britain and Canada.

5. Abductions of the dead

Naturally, such unprecedented advances in medicine would have been impossible without the study of human bodies, for the most part already dead. But the doctors did not have enough objects for experiments. The fact is that the law allowed to open only the corpses of executed criminals. In 1823, the British Parliament reduced the number of crimes that were punishable by death. And the deceased became depressingly few.

Therefore, British scientists began to pay specially trained people to plunder.

2. fresh graves and brought them bodies. The British called such cemetery thieves resurrectors. The slickers sold the corpses to surgeons for autopsy, and the teeth of the deceased - to dentists for the production of false jaws.

To thwart the hunters for the dead, relatives of the deceased stuffed coffins into steel cages with locks, set up watchtowers on churchyards, or set up patrols.

But this did not stop the robbers. And when there were no fresh corpses at hand, some simply killed unlucky passers-by and gave their bodies to doctors, as if they had died from natural causes. For example, this is how the bandits William Burke and William Hare became famous.

"Resurrectors" worked not only for doctors, but also for pharmacists, and the executioners sold the blood of recently executed criminals. The practice of using body parts as medicine persisted in the Enlightened Victorian era as it did in the good old Middle Ages. A recipe from 1847 prescribes the use of a young woman's skull powder with chocolate as a preventive measure against apoplexy. And if you mix it with molasses, then you get a cure for epilepsy.

6. Burials alive

By the way, there is something else about Victorian funeral customs. In the 19th century, an interesting design became widespread - a coffin with a built-in rescue system. It would seem that the very phrase sounds crazy, but it's true.

The fact is that then in Europe there was a mass taphophobia, that is, the fear of being buried alive. During outbreaks of cholera, patients were often buried in a hurry to prevent the spread of the infection. And this, although rarely, led to similar errors.

Medicine was not always able to distinguish a deceased person from a person who fell into a temporary coma. The maximum that the doctors were enough for was to put a mirror to the lips of a patient who did not show signs of life and see if it fogged up.

People with taphophobia took precautions. Some included in their wills that they should not be buried until the body showed signs of decay. This was done, for example, by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

Others equipped their coffins with special ventilation shafts in advance, and a bell was fixed on the tombstone.

If someone woke up underground, he could call for help by pulling a string tied to his finger. True, it is not known whether such a device saved the life of at least someone.

Sometimes the bells rang, and the frightened gravediggers hastily opened the burial to save the unfortunate man. And they discovered that the deceased was not at all in a condition to pull the strings. The decaying body simply shifted and triggered a "false alarm."

7. Posthumous photographs

During the Victorian era, the British were a bit obsessed with death. Not as much as in the Middle Ages, but still. This is to be expected, given that epidemics of measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, rubella, typhoid and cholera were then as commonplace as the flu is today. As they say, memento mori.

When a family member died, the relatives naturally wanted to keep something in memory of him. Sometimes it was a favorite thing of the deceased or a lock of his hair, which can be put, for example, in a medallion. But often the Victorians preferred a much stranger way of perpetuating their love for a person who had left the mortal world.

In the mid-1800s, photography was just beginning to spread among the masses and was very imperfect. Strictly speaking, it would be more accurate to call the technology daguerreotype - the creation of images by the interaction of light, silver and mercury.

So, the British believed that before the funeral it would never hurt to photograph the deceased. Disguised as a living person. And in the bosom of the family.

The deceased was combed, made up and placed on a special stand so that he would stand upright. His eyes were opened, or artificial ones were inserted, or they were painted on the eyelids. The living surrounded the relative so that the picture would be natural: women took dead children in their arms, husbands hugged cold wives. In general, you have imagined a picture. And the photographer took the picture.

Some Victorians believed that daguerreotype had magical powers and could hold the soul of the deceased so that he would always remain with his loved ones.

Many of these photographs show children, because the mortality rate of babies at that time was high - antibiotics and vaccinations had not yet been delivered. And often the dead child looked better in the picture than the living one. After all, daguerreotype demanded to sit still for a very long time. It was not easy to persuade the restless tomboy to calm down, and the corpses do not move.

8. Cosmetics with arsenic

At all times, ladies wanted to become more beautiful and often did frankly unhealthy things for this. For example, Victorian ladies washed their faces with ammonia. And then they covered the skin with lead-based whitewash to look pale, languid and mysterious. And in order not to look sleepy in the morning, it was necessary to take a tincture of opium.

For particularly fastidious beauties, Sears & Roebuck offered Dr. Campbell's Arsenic Facial Wafers. Yes, it was real baked goods with arsenic, which gave the lady's face an attractive white color.

In addition, ammonia was a common substance in cosmetics, which also did not add to health. And if a girl has thin eyelashes, a drop of mercury applied to the eyelids before going to bed could make them thicker.

Eye drops based on lemon juice and belladonna will make your look mysterious. But the first one causes the strongest irritation and can blind. The second simply dilates the pupils, much like a cat from the cartoon "Shrek".

Looking pale, languid, and a little sick in the Victorian era was fashionable and considered attractive. Historian Caroline Day of Furman University in South Carolina suggests epidemics of tuberculosis, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria and whooping cough. For example, due to consumption in the early stages, the eyes become sparkling or enlarged, the face turns pale, the cheeks turn pink, and the lips turn red - Victorian beauty as it is.

9. Trafficking in wives

In England, before the Marriage Act of 1857 was passed, divorce was practically unrealistic. No, this could have been done by submitting a petition to parliament. But as you can imagine, the procedure worked only for the coolest gentlemen who have connections. And simpler people had other ways 1.

2. to end the annoying marriage.

In rural Britain, the so-called wife sale was popular. We take the spouse, put on a leash around the neck (this is important), take it to a public auction and give it to the one who pays the most.

It sounds crazy, but some women themselves demanded from their husbands to be sold - this was considered acceptable. So, there is evidence of how one person brought a certain Matty to such an auction, but at the last moment decided to abandon the idea and make peace. His wife slapped him in the face with an apron, called him a scoundrel and insisted on continuing the bidding, because she was tired of her husband.

The cost of wives varied from case to case. One was sold at Selby in 1862 for a pint of beer. Ladies got better off hand for decent sums.

By the way, sometimes the husband appreciated his wife and wanted to part with her kindly, but there was no other way to end the marriage. Then he put on her not a collar, but just a ribbon, in order to observe the custom and not offend.

Sometimes purchases were spontaneous. So, one day Henry Bridges, Duke of Chandos, spent the night in a small village inn and saw the groom beating his young and beautiful wife. The man stepped in and bought it for half a crown. He educated the woman and married her.

Fortunately, at the beginning of the 20th century, the insane custom of selling wives disappeared.