Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires charts in vivid detail the largely
forgotten history of European corpse medicine, which saw kings,
ladies, gentlemen, priests and scientists prescribe, swallow or
wear human blood, flesh, bone, fat, brains and skin in an attempt
to heal themselves of epilepsy, bruising, wounds, sores, plague,
cancer, gout and depression. In this comprehensive and accessible
text, Richard Sugg shows that, far from being a medieval therapy,
corpse medicine was at its height during the social and scientific
revolutions of early-modern Britain, surviving well into the
eighteenth century and, amongst the poor, lingering stubbornly on
into the time of Queen Victoria. Ranging from the execution
scaffolds of Germany and Scandinavia, through the courts and
laboratories of Italy, France and Britain, to the battlefields of
Holland and Ireland, and on to the tribal man-eating of the
Americas, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires argues that the real
cannibals were in fact the Europeans. Picking our way through the
bloodstained shadows of this remarkable secret history, we
encounter medicine cut from bodies living and dead, sacks of human
fat harvested after a gun battle, gloves made of human skin, and
the first mummy to appear on the London stage. Lit by the uncanny
glow of a lamp filled with human blood, this second edition
includes new material on exo-cannibalism, skull medicine, the
blood-drinking of Scandinavian executions, Victorian
corpse-stroking, and the magical powers of candles made from human
fat. In our quest to understand the strange paradox of routine
Christian cannibalism we move from the Catholic vampirism of the
Eucharist, through the routine filth and discomfort of early modern
bodies, and in to the potent, numinous source of corpse medicine's
ultimate power: the human soul itself. Now accompanied by a
companion website with supplementary articles, interviews with the
author, related images, summaries of key topics, and a glossary,
the second edition of Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires is an
essential read for anyone interested in the history of medicine,
early modern history, and the darker, hidden past of European
Christendom.
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