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The History of Comfort

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Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on June 09, 2017, 04:36:33 pm ---I thought of you last night as I was watching "I'll Have What Phil's Having", a show about a guy who goes around the world eating and discovering a city's culture. He was in Hong Kong and went to a traditional Chinese physician, who correctly diagnosed a kidney disfunction he hadn't told her about. A regimen of nuts, berries, bark, twigs, herbs and insects was prescribed. It was a funny show. I think it was originally aired on PBS.

--- End quote ---

Twigs?

"Ever eat a pine tree?"

Anyone remember that?

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on June 08, 2017, 01:57:11 pm ---Measles could do it, too, cause loss of sight, I mean. I'd have to look up whether it could cause hearing loss as well.
--- End quote ---

Perhaps. There's a current measles outbreak in Minneapolis among immigrants who don't trust vaccines.


--- Quote ---I've always wondered about "brain fever." In period novels women seem to have been particularly susceptible to that, whatever it was.
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Yes, that's what Catherine Earnshaw died of. I think Emily Brontë had to make that clear because, prior to that, Catherine Earnshaw had been pretty hardy -- it seems to have been brought on by spending time on the cold and stormy moors and being upset over her rift with Heathcliff. But her nephew was sickly from the start and died early, and it's never clear of what. And what did Beth in Little Women die of?

I think it was so common for members of families to have some longterm weakening or debilitating condition they seemed to hardly think the cause worth mentioning, if they even knew it at all. Wouldn't pretty much anything from asthma to diabetes to TB to congenital heart disease and beyond render people "naturally" sickly?

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: serious crayons on June 11, 2017, 01:21:08 pm ---Perhaps. There's a current measles outbreak in Minneapolis among immigrants who don't trust vaccines.
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That's why measles is making a comeback, because of people who don't trust vaccines.


--- Quote --- And what did Beth in Little Women die of?

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She lingered for a while, didn't she? Maybe it was consumption?

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