Merry Christmas

[hobbitomm]

Well, just gotten up, but hey.... Merry Christmas to you all.

I have been (seemingly) a good boy, with nice pressies from Santa, and everyone else (although part of it is still travelling with Richard's luggage!).

I'm chilling out with tea, to the sounds of Mika on Ormsweird's new ipod, and the sound of the preparation of croissants with cream, mushroom, and bacon, while dipping in and out of 'Before the Mast: Life and Death aboard the Mary Rose', a 750 page in depth treatment of the archaeology of that unlucky ship, down to the level of chemical analysis of the medicines in the Surgeons chest, as well as stuff on cookery, woodworking, navigational tools, and osteoarchaeology.

Rawr. Extracts available to anyone with specific research questions.

Comments

[idaho-smith.livejournal.com]

'It is the dose that makes the poison' - Paracelsus
Were these heavy metal preparations for an infection (the 'pox?) thus being selective toxicicity albeit with a fairly narrow 'theraputic window'?

[hobbitomm.livejournal.com]

The mercury _probably_ was, although it's hard to be certain, as it had seperated out, and was sitting as globbets in the chest. The lead was widely used in all sorts of stuff. We can infer that it had a theoretical medicinal use in this case, but it was also used as food colourant, so I think assumptions about it can't really be made.