Quite some time ago on this blog, I crowed about a purchase I’d made on ebay. I’d bought some cinchona powder and some quinine. These medicines were used in the olden days to treat malaria. The bottles came from an… Read More
As part of my research for my new book about insects, I’ve been reading a lot about malaria prophylaxis (that is, preventing malaria). For centuries, cinchona powder was the only known successful treatment for malaria. It was made from the… Read More
In 19th-century London, water companies made no effort to filter the drinking water pumped in from the Thames. On several occasions, live eels came wriggling out of people's faucets.
source: Liza Picard, Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840 - 1870