41. Sex and Sickness

41. Sex and Sickness

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an extraordinary woman, both in her personality and in her contribution to the world, specifically in medicine.

This episode looks at both aspects, trying to pick out the complex character behind her image, in particular her possibly ambivalent and certainly far from obvious sexuality.

Then, however, it looks at how she became a leading benefactor to humanity, by introducing to England, and through England to Europe, the life-saving procedure of immunising against smallpox by inoculation with the disease itself. That makes this episode not entirely suitable for anti-vaxxers, especially as it ends with a quick look at how her campaign led to the launching of actual vaccination, as opposed to the variolation she promoted. The anti-vaxxers won't like hearing that the procedure has saved hundreds of millions of lives.



Illustration: William Powell Frith, Alexander Pope is said to have declared his love to Lady Mary, who simply found it uproariously funny, offending him deeply and turning him into an open enemy.
The painting dates from 1852, so it’s a later retrospective and imaginary depiction, but more fun than the contemporary and more serious portraits, which is why I chose it. It’s in the library at Otago, New Zealand, and the image is in the public domain.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

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218. Surprised by the man of no suprises

218. Surprised by the man of no suprises

We start this week with Hitler announcing that there would be no more surprises, though we immediately question whether his word could always be wholly trusted. We go on to look at the way Hitler was ...

17 Marras 202414min

217. An event-packed year (2)

217. An event-packed year (2)

We’re still looking at 1936, a year packed with so many events that it’s taken two episodes to review the main ones. This week, on the domestic, British front: - The year of three kings, as one died, ...

10 Marras 202414min

216. An event-packed year (1)

216. An event-packed year (1)

This episode is our first look at the exciting year of 1936. It was a time when some British politicians tried to appease one dictator, Mussolini, by taking no action to stop invading Abyssinia, in or...

3 Marras 202414min

215. A military adventure shakes the kaleidoscope

215. A military adventure shakes the kaleidoscope

Britain and France reckoned they’d secured the support of Italy, in the Stresa Front, for their efforts to contain Hitler. Britain was the first to undermine that pleasant understanding, by signing a ...

27 Loka 202414min

214. The doormat League of Nations

214. The doormat League of Nations

In the mid-1930s, there was still widespread hope across Britain that a major war could be avoided. That could be achieved, many believed, by international negotiation towards disarmament, and by col...

20 Loka 202414min

213. Carson honoured, Churchill mocked

213. Carson honoured, Churchill mocked

We start this episode with the unveiling of the statue of Edward Carson at Stormont Castle in Northern Ireland. It rather makes the point that a man who helped organise an armed force against British ...

13 Loka 202414min

212. Labour struggling, Tories soaring, the economy wobbling

212. Labour struggling, Tories soaring, the economy wobbling

It was a terrible time for Labour, down to just 52 MPs and having to choose a new leadership from a narrow pool from which most of the brightest lights, in the view of many but above all their own, we...

6 Loka 202414min

211. Troubled times: India, Press Harlots, and Winston Churchill

211. Troubled times: India, Press Harlots, and Winston Churchill

This episode looks at the impact in Britain of continuing trouble in India. There Gandhi had launched his salt march, walking to the sea to make salt, in breach of the British monopoly and the heavy t...

29 Syys 202414min

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