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Dracula Key Context (Medicine and Illness (Blood transfusion (Major reason…
Dracula Key Context
Medicine and Illness
Blood transfusion
Major reason for many unsuccessful early transfusions was blood compatibility not being understood
Many blood transfusions were unsuccessful
James Blundell performed first successful human to human blood transfusion in 1818
Remedies for women
A woman's sass, faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasms, shortness of breath, irritability explained as hysteria
Belief that orgasms would help treat them- in a doctors office- involved pelvic massage and the doctor who do this until hysterical paroxysm was achieved
Treatments
Medicine in 1800's mainly botanical, with preparations of mercury, arsenic, iron and phosphorous also popular
Doctors might recommend a 'change of air' along with vomiting and laxatives as well as bleeding or leeches
Disease
Growth rates of British population led to diseases spreading rapidly- especially bad in cities rather than countryside- led to many deaths due to lack of cures
Smallpox, typhus and tuberculosis were endemic (a disease that exists permanently in a particular region or population) and cholera was epidemic (An outbreak of disease that attacks many peoples at about the same time and may spread through one or several communities.)
Death
Causes of death
Scarlet fever, typhoid and cholera were common causes of death
Many women died in childbirth, and many children died from measles, mumps, diphtheria and rubella
Mourning
Queen Victoria turned mourning into an art form, which added to the act of mourning becoming a very strict and formal occassions
Nightclubs existed to celebrate deaths, coffins used as tables and drinks named after different diseases, which were served by monks
Age
Infant mortality remained high throughout the 19th century and it was only in the late Victorian period that public health reforms and medical advances caused life expectancy to rise
Mortality rate differed with classes- those who were better off males usually died in their 40's, yet labourer men would normally die in their 20's
The paranormal/supernatural
Spiritualism
Belief that the living can communicate with the dead
First hypothesised in Emmanuel Swedenborg's writings on the spirit world
Corporeal transference and astral bodies
Corporeal transference- Transference of ones mind into the body of another, so that one can gain control of that body
Astral bodies- separate spiritual body which is attached to physical body but on another plane
Yogic mythology- humans have three bodies- physical, spiritual and casual which make up the soul
Science
Science prospering
Science was prospering around the time Dracula was published
Century of Charles Darwin and a period of growing industrialisation
Inventions
Stage coach invented in 1827 and was one incredible innovation and made travelling over land so much more easy to use and safer too.
Invention of railway very important in Victorian era and made travelling easier and more accessible- led to the easy and cheap transportation of resources, i.e. material and human as well and raw materials from one place to another.
Other forms of communication that came to be invented during the Victorian era were the cinemas, telegraphs, telephones, automobiles and airplanes
1879- Thomas Edison invented electric light bulb
Romanian beliefs
St Georges Day
Marriage
Class
Gender
Madness
Jack the Ripper
British Empire
Industrial Revolution
Religion
Victorian horror
Vlad the Impaler
Sexuality