Making Love: Sentiment and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century British Literature

Book Review: "Loving Literature. A Cultural History"

It is widely acknowledged that emotion is deeply embedded in literary criticism. Even when we aspire to scientific analysis and objectivity, we assume that we share a love of literature. Loving Literature is a deep and fascinating exploration of this important assumption. Literary critics and professors of literature are expected not only to know but also to love their work. In the case of prof...

Hysteria at the Edinburgh Infirmary: the construction and treatment of a disease, 1770-1800.

I In the introduction to his History of sexuality, Michel Foucault pointed to the eighteenth century as the period in which sexuality became a medical concern and women were, in his words, subjected to "hysterization".' By this term, Foucault probably meant that medicine began to pay greater attention to female bodily functions, trying to explain anew women's behaviour and physical complaints w...

Representations of Male Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Sweden1

Chronicle of Datura Toxicity in the 18th and 19th Century

Background: Datura stramonium is a poisonous and common flowering plant that is a member of the Solanacae family. Datura poisonings are a rare occurrence in the 21st century, making toxicological information on this plant sparse. Historical information on Datura provides useful information on the clinical symptoms and characteristics of poisonings. This review looks at the state of knowledge on...

Perfecting the world: the life and times of Dr. Thomas Hodgkin 1798–1866

eighteenth-century sexuality is beginning to emerge which takes us beyond the memoirs of Boswell. Historians of eighteenth-century medicine will find the volume especially interesting. Virtually every essay has some bearing on the history of medicine, for medical men occupied a vital position in the sexual marketplace. It was medical men who produced the serious and not-so-serious sexual litera...