Treatment of incontinence

It may not have worked, but nineteenth century medicine often sounds rather fun. This from An Epitome of Braithwaite’s Retrospect of practical medicine and surgery (1860): M. Lallemand, of Montpellier, has great confidence in aromatic bitters, to which a small portion of brandy has been added, followed by active friction of the loins… As internal…

“How bilingual brains switch between tongues”

Brief visions of two tongues being fitted, enabling one’s bilingual brain to slot the correct one into place as and when. (Aside: The Sufis say that two tongues of fire await those who speak with two tongues here and now.) I’d like to understand how this kind of stuff pans if the brain has doubts…

Montblanc

Ethiopia. Looks rather nice – not many roads.

Google Hands

Quite a lot of these around. I though we had automatic page turners.

Granada’s keys in Moorish hands

From John Drummond Hay, Morocco and the Moors: Western Barbary, Its Wild Tribes and Savage Animals (1861): There are descendants of the Moorish families of Granada now residing in Tetuan and Fas [Fez], who still preserve the keys, and it is said also the title-deeds, of the houses of their Mauro-Spanish ancestors, in the hope…

More linguistic repression in Catalonia

Fining businesses for using Spanish is a crucial element in the neo-Francoist campaign to outlaw public use of the mother tongue of half of the Catalan population. La Razón lists (via Bye, bye, Spain) various examples dug up by Daniel Sirera, including a 1,200€ penalty for a business displaying “No Smoking” in Spanish. If only…