The Lion Boy and Other Medical Curiosities

In this book of amazing oddities, the successor to his popular ‘Cabinet of Medical Curiosities’, Jan Bondeson explores various surprising and bizarre aspects of the history of medicine. Does people’s hair go white after a sudden fright; can the image of the killer be seen in the eyes of a murdered person; does the severed head of a guillotined person maintain some degree of consciousness? Giants, dwarfs and medical curiosities are examined, including the eponymous Johnny Trunley, the Fat Boy of Peckham, who was a sensation in Edwardian show business, and his various rotund rivals. To be seen at the Elephant and Castle, near Holborn Bars, the wonderful Production of Nature, and astonishing Porcupine Men … Their solid Quills so numerous as not to be credited till seen.