Dr Isaac Baker Brown

[curious4]

Originally Posted by Pcdunn

Point taken about pioneer women! One of my mother's ancestors was a widow with several daughters; they all came West from Virginia by wagon after the Civil War, accompanied by an old former slave. Daring thing to do, then, I'm sure.

And that fellow wasn't talking about slave women, or Native American women, or the immigrant farm-wife who did as much work on the sod house farm as her husband. These are all threads in our American heritage, if not appreciated then.

Have you read a novel called "One Thousand White Women"? It is a great historical novel, based on the fact that one of the treaty requests made by Native Americans was that they trade horses for white women to wed to their warriors. The author imagines that the government accepted the deal, and started trying to collect women from prisons and asylums (volunteers, of course) to send out west. Very good read.

Hello Pat

Sounds interesting! I will ask my daughter to look out for it when she is in London.

All good wishes
Gwyneth

[curious4]

Hello again Pat

Your ancestor must have been a very strong woman. It is a pity these women rarely get the attention they deserved. I have read the autobiography of an American woman who was kidnapped by Native Americans and chose to stay. Fascinating - can't remember her name and my books are in a mess just now so I can't look it up. The journalist who wrote the article I mentioned seemed to think that real women lay all day looking pale and interesting on a chaise longue!

I find the background to the JTR murders, the workhouses, the reformers and the whole of East End history as interesting as finding the murderer, so stumbling across Dr Baker Brown opened up a whole new area of investigation.

Best wishes
Gwyneth

[Robert]

Apparently before he died Brown suffered from nervous prostration and paralysis, and the nurse cutting his balls off didn't make him feel one jot better.

[Pcdunn]

Originally Posted by Robert

Apparently before he died Brown suffered from nervous prostration and paralysis, and the nurse cutting his balls off didn't make him feel one jot better.

Was that really his fate? Certain irony, if so!

[Robert]

I'm joking about the balls.

[Pcdunn]

Ah. Well, that explains it, then. Still, you see how riduculous it is to link emotional and physical problems to either gender's sexual organs.

[Robert]

Well, sometimes only a woman doc will do, and sometimes only a man, depending on the patient.

[curious4]

Originally Posted by Pcdunn

Was that really his fate? Certain irony, if so!

True about the illness, though. Doctors who knew him, including Gull and Forbes Winslowe put together money to help him in his last illness.

C4