facial mutilations

[Sam Flynn]

You shouldn`t be looking for them at your age, Sam

... just going by what I read in the papers, Jon - always a dangerous thing to do, I know.

[Jon Guy]

they're so hard to find these days.

You shouldn`t be looking for them at your age, Sam

[Sam Flynn]

...in the 17th Century they thought they could cure syphylis by having sex with a healthy virgin.

I'm glad we still don't believe that - they're so hard to find these days.

[Jon Guy]

...in the 17th Century they thought they could cure syphylis by having sex with a healthy virgin.

[Sam Flynn]

Wasn't the victorian treatment for syphylis an injection of mercury up the urethra?

... which acted as a primitive kind of Viagra when the weather got hot

Seriously - mercury and mercury compounds were applied in many different forms, sometimes as an ointment, sometimes by mouth. It was also injected "neat" into the urethra, as you say, but that wasn't the only means in which it was used.

Anyhow, we're about as far from facial mutilations as we can get... so back to the thread

[Jon Guy]

scroll down brother I said that.

yeah, just worked out your pattern of posting a sentence at a time.

[protohistorian]

... well, having your nose fall off would certainly have made it harder to blow

Wasn't the victorian treatment for syphylis an injection of mercury up the urethra?

[Sam Flynn]

I've learned something today. Syphilis causes the noseilis to falleth off... having syphilis must have sucked.

... well, having your nose fall off would certainly have made it harder to blow

[Blues]

Thanks Sam...

...I've learned something today. Syphilis causes the noseilis to falleth off and....


having syphilis must have sucked.

Blues

[DarkPassenger]

I've had a bit of a brainstorm.

Which victim was it, who said she knew who the Ripper was? Because obviously, she didn't - or else she wouldn't have gone with him that night.

[Sam Flynn]

Hi Blues,

Never heard of syphilis causing the "nose" to fall off.

Tertiary syphilis can give rise to ulcers which eat away at the nose - and other parts of the body... it's just that the damage is more noticeable when it's on the face. Prior to the 19th Century, a prosthetic nose made of metal would sometimes have been used to hide the disfigurement. Dr Pangloss, in Voltaire's Candide, famously lost his nose to syphilis, and covered the hole with an artificial schnoz made of tin.

[Blues]

Huh?

Never heard of syphilis causing the "nose" to fall off...maybe is some strange case it was a predominant symptom...but as a matter of course? I, personally, don't think it is...but I don't even play a doctor for pretendzies.

Anyway, I always thought that Jack cut CE's and MJK's faces out of anger. Catherine Eddowes face, I believe (have to start putting that all the time because when I don't, my opinion comes across like I'm stating fact), was cut because of the circumstances of her killing. Jack got pissed when the fecal matter (where does "foecal" come from anyway?) got on him and he had trouble cutting through...Mary Jane was a notoriously sharp tongued drunk...after the singing was over, I think she smarted off to Jack...or she fought back - either way, it drew his wrath.

His earlier kills were easier...there wasn't as much of a struggle and/or problems with the "operation".

Just my imagination.

Blues

[Sam Flynn]

Isn't it that in the advance stages of syphliss your nose falls off

True.

and he saw the women as syphilitic degenerates?

It's more likely that he simply cut off the tip of her nose, Baron. As it was, he slashed many other parts of her face also, so it's unlikely that he was making a point of saying "this is a syphilitic whore". If he'd intended any such symbolism he'd have likely lopped off the noses of his other victims as well, but he didn't.

[BLUE WIZZARD]

C.D.,

YOU SAID:
But what about Kate's face? If Barnett killed Mary and her alone how do you account for Kate's face being horribly mutilated?

If I did not know better, I would think that you were asking a trick question.

Please tell me that you were kidding.

BW

[protohistorian]

Good answer Dave, but the truth is simple and practical :

He could afford to, the money was starting to roll in, and guitar companies were giving them to him for free.

scroll down brother I said that.