Bite Me! Dracula’s medical history - Lauriston Castle Lectures
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Thursday 29 October, 10.30am
Bite Me! Dracula’s medical history
“The blood is the life!” repeats Renfield in his Victorian asylum. Dracula may be literature’s most famous blood sucker, but his creator, Bram Stoker, came from a medical family, and knowledge of the medical practices of the time infuse Stoker’s novel. This talk by human remains conservator Cat Irving will explore the diseases that have fed into vampire mythology and the medical history that Stoker was drawing on for his creation.
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science, she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history, as well as writing the blog Wandering Bones. Recently she has carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke prior to his display in National Museum of Scotland.
Bite Me! Dracula’s medical history
“The blood is the life!” repeats Renfield in his Victorian asylum. Dracula may be literature’s most famous blood sucker, but his creator, Bram Stoker, came from a medical family, and knowledge of the medical practices of the time infuse Stoker’s novel. This talk by human remains conservator Cat Irving will explore the diseases that have fed into vampire mythology and the medical history that Stoker was drawing on for his creation.
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science, she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history, as well as writing the blog Wandering Bones. Recently she has carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke prior to his display in National Museum of Scotland.
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Where is it happening?
Lauriston Castle, Japanese Friendship Garden, Edinburgh, EH4 5, United Kingdom
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherLauriston Castle
