Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere)’s Reviews > Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology > Status Update

So on pg 106 the author swears he's not going to look up the 1579 text about eating dead mice to avoid incontinence - and on this, the last page in the sources, he DOES. Because he could not help himself, as he admits. Then goes on to add what he's not going to look into further (superstitions about sprinkling urine on things and health), which seems totally reasonable.

I may end up buying a copy of this just for this Acknowledgements and Sources section, because there's so much in here to look up that sounds interesting.

Footnote: "It turns out that human horns, anomalous growths consisting entirely of concentric layers of keratinized epidermal cells...are "far more frequent than ordinarily supposed." - that last bit via Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, 1956. Also they grow slowly and often have a tendency to curl.

Endnote: In a list of unusual museums - The Museum of Menstruation in New Carrollton, Maryland, which is apparently located in the basement of the collector's home - but now closed. Though here's its current online home. ...I'm both intrigued and disturbed.

Happily reading the endnotes - and hey, look - it's a Ricky Jay cite about a calculating dog act. Charles Dickens is involved. This is why one should always read foot/endnotes.

The museum has an exhibit "on loan from the Mutter Museum" - which I've always wanted to visit, and this reminds me of another book to add to my wish list (which means I must stop and check the price on it again and see how high it is). I'd be reading this so much faster if I didn't have to merrily go google something each page...

"The caption under the first read: "Mouse Pie, when eaten with regularity, serves as a remedy for children who stammer." The label under the burnt toast read: "Bed wetting or general incontinence of urine can be controlled by eating mice on toast, fur and all." - I'm pretty sure I saw this exhibit, yet somehow I managed to forget it until now.

Describing the Tradescant collection in 1638, list of items: "...a goose which has grown in Scotland on a tree"....the hand of a mermaid; the hand of a mummy..."a bat as large as a pigeon"..." - I have to admit immediately recognizing those geese, as that's one of my favorite myths.

1625, letter from John Tradescant the Elder to the Secretary of the Navy (England), listing things to be on the look out for since his patron is attempting to collect them, like "River horsses head of the Bigest kind that can be gotton" - concludes with: "Any thing that Is strang." Spelling and capitalization not mine, and instead due to this being the 1600s.