Time Travels

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BBC Radio Scotland Extra

Factual: History

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Susan Morrison explores the rich and sometimes murky depths of Scotland's past.

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Time Travels: Healing and Hurting

Healing and Hurting

BBC Radio Scotland - Time Travels, Healing and Hurting

Highland doctors, ‘charming’ witches and desperate poisoners with Susan Morrison.

Susan Morrison explores the perils of Highland medicine, finds out why witches were said to use spells and hears a shocking Victorian poisoning case.

If you were poor what kind of medical help could you expect in the Highlands and islands in the 1850s? You’d better believe there were some pretty grim remedies in your future. Dr Daisy Cunynghame heritage manager and librarian of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh introduces Susan Morrison to ‘Remote and rural remedies’ their new online resource on Highland medicine then and now. You might have been better off with your local accused witch in earlier days. Dr Sierra Dye of Guelph University Canada takes Susan into a zealous witch-hunter’s first case and the rare healing charms it reveals. If healing wasn’t your thing, there was always poison, but by the Victorian period forensic experts like the accomplished Dr Henry Littlejohn of Edinburgh were hot on the heels of murderers. Louise Wilkie of Surgeons’ Hall Museums Edinburgh introduces us to one of his most difficult cases.

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