Victorian Psycho - Facts

 Mr Pounds is into Phrenology, a pseudoscience which was very popular in the period. Phrenology is a pseudoscience that involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.

Fishal brings a mummy to show the Pounds and their guests. The Qurna Queen was an ancient Egyptian woman who lived in the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt, around 1600 BC to 1500 BC, whose mummy is now in the National Museum of Scotland. The mummified woman and her coffin were found during an excavation led by Flinders Petrie on 29 December 1908.

Mrs Pounds gives Winifred a green dress to wear at the Chrismas dinner. In 1775, a new pigment was developed called Scheele's Green– a bright and attractive hue unlike anything of its kind. In 1814, a new-and-improved version was invented and widely known as Paris green or emerald green. It contained arsenic, a known poison.

The book mentions leaches as a medical remedy. Doctors believed diseases came from an imbalance in the body's fluids or localized inflammation. Doctors favored leeches over surgical lancets because they offered a slower, less intimidating blood removal suitable for women and children.

Winifred mentions that coffins were equipped with a bell. So if someone was buried by mistake, they pulled the cord to signal that they were not dead. The fear of being buried alive peaked during the cholera epidemics of the 19th century, when fear of contagion led to quick burials without making a difference between the dead and the dying. P.G. Pessler, a German priest, allegedly suggested in 1798 that all coffins have a tube inserted from which a cord would run to the church bells. If an individual had been buried alive they could draw attention to themselves by ringing the bells.