3.13.2008

And I do love critters.


The Japanese Culture blog Pink Tentacle just posted a fascinating array taken from a 16th century book of Japanese medicine. Apparently, while we Westerners were whining and aching about vampires and bad humors in our body, the Japanese were a little bit closer to the truth of the matter, blaming a whole bestiary of bizarre tiny monsters for their illnesses.
Read the article here.
Some of the very illnesses are astounding! Is dizziness and the sound of clashing rocks in one's ears such a problem for people that a whole disease is ascribed to it? Is a dark complection and the want of oily foods?
Very interesting. Very adorable critters. I mean frightening.
No, adorable. Giant Microbes have changed my views on disease forever.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Yay old medical text!

Amanda C. Davis said...

You might be interested in the Obakemono project: http://www.obakemono.com/

The Magnetic Crow said...

Excellent! I had not heard of this!
Thank you for the link :)