wiki-illiam #106: q12

[dubdobdee]

12:
i: What is perhaps the equal of roly-poly?
ii: What epidemic was survived by Sarah and Emily?
iii: What is made from hog's lard, mutton suet and quicksilver?
iv: Upon whom had the captain's steward poured boiling jam juice?
v: Which ancient bibulous Dane with pale red-rimmed eyes, was presented with a case of Priorato?
vi: Where, more than once, was a dead orphan child brought back for dissection and kept in a cupboard?
vii: Where did the small apothecary display the skeleton of an aardvark in his window?
viii: Translate 'Les bouts-dehors des bonnettes du petit perroquet'.
ix: What was the ultimate fate of the Armenian polyglot?
x: Who found a Frenchman's ring finger in his bowl?

Comments

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

iii. Mercury pudding? Or could this be some sort of poison, cunningly delivered? Or! mercury used to be used by - I think - ancient Egyptians as an anti-wrinkle cream or similar. Or! it was used in hatmaking in the 18th, possibly also 19th C and is why milliners used to be a batty lot, hence the phrase 'mad as a hatter'.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I think this is on the right lines - googling the ingredients led me to unguentum hydrargyri a.k.a. Mercury ointment. The description refers to its blue colour and there are also variants with longer names having other colours.

=> is the theme colours? e.g. ii. could be Yellow Fever!

Got the theme now

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

It's not colours, but I had the right book above.

We had a round on this theme last year IIRC!

Re: Got the theme now

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

...and it is smallpox, not Yellow Fever, as marna said

Re: Got the theme now

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

But are those the smallpox v cowpox dairymaids?

Re: Got the theme now

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Wiki mentions a Sarah, but not an Emily. It is not v detailed about it, though.

Re: Got the theme now

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

No, it's a fictional smallpox epidemic on Sweeting's Island

The theme is incidents in the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brien. Boring huh?

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Or scarlet! Although does that come in plagues?