A bit OT--Louisa May Alcott and Hg

[Guest guest]

Hey everyone, In the summer of '05 I posted about a book called The Peabody Sisters. The book was about , and Sophia Peabody who made their mark on history by being Transcendentalists in Boston during the 1800s. My maiden name is Peabody and it appears that I am related to these sisters so the book was very interesting to me. The book explains that both Sophia and Peabody had a nervous disposition and suffered from tremors and headaches. At times they had to be in complete silence and darkness to deal with their illnesses. The book goes on to theorize that and Sophia were mercury poisoned by the Calomel teething powder that they used as infants. I almost fainted at the thought that Sophia and were sixth generation Peabodies and my son is a fifteenth generation Peabody and both are suffering from the same problem. The Peabody Sisters were great friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, iel Hawthorne (Sophia married him), Henry Thoreau, Horace Mann ( married him) and Louisa May Alcott. It was speculated that Little Women was based loosely on the Peabody Sisters. Recently a new book came out on Louisa May Alcott. It was reviewed in the Washington Post last month. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/07/AR2006090701600_2.html The theme of this book about Louisa May Alcott and the above book review is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Here is the excerpt of this article that I found fascinating: Louisa died early from mercury poisoning (used to treat her

typhoid fever), and drug companies still preserve their vaccines with mercury because it's cheap. So I hope I did not bore you all to death with this history. (Could it be that my Asperger's is showing?) But I just found this interesting and sad. As far as we have come as a nation since the mid-1800s, our public health system continues to fail us. At the very least, it is hopeful that the author of this book review realizes that mercury has no business being in vaccines and the only reason it is used is because of the bottom line. Take care, Becky Estepp TACA Parent Support & Liaison