• Health
  • Science
  • U.S.
  • Technology
  • Business
  • World
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

Building a Better World

News and information

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team

Researchers shocked by discovery on Jane Austen’s glasses

March 11, 2017 By Dan Taylor

Researchers shocked by discovery on Jane Austen’s glasses

An astonishing new report out of Britain claims that something may have killed Jane Austen that no one before thought of.

An incredible new report from researchers in the UK claims that famous author Jane Austen may have been killed by something that caught many people by surprise: her spectacles, which may have poisoned her with arsenic. Not everyone is buying into this theory, saying she likely died of cataracts, but it’s certainly gotten the literary world talking.

Sandra Tuppen, the lead curator British Library’s Modern Archives & Manuscripts 1601-1850, claimed in a blog post on Thursday that arsenic poisoning from her own glasses is what killed her. Austen, who was born in 1775 and died in 1817, wrote the novels “Emma” and “Pride and Prejudice,” to name a few. Three pairs of glasses she apparently wore that are in the care of the British Library are central to the curator’s claim of arsenic poisoning.

She noticed that Austen’s glasses had tremendous variation in prescription strength. Arsenic poisoning is certainly known to cause cataracts, she noted. But what is it arsenic? She makes the case that it was based on a variety of circumstantial evidence, but scholars reject the claim by and large.

“The British Library has for the first time had the spectacles tested,” the blog post states. “Our Conservation department was involved from the start, to ensure that no harm would come to them. The company Birmingham Optical kindly supplied us with a lensmeter to measure their strength, and their specialist staff undertook the tests. The tests revealed that the three pairs of spectacles are all convex or ‘plus’ lenses, so would have been used by someone longsighted. In other words their owner needed glasses for close-up tasks, such as reading. Interestingly, ‘tortoiseshell pair B’ is much stronger than the others.”

Sharing

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Filed Under: Front Page, Health

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Us

Facebookrss

Search:

Recent Posts

  • NASA’s InSight spacecraft makes important course correction May 26, 2018
  • Scientists outraged at latest Trump decision May 15, 2018
  • Huge uproar erupts over major incident at Utah park May 13, 2018
  • Incredible moon discovery stuns scientists May 12, 2018
  • Authorities shocked by discovery about common painkiller May 6, 2018
  • Outrageous crocodile experiment stuns scientists May 5, 2018
  • Great Barrier Reef is too quiet, scientists say May 1, 2018
  • Massive Hiroshima bomb discovery shocks scientists May 1, 2018
  • Earth will be slammed by massive asteroid April 29, 2018
  • Teens are doing something incredibly alarming in schools April 29, 2018
  • Huge discovery in Tasmania stuns scientists April 28, 2018
  • Shocking discovery in New Jersey stuns authorities April 22, 2018
  • Huge volcanic explosion could wipe out the United States April 21, 2018
  • Huge controversy erupts over world’s hottest pepper April 15, 2018
  • SpaceX is about to do something astonishing April 15, 2018

Copyright © 2021 Jones Kilmartin Group, LLC · Metro Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress