ABSTRACT
The strongest case of ambivalence is found in Thomas Fuller. It was Fuller who came up with the memorably well-balanced defence of mummy, describing it, in 1647, as 'good physic but bad food'. In this chapter, people find several phrases repeated verbatim, but mingled with some important variations. In order to emphasize the leveling power of death over all human wishes and arts, Fuller imagines an experiment in which all the greatest skills of surgeons and embalmers attempt to defy the natural forces of decay. After detailing the processes involved, he warns that such prodigious cost of embalming bestowed on bodies, hath accidentally occasioned the speedier corruption. People have seen that pre-Restoration literature shows considerable ambivalence towards corpse medicine. Within the context of corpse medicine, Boyle's remarks on blood and milk are not merely avant-garde, but oddly puzzling. He himself, was frequently using blood for experiments of various kinds.
