Smelling Salts

Patricia MiltonBlog, New Plays

During the Victorian Age (1837-1901) most women carried a bottle of smelling salts in their handbag: they were inclined to swoon when their emotions were aroused. It was believed that, as postulated by Hipocrates, the woman’s wandering womb disliked the pungent odor, so would return to its proper place in the body, allowing the woman to recover her consciousness.

In my new play, Escape from the Asylum, the mad doctor of The Belfry Institution for Nervous Diseases has developed an Intra-Uterine Magnetic Polarity Apparatus to cure Uterine Fury in his patients.