Ever wonder what a ichthyosaurus fossil specimen found in 1813,
and a pterosaur ( flying reptile)
fossil specimen found in 1828
have in common with Breast Cancer???
"who saw what others failed to see"-C.Tickell, then you
were right. Mary Anning was
born in 1799 and suffered from breast cancer in 1845 and then died of breast
cancer two years later in 1847.
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I f you guessed
the unsung hero and collecting force of Lyme
Regis, the Dorset woman,
Mary Anning,then you were right.
*image credit: A
British site on Mary Anning:http://www.rowfant.demon.co.uk/anningpic.gif
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Mary
as a child was struck unconscious by lighting, while sitting
under an elm tree, with her care giver and two others who died in that same
stroke of lighting; afterwards Mary, the sole survivor of the incident,
was revived in warm water.
Wouldn't you drink too?
"In her last years she was accused
of drinking, though the truth is much sadder. She had cancer of the breast.
No doubt, like so many Victorian women, she took laudamum to ease the
pain."quote from John Fowles, 1995, from page 4 of 'Mary
Anning of Lyme Regis', a book  by Crispin Tickell, forward by John Fowles.
*image credit: A
Japanese site on Mary Anning:
http://www.kidexplorer.co.kr/explorer/jurassicexplorer/image/anning.gif
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MARY ANNING(1799-1847)- "Collected and
sold fossils from the cliffs of Lyme Regis along the shores of southern
Great Britain", "Discovered one of the first ichthyosaur fossils
and the very first plesiosaur fossil", "Despite her major contributions
to museums, her special skills and knowledge were largely forgotten by the
scientific community" from:
http://virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/torokm/documents/
History%20of%20Evolutionary%20Thought.htm
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