The art of bookbinding has been around since the 1st century AD. Over the course of time, various mediums have been used to cover the outside of the books. Leather and cloths have been the most common materials used in the binding of book. Would you believe the most unusual material used to cover a book was that of human skin? It is said to feel very soft, much like suede. It is also said to be reasonably inexpensive, durable and waterproof. The practice of binding books in human skin, also known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, appears to have been most popular during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Many of the first books covered in human skin were medical books. The skins were primarily from amputated body parts and unclaimed corpses of the poor but were also obtained through executed criminals. As gruesome as this seems, the medical profession viewed the bodies being used as a compliment to the deceased. Dr. John Stockton Hough, from the University of Philadelphia, was known in for diagnosing the cities first case of trichinosis. He had four medical volumes bound from skin of three of his deceased patients. Another doctor, Dr. Charles Humberd studied gigantism and had a book on the topic bound in human skin. The skin was from an eight feet six inch Ringling Brothers Circus Giant by the name of Perky.
There are also circumstances in which the author or owner of the text donated their body for the purpose of becoming the covering of the book. A book written in 1837 entitled 'Narrative of the life of James Allen, alias George Walton, alias Jonas Pierce, alias James H. York, alias Burley Grove, the highwayman. Being his death-bed confession, to the warden of the Massachusetts state prison' was bound in the author's own skin. The finished book was then sent to John A. Fenno, one of George Walton's victims who successfully resisted the robber during the attempted theft. This book was later donated to the Boston Athanaeum, an independent library in Boston, Mass. It was not uncommon for an executed convict's body to be used to cover the court journal and presented to the victim's family or for a book to be published about the criminal. Another book bound by the skin of its previous owner is found in the Cleveland Public Library. The book is a Quran, the sacred text of Islam, and its owner was an Arab tribal leader.
Most of the best books bound in human skin are in private libraries throughout the world. One would be surprised how many of these books are in the nation's finest libraries, including the Harvard University Libraries. There are several books bound in human skin throughout the various libraries, including two at the medical school library. The Harvard law school library purchased a copy of a 1605 practice manual for Spanish lawyers for a mere $42.50 from an antiquarian book seller in New Orleans. The last page of the book was inscribed with:
"The bynding of this booke is all that remains of my deare friende Jonas Wright, who was flayed alive by the Wavuma on the Fourth Day of August, 1632." (The Wavuma appear to be an African tribe.)
Other human bound books can be found at Brown University, University of Memphis in Tennessee, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Clendening Library at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Structure Of Human Skin
Nothing you apply to your itchy skin makes a difference. In desperation you take a hot bath and gain some relief. For a few moments you feel relieved and think that you have ended the problem. But within a few hours the itching returns. Again it's relentless and the only relief is another hot bath.
You go to bed expecting a good night's sleep and around 3:00 am you're awakened with itching and biting sensations. Again the hot bath does it's trick and you return to bed expecting a few hours of peaceful sleep and decide to schedule an appointment with your doctor in the morning.
But it doesn't work out that way. Within a half hour back in bed you're itching again. You're at wits end totally at loss as to what's happening. You're mind is whirling trying to figure out what's wrong.
At some point you realize that whatever is itching you is residing in your bedding. You remove all your bedding and launder it with bleach or ammonia for disinfection. You take another hot bath and change your bedding. Sure enough you get a few hours of sleep.
The irony is that with all the itching and biting you see nothing on your skin for a few days. Then you begin noticing bite marks that may be accompanied with rashes.
You are hopeful the doctor will prescribe the antidote, but he can't find anything wrong with you. He gives you an antibiotic for the rashes and prescribes Elimite or Quill for the itching.
Relief is immediate and you figure that the solution is at hand. However after about four days, the itching returns along with the biting which seems to be from under the skin. Lesions are forming on your body and some bite marks appear to look like a vampire bite-two marks about 1/16" apart.
Back to the doctor who suggests blood tests and a plug sample. Again you think that the results will identify this hell that has taken over your life. The blood tests only indicated a slightly elevated CBC count and the plug sample shows nothing.
By now you've either figured out on your own or you've gone to the internet for help and found that you have an unknown skin parasite that has infested your clothing, bedding, rugs, furniture... and that you're not alone.
You've also been sent to a specialist who much to your chagrin tells you that it's stress and that he can't find anything. From the internet you learned of Morgellons and ask the doctor if you have Morgellons disease. He tells you that there is no proof of there being any such disease.
By now you may have given this horrendous affliction to another family member and feel pretty much on your own. Doctors don't know anything about it and the internet is becoming full of all types of treatments that people have used--zappers, herbal dewormers, bentonite clay, MMS, oregano, faith healing, eco vie, sulfur, urine therapy...
You start with whatever one you read about first and end up bouncing from one to another with little if any relief.
Job, of the Old Testament in the Holy Bible, may very well have been the first human on record who suffered from these skin parasites which are in the form of skin mites, nematodes, collembola and or skin fungus. They make scabies (a form of mite) look like the common cold.
My hell started from a cloud of dust that descended upon me after I pulled a strangulating vine from a tree in my back yard. Early on I experimented with garlic. I started with 30,000 mg. of garlic per day and ended up at around 240,000 mg. per day. For me, garlic completely tamed down the symptoms of the itchy parasites to where I could be human. Of course I tried many different medications during this time and each time I went off garlic to see if the medication or remedy was working, it would flare up again because none were working. Eventually garlic lost its magic and it was back to itching hell.
Fortunately shortly thereafter, I discovered the value of the diet which I called the Parasite-Lyme DietSM. It was the first hope I had in fighting the skin parasites. In fact I'm convinced that no treatment will work without getting on the eating diet and staying on it. There are foods such as fruits and many carbohydrates that feed the parasites and foods that starve them. I started it as an elimination diet--ate only eggs initially and within a few days I was itch and bite free--it worked that fast for me. It took over ten years to discover all the nuances of the diet so I could enjoy foods like shrimp scampi, chicken in butter sauce.
It's a three stage diet, the first of which is very strict. As stage I is successful, one can often advance to Stage II within a week or so and eat more leniently. It didn't take long to think I was cured, but every time I went off the diet for a week or so, the itching and biting returned. In time with certain medications, I could advance to Stage III of the diet and enjoy limited types of fruit, honey, chocolate cake.
Suffering from skin parasites raises some important questions. How do you bathe? What skin creams or lotions provide results? How do you get skin parasites out of your bedding, furniture, rugs…? Although your doctor has no answers to these questions there are real down to earth answers to get your life back to normal.
Both Marcus Harbert & Richard Kuhns are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Marcus Harbert has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family Concerns. Marcus Harbert is a book arts enthusiast who is determined to keep the craft alive. To read more about bookbinding visit his websites at
Baby Modeling In Nc Deal only with accredited agencies who handle legitimate opportunities for you
