Gloucester

King Lear is a play illustrating the effect of human weakness and the widespread disaster caused by frailty in the human nature. It is a 5 act play, but by the first act, the frailty in the human nature is apparent. Shakespeare presents human frailty as a potentially dangerous force as it leads to the destruction in the play; particularly so as it seems that frailty gives rise to more frailty. The feebleness of the human nature is explored through the portrayal of characters depicting good and evil as well as affirming the possibility of a personal transformation from evil to good, shown through the protagonist as he makes the journey towards his enlightenment.

Southern History is a peer reviewed academic year book published by the Southern History Society covering the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Oxford, Buckingham, Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It contains articles and reviews. Prospective authors are requested to email the editor (aspicer@brookes.ac.uk) for copies of Notes for Contributors. Outlines of proposed submissions are welcome and articles should be submitted in electronic form.

"The development of scurvy is a result of a Vitamin C deficiency, which may be brought on upon by poor dietary conditions, genetics, or weaning. Because Vitamin C is necessary for collagen synthesis and production of strong blood vessel walls, a deficiency results in porosity in several areas of the skull, e.g., eye orbits, mandible and sphenoid. In the examination of a skeletal collection (N=90) from Roman Gloucester, dating to the mid 3rd-early 4th century CE, five adult burials were found to exhibit evidence of scurvy.
In addition to traditional markers of the condition, two middle adult male also showed a series of narrow parallel lesions similar to a "hair combing" appearance, which ranged from 30-170 mm in length and ran medio-laterally on both parietal bones.
    The location of these lesions correlates to the region of the cranium associated with M. temporalis,  an area of soft tissue, and suggests they might have been the result of hemorrhage from blood vessels. Further examination of the series showed a total of three individuals to have similar lesions. While clinical descriptions of scorbutic lesions on the parietal bones in adults are near non-existent, comparative cases at the Museum of London and Hunterian museum of cases of known scurvy in adults also exhibited “hair combing” lesions. While the porosity could be suggestive of anemia, the location of the lesions, in addition to presence of alveolar resorption, is also consistent with Vitamin C deficiency. Further support from the historical and archeological records will be discussed"