Emily Brown

“Even when breathing out, a dog is still sucking air in. In one experiment, an English pointer (who was curiously named Sir Satan) created an uninterrupted inward airstream for 40 seconds, despite exhaling 30 times during that period.”
― Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

“This desire was also manifest in the occasional exasperated religiously inspired ejaculation to the effect that the failure of the law to capture and punish those responsible for infanticide was a ‘disgrace to humanity’, and that those who ‘escape[d] punishment in this life … may be sure of meeting their reward hereafter’, because they not only offended the ‘laws of nature and God’ but also ‘add[ed] the horrid sin of murder to that of incontinence’.”
― Elaine Farrell, 'She said she was in the family way': Pregnancy and infancy in modern Ireland

“pregnant woman applying to the Coombe for intern midwifery care was required to present a recommendation to the resident medical officer signed by a patron, patroness, vice-patron, vice-patroness, governor, subscriber, collector or clergyman.”
― Elaine Farrell, 'She said she was in the family way': Pregnancy and infancy in modern Ireland

“The melons looked all right, but there’s not much inside them when you cut them open.’ ‘Those mooncakes are good, aren’t they?’ said Cousin Zhen. ‘They were made by our new pastry-cook. I tried them myself to make sure they were all right before venturing to send you any. As for the melons: we’ve been lucky in previous years, but for some reason none of them this year seem to be any good.’ ‘I think we must blame the weather,’ said Jia Zheng. ‘The rains this year were excessive.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Warning Voice