Here is George the Lizard Thing who has been lying in a vat of water growing for most of January:
And here is Herbie’s chart of George’s growing progress:
The challenge: use this information to make a graph and determine the lizard-thing’s rate of growth.
Plotting the temporal axis looks looks problematical.
At the wonderful Natural History Museum in Oxford; these specimens were obligingly keeping still…
and these ones were being more mobile…
So which is the object which really does live in the Pitt Rivers?
It is….
the Magic Bun with Healing Powers. Here’s a picture of the bun:
I thought the bun was 78 years old, but that information isn’t on its label. How did one use it to cure a cold? Nibble it lightly? Or put under the pillow? Or just inhale its scent? (which might be difficult if you have a cold.)
There isn’t a Ghost in a Bottle at the Pitt Rivers, but there is a Witch in a Bottle. Here she is:
The label describes how it was got from an old lady living near Hove in about 1915, who said: “And they do say there be a witch in it, and if you let un out there’ll be a peck o’ trouble.”
So we’ll be leaving that one well alone then…
One of these objects actually is in a drawer at the Pitt Rivers Museum…but which one?
A small person feeling a bit trapped…but can she fit out of the bottletop?