19/6! (macabre edition)

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 06/19/2015 at 14:15 • Filed to: Waterloo, Teeth, Dentures

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Yesterday we commemorated the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

A battle on this scale resulted in the kind of aftermath that we can imagine (actually we can’t go anywhere near imagining) which was nonetheless an opportunity for those possessed of an entrepreneurial spirit and not much in the way of scruples.

The battle was conveniently over before sunset so local entrepeneurs had the chance to sneak out under cover of darkness and get to work. Get to work doing what? Doing what happens after every battle, recovering items of value from those with no further use for them. You’d expect people to strip the dead and injured of clothing, boots and so on but the real money was in teeth. Teeth? Teeth. At that time if you were lucky enough to have money and live long enough you could rot the teeth out of your head with an expensive sugary diet. If you were a young private soldier, not so much. So the enterprising were able to match a demand (dentists) with a ready supply of fresh young teeth. Tooth harvesters travelled from England specially and the surviving soldiers got into the business as well.

With decent teeth dentists could make dentures for their patients and make serious money therefrom. So many teeth were obtained post bellum that for years after secondhand human teeth were referred to as Waterloo teeth (although not necessarily at the time) no matter where they actually came from.

Have some Waterloo dentures.

Hoccy > Cé hé sin 06/19/2015 at 15:14

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Waterloo is one of the (many) reasons why Norway is an independent country now.

Also, have some ABBA:

Cé hé sin > Hoccy 06/19/2015 at 17:17

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Waterloo sold quite well in France, oddly enough.

I know absolutely nothing about Scandinavian history, but Wikipedia does and it tells me Norway was forcibly linked to Sweden in 1814, the year before Waterloo but following Napoleon’s defeat in 1813 at the Battle of Leipzig.

Hoccy > Cé hé sin 06/19/2015 at 17:25

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Denmark and Sweden was on opposite sides in the Napoleon wars, and in the Kiel peace treaty they decided that Sweden won Norway after that battle. I don’t really keep track of the battles, so Leipzig is probably very correct. Though if Napoleon won at Waterloo, things might’ve been different?

Anyways, we got our own (modern) constitution in 1814, and greater independence from Sweden than what we had from Denmark. We even ended up with our own parlament in the 1880’s and completely separated from Sweden in 1905.

Bear in mind though, it’s years since I learned about this in school, and I’ve had a few beers. It might be a bit inaccurate.

Cé hé sin > Hoccy 06/19/2015 at 17:39

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If Napoleon had won at Waterloo, we might be typing this en français...

pip bip - choose Corrour > Hoccy 06/19/2015 at 23:28

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great song!