Comment by ternaryoperator

8 hours ago

I have the hard copy of this edition and it does contain some curious things.

For example, if you look up "boiling." You might expect to read about what happens to a liquid when it's heated to a certain temperature, or perhaps a way of cooking foods, or sterilizing equipment. But the entry covers none of those. Instead, the only entry for boiling describes a punishment for persons convicting of poisoning who were, in England, dipped into a large cauldron of boiling water.

And, in the ways that violence and torture were wantonly reveled in centuries ago, they wouldn't just submerge the criminal and let him die there. Instead, they would lower him into the boiling water for a while and then pull him out. They'd repeat the process until eventually they finally killed him. That is the EB 11 ed entry for boiling. Yow!