MUSEUM SECRETS: Toad Vaccines and Magical Jewellery

In today’s episode of our Museum Secrets podcast, join Curator Matthew Winterbottom as he explores ancient beliefs about disease testing and vaccines, through our collection of toadstone rings.

These bizarre pieces of jewellery have a lot to tell us about the human effort to find hope in the face of illness and uncertainty, even when it involves the strangest superstitions. And at the end of the day, it turns out that toadstones have nothing to do with toads after all…

Listen here or wherever you find your podcasts: ashmolean.org/museum-secrets