20 Everyday Items From “Back In The Day” That Doubled As Weapons For Women’s Self Defense

Rolling pins were considered a “woman’s own weapon,” so women weren’t convicted often when using them. Unless, apparently, they caused something called “brain fever.”

Ah, yes, the famous brain fever diagnosis is caused by having your unwanted or inappropriate advances batted away. According to Audrey C. Peterson’s article “Brain Fever in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Fact and Fiction,” “brain fever” generally meant an inflamed brain, most of which was actually attributable to “some forms of meningitis or encephalitis.”