Question 16: Answer

Sir William Osler (1849–1919) is associated with a long list of contributions and eponymous entities including filaria, maneuvers, nodules, syndromes, and triads. Among the less known ones is the Oslerian pulling of the tongue for termination of obstinate hiccup (singultus). Janet Travell (1901–1977) Travell, JG. 1977. A trigger point for hiccup. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 77: 308–312. [PubMed] , [Google Scholar], physician to two United States presidents, attributed the tongue-pulling maneuver to Osler. Dr. Travell cites Osler's Principles and Practice of Medicine from 1912, where mention of the remedy can be found. The therapy, however, is much older and (perhaps not surprisingly) of French origin. It can be viewed as a spin-off of attempts by Jean Laborde (1830–1903) to resuscitate the “presque morts” (almost dead) via rhythmic traction of the tongue. Lesser known physicians involved in the treatment of singultus by traction of the tongue are Jean Viaud (1862–1946) and Raphaël Lépine (1840–1919).     

The National Question in Africa: Internal Imperatives

In an impassioned plea for political reform in Africa, this essay questions whether the concept of ‘nation-being’ is really applicable to territories ruled by dictatorial regimes. Without democracy, many African ‘nations’ are little more than a gambling space for the opportunism and adventurism of power. Furthermore, as in the concrete case of Nigeria, repression strengthens ethnic identity and encourages separatism. The risks of virulent ethnic conflict in Africa — and elsewhere — might be lessened if regional conferences were called to debate the national question openly, and to redefine (where necessary) both the external boundaries and the internal political realities of conflict-ridden societies.     

The Macedonian Question in Bulgaria

Abstract. The Macedonian question has been at the core of Balkan politics since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Since the end of the nineteenth century, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece have all put forward competing claims to geographic Macedonia in whole or in part. Each of these states legitimised their policies by arguing that the territorial, ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural boundaries of Macedonia are congruent with their respective nation-states. All of these claims stirred vigorous debate among the people living in the geographical region of Macedonia, attracting support or opposition, depending on the political circumstances of the time. In Bulgaria, the Macedonian question has been understood largely as a result of the violation of national integrity, beginning with the revision of the San-Stefano Treaty of March 1878. Bulgaria to this day denies the existence of a separate Macedonian identity and argues that the establishment of the Macedonian nation undermines its national unity. The Bulgarian denouncement is based on the strong sense of loss of the territory, history and language which it shared with Macedonia in the past. After the collapse of the Federative Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia and the consequent independence of the Macedonian state in 1991, Bulgaria renewed the question of the legitimacy of Macedonian nationhood, yet at the same time recognised the Republic of Macedonia. The Bulgarian government of 1991-2 promoted this political compromise as a constructive way of living with the national questions rather than suppressing them. Yet none of the fundamental tensions over the Macedonian question have been fully resolved, and the issue remains an important and possibly explosive undercurrent in Sofia politics.     

The Polygamy Question: Missions,Marriage, and Assimilation

Polygamy was a vexed question for missionaries in the Northern Territory of Australia. In the mid twentieth century, Christian missions of various denominations worked with the Australian Commonwealth Government to achieve a policy of assimilating Aboriginal people into white Australian culture. Yet there was little consensus as to how this assimilation policy could or should be applied to Aboriginal marriages. This article demonstrates that the issue of polygamy exposed divisions between church and state as well as among Christian denominations over their understandings of marriage. These differences stemmed from differing spiritual visions of assimilation in Australia. The conflicts over marriage in the Northern Territory, therefore, reveal that assimilation, and settler‐colonialism more broadly, operated on a religious plane as Aboriginal people, missionaries, and bureaucrats engaged in a spiritual contest over what represented a legitimate and acceptable marriage in that land.     

Once More,The German Question

THOMAS NIPPERDEY. Deutsche Geschichte 1800–1866: Bürgerwelt und Starker Stoat, 3rd. rev. ed. Munich: C.H. Beck, 1985. Pp. 838; HEINRICH LUTZ. Zwischen Habsburg und Preussen: Das Ringen um die Vormacht in Deutschland 1815–1866. Berlin: Siedler, 1985. Pp. 528; H.W. KOCH. A Constitutional History of Germany in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. London and New York: Longman, 1984. Pp. xv, 400. $17.95 (US); WOLF D. GRUNER. Die deutsche Frage: Ein Problem der europäischen Geschichte seit 1800. Munich: C.H. Beck, 1985. Pp. 217. DM 19.80.