Aspects of the History of the Nerves: Bell’s Theory,the Bell-Magendie Law and Controversy,and Two Forgotten Works by P.W. Lund and D.F. Eschricht

The French physiologist François Magendie showed, in 1822, that the anterior roots of the spinal nerves are motor and the posterior sensory. The English anatomist Charles Bell claimed the discovery, but his claim was based on republications of papers in which the wording had been altered to be consistent with Magendie’s findings. Bell also appropriated Herbert Mayo’s discoveries of the functions of the fifth and seventh cranial nerves. Bell repeated his claims in a number of influential publications, supported by his brothers-in-law John and Alexander Shaw. And for a century and a half, Bell figured as the discoverer in most references to the subject. During this period, several reviewers did go back to Bell’s original papers, disclosing Bell’s falsifications in the republished texts. But Magendie was not definitely acknowledged as the discoverer of the function of the spinal nerve roots until Cranefield’s (1974) treatise. Cranefield, as did all other reviewers, overlooked accounts from 1825 by P.W. Lund and F.D. Eschricht. They critically reviewed Bell’s early publications and reached conclusions similar to those of Cranefield concerning the roles of Bell and Magendie in the discovery of the function of the spinal nerve roots.     

The hoset Project. An interdisciplinary study of a marginal settlement

On the western border of the Stj?rdal region in the province of Nord‐Tr?ndelag, Norway, at the Hoset farm in Lånke, the Department of History at the University of Trondheim, Norway, has been carrying out a detailed study of a single farm area, in cooperation with the Nordic Deserted Farms Project This study is particularly interesting since it was planned as an interdisciplinary approach, involving archaeological, pollen‐analytical, pedological and geological specialists, in addition to historians, all of which have contributed their own evidence on the cultural and natural environment and agricultural settlement history of the area from the Iron Age onward. In this way it was hoped that answers would be found to questions which have been neglected in the past by Norwegian historians, such as settlement continuity or discontinuity, farm structure, farming methods and settlement patterns in more remote areas. It was also hoped to gain more experience in the different scientific techniques, their potentialities and limitations (e.g. radiocarbon dating, pollen analysis, phospate analysis) and to foster a spirit of mutual co‐operations between the various departments within the university.     

Experimental archaeology in Denmark

When experimental archaeology began 100–150 years ago, it was carried out scientifically alongside regular archaeology. However, while general archaeology has continued intensively, scientific experimental archaeology has continued very sporadically during this century. The fact that there is a considerable amount of so‐called ‘experimental archaeology’ does not mean that it has been carried out scientifically. This is exemplified by house reconstructions, which despite their great number have only in a few cases added something new to archaeological research. Although these particular house reconstructions serve a pedagogic function, it would be better if, instead, scientific education was made available in the area of experimental archaeology.     

Wortbrechungen und hypermetra in den oden des horaz

The author seeks to present a broader examination of those elements of form and content which are common to poems 8 and 9 from the second book of Propertius’ Elegies and which provide a reason for considering these two poems as counterparts. Particular attention is focused on how the motifs of the wheel of fortune and death for love are handled, and to mythological references which are present in both elegies in the form of the exempla from the Trojan and Theban Cycles. The author's aim is to demonstrate how it is possible to broaden the interpretation of a single poem by means of comparative analysis with its counterpart.     

Aeque mit dem ablativ

Before Marx the atomic swerve was little regarded by champions of Epicureanism: since Guyau it has been central, though attempts to explain the mechanism of free will by it have failed. This is because they assume the occurrence of swerves inside the soul. But the swerve is only attested for the downward‐falling atoms ‐and as an instantaneous side‐step not as a change of direction. Swerves are the pluralist counterpart to Aristotle's unmoved mover, a cosmological principle and not the cause of particular happenings. On this view good sense can be made of Epicurus’ hitherto puzzling statements on predestination, nouthesia, and luck.     

Theodorus Priscianus im lateinischen Oribasius

Recent readings of Fam. 12.16 have revealed that Trebonius' aim in writing to Cicero was the complicated result of anxieties over influence. I extend this complexity to Trebonius' citation of the satirist Lucilius and argue that Lucilius is mentioned for his literary status as well as libertas. Trebonius' satire was, in Lucilian vein, directed at the dead Julius Caesar, and Horace in turn refers obliquely in Satires 1.2 to Trebonius, and Cicero's literary representation of and connection with him.     

Liberal intolerance in European education debates

The reaction against non‐western immigrants and especially Muslims has been analysed both in terms of an exclusionary civic nationalism and in terms of an assertive liberalism. Similar to exclusionary civic nationalism, assertive liberalism purports to defend liberal democratic principles and society against illiberal principles and forces predominantly represented by Muslims. This article argues that nationalism and liberalism are analytically distinguishable but difficult to disentangle empirically. It contends that a more detailed analysis of assertive liberalism can be obtained by subdividing it into four categories of liberal intolerance and demonstrates this by analysing six national debates on the accommodation of cultural and religious diversity in education. The analysis indicates that the nature of liberal intolerance understood as the combination of the four categories of liberal intolerance varies with the state tradition regarding religious neutrality of public institutions and the type of welfare state, but also that many liberal arguments for and against accommodation repeat themselves across national contexts.     

The Poor Law of old England: institutional innovation and demographic regimes

The striking improvement in life expectancy that took place in England between the Middle Ages and the seventeenth century cannot be explained either by an increase in real wages or by better climatic conditions. The decrease in the risk of utter destitution or of death from famine that was evident on the eve of the Industrial Revolution stemmed, in part, from institutional changes in the old poor law, which began to take shape and become effective early in the seventeenth century.