Use of Computed Tomography and Three‐Dimensional Virtual Reconstruction for the Examination of a 16th Century Mummified Dog from a North German Peat Bog

The corpse of a well‐preserved dog was recovered from a peat bog in the region of Burlage, Germany, in 1953. The dog, which dates to the 16th century, retained extensive soft tissue and fur on the postcranial body, although the head is skeletonised. Computed tomography was used to determine the extent of the preservation of the soft tissue, to determine sex and age and to attempt to identify trauma, pathology and potential cause of death. The analysis of the CT data indicated that the dog was an immature or adolescent male. Substantial soft tissue was preserved, including some internal organs. The entire skeleton was present, with the exception of the mandible and parts of the paws; all of the bones were flattened and some were distorted because of demineralisation in the peat. Partial disarticulation of the vertebral column was postmortem, although there was no further evidence of trauma or pathology on the skeleton or soft tissue. The cause of death could not be conclusively determined. To the knowledge of the authors, this dog represents the only known example of a complete historical nonhuman bog body with preserved soft tissue. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Housekeeper,correspondent and confidante: the under-told story of Mrs Hayes of Charlecote Park, 1744–73

All too often, servants are accorded limited space in country house studies: rarely allowed to venture beyond the kitchen and service rooms, either in academic studies or interpretations for visitors. They are defined by their work not their lives and are seen as serving the physical rather than social or emotional needs of the owner. This paper challenges this viewpoint by exploring the relationship between George Lucy, owner of Charlecote Park in Warwickshire and his housekeeper, Mrs Phillipa Hayes. Drawing on their mutual correspondence, on other letters to and from Mrs Hayes, and on her Household Book, I construct a richer and more nuanced picture of the multiple roles that could be played by a senior servant. She was a housekeeper, but also a correspondent, confidante and hostess, who offered comfort and pleasure to her employer as well as sound economic and social management of his household. Although in some ways unusual, this case study illustrates the importance of placing senior servants more centrally when exploring the country house.     

Health geography in New Zealand and Australia: global integration or Antipodean exceptionalism?

This paper examines the hallmarks of an emergent and distinctive Australian and New Zealand health geography over the last 30 years. Building on an assessment of the early development of the sub‐discipline in the two countries, a review of published work reveals the co‐presence of local themes alongside connections to more global perspectives associated notably with health behaviour. Further common themes are the influence of year‐round exposure to outdoor spaces and the proximity of “blue spaces” to urban centres. However, there are divergences in the evolution of the sub‐discipline. A comparison of attendance at the biennial International Medical Geography Symposia (held since 1985) with publications in the journal Health & Place reveals differentially globalised characters. A steady flow of international visitors and appointments to New Zealand universities as well as more apparent connections to the wider discipline of geography contrast with more applied geospatial and public health connections in Australian health geography.     

Neuromyelitis optica: Application of computer diagnostics to historical case reports

The retrospective diagnosis of illnesses by medical historians can often be difficult and prone to bias, although knowledge of the medical disorders of historical figures is key to the understanding of their behavior and reactions. The recent application of computer diagnostics to historical figures allows an objective differential diagnosis to be accomplished. Taking an example from clinical neurology, we analyzed the earliest reported cases of Devic’s disease (neuromyelitis optica) that commonly affects the optic nerve and spinal cord and was previously often confused with multiple sclerosis. We conclude that in most identified cases the software concurred with the contemporary physicians’ interpretation, but some claimed cases either had insufficient data to provide a diagnosis or other possible diagnoses were suggested that had not been considered. Computational methods may, therefore, help historians to diagnose the ailments of historical figures with greater objectivity.     

Narratives of emotion and anxiety in medical tourism: on State of the Heart and Larry's Kidney

This paper explores the emotional geographies of State of the Heart and Larry's Kidney—two nonfiction narratives about medical tourism wherein American patients and their caregiver companions travel abroad for life-saving surgeries. The paper has two main goals: first, to illustrate the importance of emotional geographies in medical tourists' lived experiences of travel and tourism, as well as the giving and receiving of transnational health care and second, to generate empirical, theoretical, and methodological discussions between geographical, travel, tourism, and health studies on the relevance of emotional geographies. Medical tourists' experiences of travel and health care have been usually examined as spatially distinct rather than as entwined phenomena. We address the above goals by discussing how the narratives of traveling thousands of miles to a radically different socio-cultural milieu in order to receive essential medical care produce two interrelated emotional geographies: first, they demonstrate the existence of ‘emotional amplification’ (increase in the intensity of emotions) and ‘emotional extensivity’ (increase in the range of emotions) and second, they show how anxiety is underpinned by proximity to Otherness, uncertain boundaries, and isolated decision making. We conclude by briefly addressing how our examination of these narratives can be usefully expanded.     

The Poliomyelitis Epidemic in Johannesburg in 1918: Medical and Public Responses

ABSTRACT

This article traces the appearance of poliomyelitis in Johannesburg during the first recognised epidemic in South Africa in the early months of 1918. The course of the epidemic is examined by reviewing available statistics and investigating the problems that the epidemic imposed on medical and health authorities, both locally and within higher echelons of power. The response of the Johannesburg community to the disease is explored, as are the treatments available to polio patients at a time when the disease was regarded as ‘a mystery’. The place of the 1918 epidemic in the wider history of polio in South Africa is also explored.     

Egas Moniz and the Origins of Psychosurgery: A Review Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Moniz's Nobel Prize

Modern psychosurgery began in 1936 with the work of the Portuguese neurologist, Egas Moniz, who attempted to treat the symptoms of mental illness by severing neural tracts in the frontal lobes. This procedure eventually became widespread and applied to thousands of institutionalized, psychotic patients in the United States and other countries. Despite serious side effects associated with psychosurgery, the apparent importance and validity of the treatment was recognized in 1949 when Moniz received the Nobel Prize for his innovation. Psychosurgery was largely replaced by anti-psychotic drugs in the mid-1950s, and the procedure and its practitioners rapidly fell into disrepute. This article reviews Moniz's career, the factors that led up to his first clinical trials of frontal lobe surgery, and the circumstances that allowed psychosurgery to flourish in the 1940s, eventually leading to Moniz's Nobel Prize.     

Department of Neurosurgery,Seoul National University College of Medicine: 50th Anniversary (1957–2007) by History Compilation Committee (Chair: Young Seob Chung)

The public opinion and the scientific community incorrectly believe that the English term “lunatic” was originally related only to insanity, but it also referred to epileptic people. The aim of this article is to clarify the original meaning of the English word “lunatic” by analyzing the evolution of the relationship between psychiatric and neurological diseases and by pointing out the influence of the moon in the history of medicine, in popular traditions, and in English literature. The article also contains a detailed and accurate review of the modern scientific literature on the relationship between moon and epilepsy/psychiatric disorders.     

Thomas Graham Brown (1882–1965): Behind the Scenes at the Cardiff Institute of Physiology

Thomas Graham Brown undertook seminal experiments on the neural control of locomotion between 1910 and 1915. Although elected to the Royal Society in 1927, his locomotion research was largely ignored until the 1960s when it was championed and extended by the distinguished neuroscientist, Anders Lundberg. Puzzlingly, Graham Brown's published research stopped in the 1920s and he became renowned as a mountaineer. In this article, we review his life and multifaceted career, including his active neurological service in WWI. We outline events behind the scenes during his tenure at Cardiff's Institute of Physiology in Wales, UK, including an interview with his technician, Terrence J. Surman, who worked in this institute for over half a century.     

北京市公共服务设施供需协调发展的时空演化特征——以教育医疗设施为例

公共服务设施的优化配置是构建和谐社会、改善民生的内在要求。本文通过构建协调发展度模型,对北京市2001年和2012年16个区县教育医疗设施供需关系及二者协调发展的时空演化特征进行研究。研究认为:①教育设施"供不应需",供需差距增大;协调发展等级总体较低且有下降趋势;协调发展水平由"东高西低"向"南高北低"格局演变,空间差异增大。②医疗设施"供不应需",供需差距缩小;供需协调发展等级较低但有上升趋势,空间格局由"中心集聚"向"南高北低"演变,空间差异减小。