George Sigerson: Charcot's translator

Senator George Sigerson (1836-1925), Dublin's first neurologist, was also a significant contributor to Anglo-Irish literature. His medical career and literary accomplishments are outlined, the focus of the article being Sigerson's friendly relationship with Charcot (with whom he corresponded), and whose Le?ons sur les maladies du système nerveux he translated.     

Marginalized Potters and Ceramic Compositional Groups: Neutron Activation Analysis of Contemporary Pottery from Tigray,Northern Highland Ethiopia

The study presents the results of neutron activation analysis (NAA) of contemporary pottery from Tigray Regional State, northern highland Ethiopia. This is the first regional-scale study of ceramic composition of Tigray’s pottery and is part of an ethnoarchaeological study of the material and social contexts of pottery production and consumption in Tigray’s Eastern (Misraqawi), Central (Mehakelegnaw), and North-western (Semien Mi’irabawi) zones. The analysis identifies clear compositional groups with strong regional patterns, an encouraging result for the use of NAA to study Tigray’s ancient pottery trade. Significantly, the study further contributes to discussions of how mutually constituted social identities of potters and consumers affect compositional patterning in the distribution of pottery in market networks.     

James Joyce: steps towards a diagnosis

Authors whose scholarship is in the golden realm of English literature have not hesitated to make pronouncements on James Joyce's health. A publication in this genre claims he had tabes dorsalis. One feels that an authoritative comment, accepting or rejecting a diagnosis of neurosyphilis, should be provided by the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences.     

Cats of the Pharaohs: Genetic Comparison of Egyptian Cat Mummies to their Feline Contemporaries

The ancient Egyptians mummified an abundance of cats during the Late Period (664 - 332 BC). The overlapping morphology and sizes of developing wildcats and domestic cats confounds the identity of mummified cat species. Genetic analyses should support mummy identification and was conducted on two long bones and a mandible of three cats that were mummified by the ancient Egyptians. The mummy DNA was extracted in a dedicated ancient DNA laboratory at the University of California - Davis, then directly sequencing between 246 and 402 bp of the mtDNA control region from each bone. When compared to a dataset of wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris, F. s. tristrami, and F. chaus) as well as a previously published worldwide dataset of modern domestic cat samples, including Egypt, the DNA evidence suggests the three mummies represent common contemporary domestic cat mitotypes prevalent in modern Egypt and the Middle East. Divergence estimates date the origin of the mummies' mitotypes to between two and 7.5 thousand years prior to their mummification, likely prior to or during Egyptian Predyanstic and Early Dynastic Periods. These data are the first genetic evidence supporting that the ancient Egyptians used domesticated cats, F. s. catus, for votive mummies, and likely implies cats were domesticated prior to extensive mummification of cats.     

Tej Consumption and Production in the Commensal Politics and Political Economy of States in Northern Highland Ethiopia

International Journal of Historical Archaeology - Control over the production and consumption of tej (honeywine) and the honey to produce it, was part of the political economy of the Abyssinian...     

John Cheyne's classic monographs

John Cheyne (1777-1836), a Scotsman born in Leith, graduated at Edinburgh University but spent most of his career in Dublin. He was professor of medicine (1813-19) at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, physician to the House of Industry Hospitals and co-founder of the Dublin Hospital Reports in which his celebrated account of a patient with irregular breathing was described in 1818. His Essay on hydrocephalus acutus (1808) and Cases of apoplexy and lethargy (1812), important nineteenth-century contributions to neuropathology are considered here in detail. Towards the end of his life he was afflicted by depression and his posthumously-published Essays on the partial derangement of the mind (1843) was written as a therapeutic exercise.     

Extracts from John Hennen's Principles of Military Surgery

Born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland, John Hennen graduated in Edinburgh and had a career as an army surgeon, serving through the Peninsular War. His Principles of Military Surgery reached a third edition (posthumously) in 1829; his views on nerve-injuries, tetanus, head-injuries and syphilis are considered below.