The promises and pitfalls of precision: random and systematic error in physical geodesy, c. 1800-1910

This article discusses the ways in which nineteenth-century geodesists reflected on precision as an epistemic virtue in their measurement practice. Physical geodesy is often understood as a quintessential nineteenth-century precision science, stimulating advances in instrument making and statistics, and generating incredible quantities of data. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, geodesists indeed pursued their most prestigious research problem - the exact determination of the earth's polar flattening - along those lines. Treating measurement errors as random, they assumed that remaining discordances could be overcome by manufacturing better instruments and extending statistical analysis to a larger amount of data. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, several German geodesists developed sophisticated methodological critiques of their discipline, in which they diagnosed a too-narrow focus on precision among their peers. On their account, geodesists urgently needed to identify and anticipate the causes of the remaining measurement errors that arose from the earth's little understood interior constitution. While mostly overlooked in the literature, these critiques paved the way for many empirical successes in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century geodesy, including the first convergent measurements of the earth's polar flattening.

Royle's sympathectomy for spastic paralysis: Sorry saga or scientific awakening?

On October 20, 1924, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, two medical graduates of the University of Sydney delivered the John B. Murphy Oration to the American College of Surgeons on the topic of sympathetic ramisection for the treatment of spastic paralysis. The surgery was regarded as a triumph. The triumph, however, was short-lived, when one of the speakers, John Irvine Hunter, a promising anatomist, died prematurely. Norman Royle, an orthopedic surgeon, continued the research program and continued to perform these operations. Within a few short years, however, the theory of the dual nerve supply of skeletal muscle, which underpinned the procedure, and the results of surgery for spastic paralysis came under question. Nevertheless, Royle's sympathectomy found another indication and became the treatment of choice for peripheral vascular disease for several decades thereafter. Although Hunter and Royle's original work was discredited, their research turned their sorry saga into a scientific awakening of the sympathetic nervous system.

Physiology, Vitalism, and the Contest for Body and Soul in the Antebellum United States

In the early nineteenth century, physiology became an increasingly popular and powerful science in the United States. Religious controversy over the nature of human vitality animated much of this interest. On one side of these debates stood Protestant apologists who wedded an immaterialist vitalism to their belief in an immaterial, immortal soul - and therefore to their dreams of a Christian republic. On the other side, religious skeptics argued for a materialist vitalism that excluded anything immaterial from human life, aspiring thereby to eliminate religious interference in the progress of science and society. Both sides hoped that by claiming physiology for their vision of human nature they might direct the future of religion in the US. Ultimately, they failed to realize these ambitions, but their contest posed a dilemma late nineteenth-century physiologists felt compelled to solve: how should they comprehend the relationship between life, body, and soul? Eager to undertake laboratory work and leave metaphysical questions behind, these researchers solved the problem by restricting their work to the body while leaving spiritual matters to preachers. In attempting to escape the vitalism and soul questions, late nineteenth-century Americans thus created a division of labor that shaped the history of medicine and religion for the following century.

Illustrating insanity: Allan McLane Hamilton, Types of Insanity, and physiognomy in late nineteenth-century American medicine

This article examines the divisive reception history of American psychiatrist and neurologist Alexander McLane Hamilton's physiognomy publication, Types of Insanity (1883). By analyzing 23 book reviews published in late-nineteenth-century medical journals, the authors present a bibliographic case study that traces the mixed professional reactions to Hamilton's work, thus revealing the fraught nature of physiognomy in the American medical community. In effect, the authors argue that the interprofessional disagreements that emerged among journal reviewers indicate the nascent efforts of psychiatrists and neurologists to oppose physiognomy in the interest of professionalization. By extension, the authors emphasize the historical value of book reviews and reception literature. Often overlooked as ephemera, book reviews register the shifting ideologies, temperaments, and attitudes of an era's readership.

The spring of order: Robert Main's management of astronomical labor at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

During the early nineteenth century the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, significantly increased the number of individuals it employed. One of the new roles created was the position of First Assistant, who oversaw the management of astronomical labor at the observatory. This article examines the contribution of Robert Main, who was the first person employed in this role. It shows that, through Robert Main's duties and tasks, the observatory appears as a hybrid site embodying aspects of the other institutions that formed part of its operational network. Moreover, it demonstrates that the transformation of the observatory during the nineteenth century was driven by his rigorous maintenance of discipline in relation to the daily operations of the site.

'Hairy honours of their chins': whiskers and masculinity in early nineteenth-century Britain

Studies of the Victorian 'beard movement' of the 1850s have demonstrated the close connections between facial hair and shifting ideas of, and concerns about, masculinity, gender, sexuality and modernity. The 'beard movement' is generally seen as the return of facial hair after 150 years of beardlessness. The turn of the nineteenth century, however, witnessed a new and previously overlooked fashion for side-whiskers among young British men, one that initially caused controversy and ridicule, but which gradually became acceptable as a male accoutrement, and spurred a market for cosmetic products. What might be termed the 'whiskers movement' of the early 1800s offers a new and earlier perspective on facial hair as a form of embodied masculinity, and its place in contemporary debates about manliness, male fashion and appearance, sexuality and effeminacy, and political and revolutionary affiliations.

The early history of the knee-jerk reflex in neurology

Medical interest in the knee-jerk reflex began in about 1875 with simultaneous and independent publications by Wilhelm Heinrich Erb (1840-1921) and Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal (1833-1890) contending that the knee jerk was absent (and the ankle clonus was present) in all clear cases of locomotor ataxia (tabes dorsalis). Physicians in the medical communities of Europe, Great Britain, and North America responded with case and large group studies that tested this contention. These studies revealed the usefulness of the knee jerk and other myotatic reflexes, but also unexpected characteristics. The knee jerk, apparently so simple, proved to be a complex phenomenon depending the strength of the strike on the patella, induced muscle tension, and inhibition from the brain. Was it a reflex with afferent and efferent nerves and an intervening process in the spinal cord, or was it a local phenomenon confined to the muscle itself? Experimental studies directed at the reflex issue investigated latencies from patella strike to leg extension or muscle contraction and compared them with latencies from direct muscle strikes and theoretical calculations based on reflex components. Such studies were unable to resolve the reflex issue during the nineteenth century. The physicians were shown to be limited, like all scientific explorers of the unknown, by their knowledge, methodology, and technology.

Eugène-Louis Doyen and his Atlas d'Anatomie Topographique (1911): Sensationalism and gruesome theater

French surgeon and anatomist Eugène-Louis Doyen (1859-1916) was a focus of controversy and scandal throughout his career, an innovative surgeon of great technical skill whose unsurpassed abilities were offset by narcissistic and frequently unethical behavior. Doyen produced the most controversial atlas of human anatomy of the early-twentieth century, his Atlas d'Anatomie Topographique. He used a chemical process to fix whole cadavers, then used a motorized band saw with a sliding table to precisely cut sequential slices in all three anatomic planes. His intentionally arresting images of the nervous system in situ (using heliotypes in his atlas and projected images of prepared specimens in his lectures) made for gruesome theater, directed more at the public than the medical profession, which Doyen disdained and delighted in antagonizing. Although photography and photomechanical reproduction facilitated the rapid production of Doyen's atlas, many of the fine details were lost. In addition, although he developed tissue fixation techniques that preserved the natural colors of tissues, this was not evident in the monochrome images of the printed atlas. Doyen's atlas is compared with other anatomic atlases of the late-nineteenth century that included serial sections of the central nervous system, either from sections of entire cadavers, the isolated head, or the excised brain. In retrospect, Doyen's fevered activity, including his efforts to depict the topographic anatomy of the nervous system, produced only modest benefits, and often produced significant costs for his patients, his colleagues, the medical profession, and his own reputation.

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century brain maps relating to locations and constructions of brain functions

This article is an outline of the transition in "brain maps" used to illustrate locations of cortical "centers" associated with movements, sensations, and language beginning with images from Gall and Spurzheim in the nineteenth century through those of functional magnetic resonance imaging in the twenty-first century. During the intervening years, new approaches required new brain maps to illustrate them, and brain maps helped to objectify and naturalize mental processes. One approach, electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex-exemplified by Fritsch and Hitzig in 1870, Ferrier in 1873, and Penfield by 1937-required brain maps showing functional centers with expanded and overlapping boundaries. In another approach, brain maps that linked cortical centers to account for the complex syndromes of aphasia, apraxia, alexia, and agraphia were initially constructed by Baginsky in 1871, Wernicke in 1874, and Lichtheim in 1885, then later by Lissauer in 1890, Dejerine in 1892, and Liepmann in 1920, and eventually by Geschwind in 1965 and others through the late twentieth century. Over that intervening time, brain maps changed from illustrations of points on the cerebral cortex where movements and sensations were elicited to illustrations of areas (centers) associated with recognizable functions to illustrations of connections between those areas that account for complex symptoms occurring in clinical patients. By the end of this period, advancements in physics, mathematics, and cognitive science resulted in inventions that allowed brain maps of cortical locations derived from cognitive manipulations rather than from the usual electrical or ablative manipulations. "Mental" dependent variables became "cognitive" independent variables.

Aboriginal Australian mental health during the first 100 years of colonization, 1788-1888: a historical review of nineteenth-century documents

Past histories charting interactions between British healthcare and Aboriginal Australians have tended to be dominated by broad histological themes such as invasion and colonization. While such descriptions have been vital to modernization and truth telling in Australian historical discourse, this paper investigates the nineteenth century through the modern cultural lens of mental health. We reviewed primary documents, including colonial diaries, church sermons, newspaper articles, medical and burial records, letters, government documents, conference speeches and anthropological journals. Findings revealed six overlapping fields which applied British ideas about mental health to Aboriginal Australians during the nineteenth century. They included military invasion, religion, law, psychological systems, lunatic asylums, and anthropology.

Antiseptics leave the Clinic-The Introduction of (Puerperal) Prophylaxis in Austrian Midwifery Education (1870s-1880s)

By introducing compulsory antiseptic measures in 1881, the Austrian Empire became a trendsetter in European midwifery legislation. Starting with the focus on puerperal infection in the 1870s, this article investigates the process from the first proposal of antiseptic regimes within a clinical setting to the dissemination of antiseptic knowledge among the midwifery profession. Competition between the leading medical men throughout the Austrian territories played a major role and influenced the way in which antiseptic measures were propagated. The article identifies the antiseptic collectives active at the leading universities of Prague and Vienna. As practical instruction during midwifery education was not regarded as sufficient, the late 1870s and 1880s saw the emergence of several instruction textbooks. Changing birth attendance routines and the innovative materials that entered midwifery practice are explored and discussed, based on these manuals, alongside evidence of midwives' reactions as published in the Austrian Midwifery Newspaper.

True to form: Media and data technologies of self-inscription

This paper examines self-inscription, a mode of census enumeration that emerged during the nineteenth century. Starting in the 1840s, a number of European states introduced self-inscription as an auxiliary means to facilitate the work of enumerators. However, a decisive shift occurred when Prussian census statisticians implemented self-inscription via individual "Zählkarten"-or "counting cards"-in 1871. The paper argues that scientific ideals of accuracy and precision prevalent in the sciences at the time motivated Prussian census officials to initiate self-inscription as an at-home scenario unmediated by enumerators, in which the census form alone was to yield truthful information from the respondents. By illuminating the bureaucratic means for implementing scientific ideals and practices in gathering personal census data, the paper offers an in-depth analysis of the media, technologies, and manpower that census takers deployed to reveal the epistemic-as well as social and political-impact of being "true to form."

Contextualizing ovarian pain in the late 19th century - Part 2: Ovarian-based treatments of "hysteria"

The peculiar therapeutic practice of "ovarian compression"-paradoxically, both in initiating and in terminating hysterical activity-remains largely unexplained territory from both historical and medical perspectives. The gynecological indications of "hysteria" and "hystero-epilepsy" are now considered to be among similar questionable indications as contemporaneous "nymphomania" and "epilepsy." This article analyzes historical clinical observations, as well as surgical experiences of the time, to determine if there has been a uniform understanding of the ovarian contribution to "hystero-epilepsy." The respective findings are interpreted in light of the physiology of "chronic pelvic pain." Evidence for pain as a source of hystero-epileptic attacks is further represented through a series of clinical photographs suggesting a link to current problems, such as severe left-lower-quadrant pain. The emerging insights link more clearly to the functional role (le rôle fonctionnel) of the ovaries in relation to the "fits" of hystero-epileptic patients, while validating women's pain experiences during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Differences in the interpretation of disease concepts between Robert Battey (1828-1895) and Octave Terrillon (1844-1895) thereby permit an understanding of variations in the use of the removal of women's ovaries for pain.

Contextualizing ovarian pain in the late 19th century-Part 1: Women with "hysteria" and "hystero-epilepsy"

"Hysteria" and "hystero-epilepsy" were common medical diagnoses among physicians during the nineteenth century. In Paris, L'Hôpital de la Salpêtrière-originally a hospice for the poor and a prison for prostitutes and other female inmates-became a center of great interest for the possible role of neurological diseases in these conditions. At the same time in the Americas and Europe, gynecologists were removing women's ovaries in cases with the same clinical conditions, which emphasized the role of the ovaries in contemporary hysteria studies in France, Great Britain, and the United States. The objective of this article is to explore nineteenth-century conceptualizations of ovarian pain as an organ-pathological substrate for a portion of these diagnoses. The theoretical role of the pelvic organs in these diagnoses has waxed and waned over the centuries, but there have not been many detailed explorations of the associated clinical phenomena. Suggesting an organic basis (le substratum organique) for the diagnoses remains a precarious notion, given the universally repudiated role of the uterus and decreasing interest in the ovary. In contemporary literature, the potential role of the ovary has not been addressed from a detailed medical perspective, however.

Western European influence on the development of Russian neurology and psychiatry, part 1: Western European tours of early Russian neurologists and psychiatrists

Beginning in the 1860s, two major centers of neurology and psychiatry arose in Russia: Imperial Moscow University (IMU) and Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg (IMSA). Both centers were strongly influenced by Leading Western European schools and specialists, through the clinical and research training regimes of both Russian universities, strongly influenced these centers of learning. In this study, we elaborate the Western European training of the first Russian specialists in the fields of neurology and neuropsychiatry from IMU and IMSA during the period from the late 1850s to 1900. Although prior studies emphasized the influence of French mentors and institutions, the Western European tours of early Russian specialists often included multiple destinations in Germany, France, and Austria. The most commonly visited cities (in descending order) were Paris, Berlin, Leipsig, and Vienna. The most commonly visited training centers (in descending order) were Hoôpital Salpêtriêre (Paris), Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (Berlin), Charité (Berlin), Universität Leipzig, First Psychiatric Clinic (Vienna), and Hôpital Sainte-Anne (Paris). The most commonly visited mentors, in descending order, were Charcot (Paris), Flechsig (Leipzig), Westphal (Berlin), Meynert (Vienna), and Magnan (Paris). Training of Russian specialists in Western Europe facilitated the emergence and development of the neurological and psychiatric schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Sex ratios and gender discrimination in Modern Greece

This paper argues that son preference resulted in gender-based discriminatory practices that unduly increased mortality rates for females at birth and throughout infancy and childhood in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Greece. The relative numbers of boys and girls at birth was extremely high and under-registration of females cannot on its own explain this result. The infanticide and/or mortal neglect of infant girls was therefore more common than previously acknowledged. Likewise, sex ratios increased as children grew older, thus suggesting that parents continued to treat boys and girls differently throughout childhood. A large body of qualitative evidence (contemporary accounts, folklore traditions, feminist newspapers, and anthropological studies) further supports the conclusion that girls were neglected due to their inferior status in society.

A Tale of Two Nineteenth-century Dutch Jewish Hospitals-One a Success, The Other a Failure

The development of the modern hospital is usually dated to the nineteenth century. During this time, many municipal and sectarian hospitals were established and developed, and Jewish hospitals were no exception. Such developments also occurred in the Netherlands. This essay describes the different histories of the Jewish hospitals in Rotterdam and The Hague during the nineteenth century. The Rotterdam institution lasted for more than 130 years (until it was closed by the Nazis during the Second World War), whereas the one in The Hague existed for only 31 years. This study will suggest a number of possible explanations for the relatively long and successful history of the Jewish hospital in Rotterdam and the contrastingly brief duration of the Jewish hospital in The Hague.

Recognizing synesthesia on the international stage: The first scientific symposium on synesthesia (at The International Conference of Physiological Psychology, Paris, 1889)

At the first ever worldwide international conference of psychology in Paris, 1889, one symposium included a round-table event devoted entirely to the neurodevelopmental condition of synesthesia. Details of this seminal gathering on synesthesia and its international reception have been lost to historical obscurity. A synesthesia study committee emerged from this meeting, as well as a new research tool. Moreover, the scientific findings discussed during this symposium would be echoed over a hundred years later, when a new wave of synesthesia research in the late-twentieth century arose. This article sheds new light on this seminal gathering and aims to answer the following historical questions: Why was synesthesia included in this conference? What science was discussed? Who were the members of the committee and how did they come to be involved? What were their contributions to synesthesia research before, during, and after the conference? What has history shown us about the impact of this symposium on the science of synesthesia?

The evolution of the concept of synesthesia in the nineteenth century as revealed through the history of its name

Synesthesia is a rare perceptual condition causing unusual sensations, which are triggered by the stimulation of otherwise unrelated modalities (e.g., the sensation of colors triggered when listening to music). In addition to the name it takes today, the condition has had a wide variety of designations throughout its scientific history. These different names have also been accompanied by shifting boundaries in its definition, and the literature has undergone a considerable process of change in the development of a term for synesthesia, starting with "obscure feeling" in 1772, and ending with the first emergence of the true term "synesthesia" or "synæsthesiæ" in 1892. In this article, we will unpack the complex history of this nomenclature; provide key excerpts from central texts, in often hard-to-locate sources; and translate these early passages and terminologies into English.

Mapmaking and Mapthinking: Cancer as a Problem of Place in Nineteenth-century England

In the nineteenth century, Dr Alfred Haviland plotted the distribution of cancer on maps of England. Matured within the intellectual milieu of nascent professional public health, his work can be married to that of his fellow sanitary reformers; however, his approach to medical cartography differed from what historians expect of Victorian mapmakers. While most of his mapmaking colleagues attended to urban places, Haviland turned his attention to the English countryside. This article will thus make three interventions into the limited literature on cancer in nineteenth-century England. First, it will demonstrate how cancer came to be constituted as a problem of place. Second, it will show that Haviland understood the disease to be produced by rural environs, and thus paradoxically correlated to healthful locales rather than areas of urban squalor. Third, this article suggests an alternative to the well-travelled interpretation of nineteenth-century mapping as an exercise in power and social control.

The "golden age" of synesthesia inquiry in the late nineteenth century (1876-1895)

Synesthesia is a rare neurological trait that causes unusual, often cross-sensory, experiences (e.g., seeing colors when listening to music). This article traces the history of synesthesia in the period 1876 to 1895. In this period, there was considerable debate over the nature of synesthesia, its causes, and how it should be named. The issue also attracted the leading thinkers of the time and, within a few years, the number of reported cases of synesthesia jumped from around ten to more than 100. For this reason, this period can be regarded as the "golden age" for synesthesia research in the nineteenth century. In this time, scientists debated whether synesthesia was a form of pathology or an alternative manifestation of intelligence. The differing roles of heredity and environment were contested, and there were several explanations proposed as to its neural basis. These enquiries went to the heart of the debate as to whether synesthetic experiences are special in any way or, instead, a more vivid manifestation of a more general capacity for forming associations.

The Stethoscope in 19th-Century American Practice: Ideas, Rhetoric, and Eventual Adoption

The stethoscope was invented in 1816 by the French physician R.T.H. Laennec, who, after three years of clinical observations, published his treatise Mediate Auscultation in 1819. In his treatise, Laennec included details of his new method of using the stethoscope to provide physiological and pathological evaluation of patients. American physicians attended lectures and clinics at Paris hospitals and carried this information back to their respective medical schools and practices. This was accomplished by a relatively limited number of elite American physicians who were able to take advantage of travel abroad and whose practices were academically affiliated. However, it is a well-substantiated historical claim that the adoption of the stethoscope by most American physicians was slow. There are many reasons for slow adoption of the stethoscope in America, among which are lack of formal education, including bedside training in the stethoscope, complexity of interpretation of auscultatory information, hesitancy of the patient and physician to have an instrument placed between them, and lack of opportunities for continuing education for physicians after leaving medical school. As the nineteenth century progressed, scientific ideas and rhetoric related to auscultation and the stethoscope became more widespread, reflecting gradual acceptance and adoption of the stethoscope by American practitioners. In this article, I examine the ideas and rhetoric in medical journal articles, advertisements, and medical school textbooks to learn what was thought by physicians to be important in their practice. Advertisement of medical school curricula with mention of specific course work or lectures related to auscultation or the stethoscope is noted, reflecting increased interest in the stethoscope as an adjunct to physical examination. This information introduces evidence to test and bolster the existing historical claims of slow adoption of the stethoscope by addressing in more detail when and why adoption by American physicians became widespread.

Measuring souls: Psychometry, female instruments, and subjective science, 1840-1910

This essay focuses on the history of psychometry, the science of soul measuring. For its founder, Dr Joseph Rodes Buchanan, the soul was simultaneously an object for anthropological research and a measuring instrument capable of revealing human character, interpreting natural history, and demonstrating the reality of an immortal soul. Psychometry taught that human souls, especially those of women, were capable of acting as instruments because they could feel the mysterious energies that people and objects radiated. Although orthodox male scientists rejected the visions of sensitive women as the antithesis of reliable data, psychometric researchers believed that the feelings of women were both the instruments and information that made their science possible. Psychometry promised to revolutionize science by insisting that sympathy and subjectivity, not detachment and objectivity, ought to undergird research. Yet as male experimenters worked to prove psychometry's effectiveness, they almost invariably cast themselves as detached observers accurately recording the data provided by their female instruments. Thus, despite pushing for scientific reform, the methods and discourse of male psychometric experimenters eroded their field's core arguments about connectedness and subjectivity and, instead, reinforced the notion that detachment and objectivity were essential to legitimate science. Challenges to objectivity could prove just how thoroughly it dominated scientific discourse and practice. Still, some psychometers, particularly women who practiced at home, were untroubled by the fact that their research was predicated on subjective feelings, and psychometry remained a viable pursuit among spiritualists even as it faded from the realm of science. Psychometry emerged and, ultimately, fractured amid tensions between widespread enthusiasm for sciences that emphasized spiritual connectedness and the mounting pressure to legitimize scientific knowledge through the language and practices of objectivity.

The promotion of phrenology in New South Wales, 1830-1850, at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts

Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, began as a penal colony in 1788. British phrenologists would later show an intense interest in this new settlement, aroused by questions raised by convict transportation and indigenous assimilation into European culture. A more sinister engagement involved the scientific trafficking of Aboriginal skulls. This practice was seen, however, not as body snatching but as a meaningful contribution to the progress of science. In 1833, a group of educated, influential men formed the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts (SMSA). This organization was successful where previously learned societies had failed. These men aimed to see the diffusion of scientific and useful knowledge throughout the colony and to enhance the lot of the working man (mechanics). They planned to achieve this aim with lectures, demonstration classes, and the development of a library and museum. Phrenology fitted perfectly into their curriculum. From 1838 to the late 1840s, many of Sydney Town's prominent medical practitioners and other professionals delivered lectures promoting this "science." However, interest in the study of phrenology at the SMSA waned from the 1850s, when itinerant phrenologists turned the practice into a popular entertainment.

Anatomopathological research in nineteenth-century Gdańsk - an outline of the problem

Between 1793 and 1914, there were many internationally recognised physicians active in Gdansk. Their scientific activities included, among other things, anatomopathological research, constituting a determinant of progress in medical sciences during this period. One of the most important people was Martin Heinrich Rathke (1793-1860). He is recognised as one of the founders of modern embryology. In Gdansk Rathke's successor was Wilhelm Baum (1799-1883). Baum introduced compulsory post-mortem examinations in the city hospital even after the outbreak, and he was mentor to Theodor Billroth (1829-1894). The successor of Baum as the head of the city hospital was Emil Friedrich Götz (1806-1858). He took up an important topic, which was the consent of the family of the deceased to perform an autopsy. Furthermore, it described the gradual broadening of the scope of anatomopathological activities, consistent with the postulates of the first and second Viennese school, performed in Gdansk in the nineteenth century. However, a detailed analysis of the relationship between the discoveries of nineteenth-century medicine, especially in the field of pathological anatomy, and research carried out in Gdansk, remains in the sphere of research to be done.

The laryngoscope and nineteenth-century British understanding of laryngeal movements

The source of the human voice is obscured from view. The development of the laryngoscope in the late 1850s provided the potential to see the action of the vocal folds during speaking for the first time. This new instrument materially contributed to the understanding of vocal fold neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and neuropathology. The laryngoscope led to elaborated understanding of disorders that previously were determined by changes in sound. The objective of this paper is to detail the consequences of this novel visualization of the larynx, and to trace how it aided in the development of understanding of the movements of the vocal folds. This is demonstrated through an examination of the activities and practices of a group of London clinicians in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Reading Photography in French Nineteenth Century Journals

This article explores how photographs published in the French medical and, to some extent, the popular press helped readers to interpret expressions and gestures as signs of emotional states, morbid conditions and physiological and psychological processes. The first two sections examine the use of photography to visualise normal and pathological bodies through measurements and experiments in the medical press, particularly Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière, Archives de Neurologie and L'Année Psychologique. The next two sections study how the development of new photographic processes such as the magnesium flash and chronophotography created new conditions in which the body could be visually scrutinised in the medical press as well as popular journals such as Le Théâtre and the general scientific journal La Nature. This analys results in two main findings: 1) medical journals used photography to assert their own disciplinary identities, and 2) photography acted as a potential bridge between audiences, as some medical and popular journals shared the same beliefs regarding photography's ability to represent the human body, but approached photographic innovations from different, albeit complementary, ways.

The genealogy of the clinical syndrome of mania: signs and symptoms described in psychiatric texts from 1880 to 1900

In 1800, mania was conceptualized as an agitated psychotic state. By 1900, it closely resembled its modern form. This paper reviews the descriptions of mania in Western psychiatry from 1880 to 1900, when Kraepelin was training and developing his concept of manic-depressive illness. Psychiatric textbooks published 1900-1960 described 22 characteristic manic symptoms/signs the presence of which were recorded in 25 psychiatric textbooks and three other key documents published 1880-1900. Descriptions of mania in these nineteenth century textbooks closely resembled those in the twentieth century, recording a mean (s.d.) of 15.9 (2.3) and 17.0 (2.3) of the characteristic symptoms, respectively (p = 0.12). The frequency with which individual symptoms were reported was substantially correlated in these two periods (r = +0.64). Mendel's 1881 monograph, Kraepelin's first description of mania in 1883 and the entry for mania in Tuke's Dictionary of Psychological Medicine (1892) described a mean (s.d.) of 19 (1.7) of these characteristic symptoms. These descriptions of mania often contained phenomenologically rich descriptions of euphoria, hyperactivity, grandiosity, flight of ideas, and poor judgment. They also emphasized several features not in DSM criteria including changes in character, moral standards and physical appearance, and increased sense of humor and sexual drive. Fifteen authors described key symptoms/signs of mania most reporting elevated mood, motoric hyperactivity and accelerated mental processes. By 1880, the syndrome of mania had been largely stabilized in its modern form. In the formation of his concept of manic-depressive illness, Kraepelin utilized the syndrome of mania as described in the psychiatric community in which he was trained.

Mental illness in Sweden (1896-1905) reflected through case records from a local general hospital

Mental illness in a hospital in a medium-sized town in Sweden was studied. Consecutive case records from 1896 to 1905, and also from 2011, were selected. In the historical sample, neurasthenia was the most common diagnosis, followed by affective disorders and alcohol abuse. ICD-10 diagnoses corresponded well with the historical diagnoses. Melancholia resembled modern criteria for depression. Mania, insania simplex and paranoia indicated more severe illness. Abuse was more common among men and hysteria among women. Those with a medical certificate for mental hospital care were very ill and showed no gender difference. There were no diagnoses for abuse, but 17% had a high level of alcohol consumption. The pattern of signs and symptoms displayed by patients does not appear to change with time.

Hospital Care for Jews in Nineteenth-century Amsterdam: The Emergence of the First Jewish Hospitals

In the early seventeenth century, the Jews formally established two separate communities in Amsterdam, the Portuguese Sephardi and the High German Ashkenazi congregations. Until the end of the eighteenth century, medical care for the Amsterdam indigent Jews had been controlled and regulated by the powerful Parnasim, the de facto rulers, of each community. The primary communal organizations that were exclusively responsible for medical care for the poor were the Bikur Holim societies. This approach for the care of the indigent Jewish sick became ineffective in the nineteenth century and was replaced by a hospital-based system. This essay describes how seriously ill indigent Jews in nineteenth-century Amsterdam received hospital care, tracing the establishment and development of the first Ashkenazi and Sephardi hospitals in the city. Although each community established their own hospital, they used different approaches to accomplish this goal.

Procedures and complications in late-nineteenth-century experimental neuroanatomical research exemplified by articles of Henry Herbert Donaldson (1857-1938)

Henry Herbert Donaldson (1857-1938) was a leader in neurological research in the United States for several decades, beginning about 1890. A detailed account of three of his earliest publications shows the neuroanatomical procedures involved in the study of the relation of brain and intelligence during the late-nineteenth-century in America. Two of the articles, published in September 1890 and December 1891, were titled, "Anatomical Observations on the Brain and Several Sense-Organs of the Blind Deaf-Mute, Laura Dewy Bridgman (1829-1889)"; the third, published in August 1892, used the information from the first two to delimit the extent of the visual processing area of the human cortex. Donaldson's procedures included brain cuttings and measures of macroscopic brain structures, histology of cellular structures, attempts to relate macroscopic brain structures with brain functions, data corrections, estimations, comparisons, and statistics. These procedures provide a view of the relative thoroughness, accuracy, and comparability of the various neuroanatomical techniques in use at that time and of Donaldson's implementation of the techniques. Donaldson's brain cutting techniques were much more comparable than his measurement techniques. The latter could be quite precise, but they were fraught with lack of standardized procedures that made corrections and estimations necessary when making data comparisons across studies. Donaldson emphasized these incompatibilities, implying a need for standardization. Statistical procedures were the least thorough and effective. His, and the field's, total complement of statistical techniques consisted of mean and range, which severely limited his ability to make complicated assessments. This limitation was not necessarily supplemented by stringent control group comparisons.

D.176: Sextants, numbers, and the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty

In the 1830s and 1840s, the Hydrographic Office of the British Admiralty developed and oversaw one of the major state-run surveying projects of the nineteenth century. This involved a range of instruments whose circulation was increasingly regulated. Using extant museum collections and the correspondence of those involved, this article explores how such objects can be used to discuss both bureaucratic organization at a time of expanding government and the complex issues of sociability involved in hydrographic surveying. Surveying officers worked in a context in which the propriety of property on public service was a pervasive question. Instruments might be given as gifts between officers, appropriated as recompense, absorbed as state property, and disputed between friends. The ownership, provision, and treatment of instruments in particular could be used to demonstrate an officer's peculiar zeal or institutional neglect. To those outside the ship, what was understood as over-instrumentation became amusing spectacle. On board, their use was part of a deeply hierarchical order of work in regions of colonial and mercantile importance. In examining the relationships around these instruments of survey, the paper proposes a richer understanding of the material culture of hydrography in the early nineteenth century.

Antoine-Marie Chambeyron (1797-1851): a forgotten disciple of Jean-Etienne Esquirol (1772-1840)

Antoine-Marie Chambeyron (1797-1851) was a disciple of Jean-Etienne Esquirol (1772-1840) that history forgot, undoubtedly because he made no original contribution to psychiatric nosography. In 1827, his interest in the medical-legal status of the insane led him to translate into French and annotate the first medical-legal psychiatric treatise ever published, which was the work of the German philosopher Johann Christoph Hoffbauer (1766-1827). His translation played a role in shaping the French Law of 1838, the first piece of modern legislation aimed at protecting the rights of mental patients and limiting the State's power to confine them arbitrarily. Chambeyron is among the least-cited contributors to the prestigious work of nineteenth-century French alienists.

"His Native, Hot Country"1: Racial Science and Environment in Antebellum American Medical Thought

Relying on a close reading of more than 4,000 medicals student theses, this essay explores the evolving medical approaches to race and environment in the early national and antebellum United States and highlights the role that medical school pedagogy played in disseminating and elaborating racial theory. Specifically, it considers the influence of racial science on medical concepts of the relationship of bodies to climates. At their core, monogenesis-belief in a single, unified human race-and polygenesis-the belief that each race was created separately-were theories about the human body's connections to the natural world. As polygenesis became influential in Atlantic medical thought, physicians saw environmental treatments as a matter of matching bodies to their natural ecology. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, Atlantic physicians understood bodies and places as in constant states of flux. Through proper treatment, people and environments could suffer either degradation or improvement. Practitioners saw African Americans and whites as the same species with their differences being largely superficial and produced by climate. However, by the 1830s and 1840s medical students were learning that each race was inherently different and unalterable by time or temperature. In this paradigm, medical students articulated a vision of racial health rooted in organic relationships between bodies and climates.

Jan Evangelista Purkyně (1787-1869) and his instruments for microscopic research in the field of neuroscience

The findings obtained by the famous nineteenth-century Czech scientist Jan Evangelista Purkyně (1787-1869) in the field of microscopic structure of animal and human tissues, including the brain, spinal cord, and nerves, have already been described in depth in a number of older and newer publications. The present article contains an overview of the instruments and tools that Purkyně and his assistants used for microscopic research of tissue histology. Some of these instruments were developed either by Purkyně alone, such as the microtomic compressor, or together with his assistant Adolph Oschatz, such as the microtome. A brief overview of the development of the cutting engines suggests that the first microtome, a prototype of modern sliding microtomes, was designed and constructed under the supervision of Purkyně at the Institute of Physiology in Wrocław. Purkyně and his assistants, thus, not only obtained important findings of animal and human nervous and other tissues but also substantially contributed to the development of instruments and tools for their study, a fact often forgotten today.

American neurophysiology and two nineteenth-century American Physiological Societies

This article contrasts two American Physiological Societies, one founded near the beginning of the nineteenth century in 1837 and the other founded near its end in 1887. The contrast allows a perspective on how much budding neuroscience had developed during the nineteenth century in America. The contrast also emphasizes the complicated structure needed in both medicine and physiology to allow neurophysiology to flourish. The objectives of the American Physiological Society of 1887 were (and are) to promote physiological research and to codify physiology as a discipline. These would be accomplished by making physiology much more inclusive than traditionally accepted by raising research standards, by giving prestige to its members, by providing members a source of professional interchange, by protecting its members from antivivisectionists, and by promoting physiology as fundamental to medicine. The quantity of neuroscientific experiments by its members was striking. The main organizers of the society were Silas Weir Mitchell, John Call Dalton, Henry Pickering Bowditch, and Henry Newell Martin. The objective of the American Physiological Society of 1837 was to disperse knowledge of the "laws of life" and to promote human health and longevity. The primary organizers were William Andrus Alcott and Sylvester Graham with the encouragement of John Benson. Its technique was to use physiological information, not create it as was the case in 1887. Its object was to disseminate the word that healthy eating will improve the quality of life.

Vincenc Alexandr Bohdálek (1801-1883): Czech anatomist and neuroscientist of the nineteenth century

Vincenc Alexandr Bohdálek (Vincenz Alexander Bochdalek) was a well-known anatomist and pathologist in the nineteenth century. Today, however, his name is all but forgotten. Bohdálek described a number of anatomical structures; some of them became eponyms. Unfortunately, his findings concerning the innervation of the eye, upper jaw, hard palate, auditory system, and meninges are little known today. This current overview is based on available archival sources and provides an insight into his results in the field of nervous system research, which account for almost half his work. Bohdálek can clearly be considered a pioneer in the field we now call functional anatomy, as he tried to find a physiological explanation for the anatomical and pathological findings he observed. The work and results of this truly outstanding neuroscientist of his time are thus again available to current and future generations of neuroscientists and neuroanatomists.

'Noisy, restless and incoherent': puerperal insanity at Dundee Lunatic Asylum

Puerperal insanity has been described as a nineteenth-century diagnosis, entrenched in contemporary expectations of proper womanly behaviour. Drawing on detailed study of establishment registers and patient case notes, this paper examines the puerperal insanity diagnosis at Dundee Lunatic Asylum between 1820 and 1860. In particular, the study aims to consider whether the class or social status of the patients had a bearing on how their conditions were perceived and rationalized, and how far the puerperal insanity diagnosis, coloured by the values assigned to it by the medical officers, may have been reserved for some women and not for others. This examination of the diagnosis in a Scottish community, suggesting a contrast in the way that middle-class and working-class women were diagnosed at Dundee, engages with and expands on work on puerperal insanity elsewhere.

From One Medicine to Two: The Evolving Relationship between Human and Veterinary Medicine in England, 1791-1835

This article offers a novel perspective on the evolving identities and relationships of human medicine and veterinary medicine in England during the decades that followed the 1791 foundation of the London Veterinary College. Contrary to the impressions conveyed by both medical and veterinary historians, it reveals that veterinary medicine, as initially defined, taught and studied at the college, was not a domain apart from human medicine but rather was continuous with it. It then shows how this social, cultural, and epistemological continuity fractured over the period 1815 to 1835. Under the impetus of a movement for medical reform, veterinarians began to advance an alternative vision of their field as an autonomous, independent domain. They developed their own societies and journals and a uniquely veterinary epistemology that was rooted in the experiences of veterinary practice. In this way, "one medicine" became "two," and the professions began to assume their modern forms and relations.

The Place of Identity Dissonance and Emotional Motivations in Bio-Cultural Models of Religious Experience: A Report from the 19th Century

Durham University's 'Hearing the Voice' project involves a multi-disciplinary exploration of hallucinatory-type phenomena in an attempt to revaluate and reframe discussions of these experiences. As part of this project, contemporaneous religious experiences (supernatural voices and visions) in the United States from the first half of the nineteenth century have been analysed, shedding light on the value and applicability of contemporary bio-cultural models of religious experience for such historical cases. In particular, this essay outlines four historical cases, seeking to utilise and to refine four theoretical models, including anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann's 'absorption hypothesis', by returning to something like William James' concern with 'discordant personalities'. Ultimately, the paper argues that emphasis on the role of identity dissonance must not be omitted from the analytical tools applied to these nineteenth-century examples, and perhaps should be retained for any study of religious experience generally.

Discovering the structure of nerve tissue: Part 3: From Jan Evangelista Purkyně to Ludwig Mauthner

The previous works of Purkyně, Valentin, and Remak showed that the central and peripheral nervous systems contained not only nerve fibers but also cellular elements. The use of microscopes and new fixation techniques enabled them to accurately obtain data on the structure of nerve tissue and consequently in many European universities microscopes started to become widely used in histological and morphological studies. The present review summarizes important discoveries concerning the structure of neural tissue, mostly from vertebrates, during the period from 1838 to 1865. This review describes the discoveries of famous as well as less well-known scholars of the time, who contributed significantly to current understandings about the structure of neural tissue. The period is characterized by the first descriptions of different types of nerve cells and the first attempts of a cytoarchitectonic description of the spinal cord and brain. During the same time, the concept of a neuroglial tissue was introduced, first as a tissue for "gluing" nerve fibers, cells, and blood capillaries into one unit, but later some glial cells were described for the first time. Questions arose as to whether or not cells in ganglia and the central nervous system had the same morphological and functional properties, and whether nerve fibers and cell bodies were interconnected. Microscopic techniques started to be used for the examination of physiological as well as pathological nerve tissues. The overall state of knowledge was just a step away from the emergence of the concept of neurons and glial cells.

Insanity, belonging and citizenship: mentally ill people who went to and/or returned from Europe in the Late Ottoman Era

The Ottoman Empire, which encompassed a vast territory, had several facilities for the protection and treatment of the mentally ill. By the late nineteenth century, some wealthy families had begun to send their patients to mental hospitals in Europe for better treatment. During the same period, the process of repatriation of mental patients who were Ottoman subjects also began. These processes, which resulted in complex bureaucratic measures, later found a place in regulations and laws. The Ottoman Empire had an additional incentive to protect mentally-ill patients during the Second Constitutional Era, when discussions about 'citizenship' reappeared. This article examines the practices of sending mentally-ill people to Europe and the repatriation of mentally-ill Ottoman subjects from European countries.

The impact of water supply and sanitation on infant mortality: Individual-level evidence from Tartu, Estonia, 1897-1900

Evidence from a number of historical studies has demonstrated a strong impact of the provision of clean water on mortality risks, while no clear effect has been reported in others. We investigated the relationship between water supply, sanitation, and infant survival in Tartu, a university town in Estonia, 1897-1900. Based on data from parish registers, which were linked to the first census of the Russian Empire, the analysis reveals a clear disadvantage for infants in households using surface water, compared with families that acquired water from groundwater or artesian wells. The impact is stronger in the later stages of infancy. Competing-risk analysis shows that the effect is more pronounced for deaths caused by diseases of the digestive system. Our findings suggest that it may have been possible to improve the water supply, and consequently reduce infant mortality, before the introduction of piped water and sewage systems.

"The Glamour of Arabic Numbers": Pliny Earle's Challenge to Nineteenth-Century Psychiatry

A well-established interpretation associates the nineteenth-century psychiatrist Pliny Earle's deflation of high cure rates for insanity with the onset of a persistent malaise in patient treatment and public health policy during the Gilded Age. This essay comes not to praise Earle but to correct and clarify interpretations, however well intentioned, that are incomplete and inaccurate. Several points are made: the overwhelming influence of antebellum enthusiasm on astonishing therapeutic claims; the interrogation of high "recovery" rates begun decades before Earle's ultimate provocation; and, however disruptive, the heuristically essential contribution of Earle's challenge to furthering a meaningful model of mental disorder. In spite of the impression created by existing historiography, Earle, a principled Quaker, remained committed to "moral treatment."

The Dercum-Muybridge Collaboration and the Study of Pathologic Gaits Using Sequential Photography

In the late 1870s and 1880s, prior to the development of movie cameras or projectors, English-American photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) photographed sequential images of people and animals in motion, using arrays of sequentially triggered single-image cameras. In 1885, Philadelphia neurologist Francis Dercum (1856-1931) collaborated with Muybridge at the University of Pennsylvania to photograph sequential images of patients with various neurological disorders involving abnormal movements, and particularly various gait disorders, including both the sensory ataxic gait of tabes dorsalis and various spastic gaits. Dercum used tracings of sequential photographic images to plot trajectories of limbs as a way to characterize and distinguish pathologic gaits. The Dercum-Muybridge collaboration produced the first motion-picture sequences of neurological gait disorders ever filmed. These sequences and the trajectory-based studies that derived from them were a milestone in studies of pathologic gaits.

Mastectomy with tears: breast cancer surgery in the early nineteenth century

BACKGROUND

By the early nineteenth century, breast cancer was better understood and surgical treatment was emerging as a more favoured option although anaesthesia had yet to be discovered. Many questions would have arisen for a woman advised to have surgery, including possible alternatives, what the operation would entail, pain and risks involved and the competence, ethical and professional behaviour of the surgeon. This paper addresses these questions in the context of the contemporary environment, focusing in particular on the personal experiences of the women involved.

METHODS

A review of the surviving personal letters and information regarding three women who had breast surgery, and of the contemporary surgical writings on breast cancer, training of surgeons, ethical and professional expectations and the concurrent status of women in society.

RESULTS

Surgical training was in its infancy and the first pronouncements on medical ethics had just been published. Pain, bleeding and infection presented formidable challenges and carried significant risks. Women were frequently devoid of information, suffered a loss of their dignity and were progressively stripped of their authority.

CONCLUSIONS

Breast cancer surgery was accompanied by enormous emotional and physical distress and significant risks from bleeding and infection. Although efforts were being made to give women a greater voice and autonomy in society, their position when receiving health care remained largely a submissive one. Lack of information, feelings of vulnerability, helplessness and loss of control occurred. The public perception of detachment most likely accounted for the occasional negative stigma then associated with the surgical profession.

Objectifying "Pain" in the Modern Neurosciences: A Historical Account of the Visualization Technologies Used in the Development of an "Algesiogenic Pathology", 1850 to 2000

Particularly with the fundamental works of the Leipzig school of experimental psychophysiology (between the 1850s and 1880s), the modern neurosciences witnessed an increasing interest in attempts to objectify "pain" as a bodily signal and physiological value. This development has led to refined psychological test repertoires and new clinical measurement techniques, which became progressively paired with imaging approaches and sophisticated theories about neuropathological pain etiology. With the advent of electroencephalography since the middle of the 20th century, and through the use of brain stimulation technologies and modern neuroimaging, the chosen scientific route towards an ever more refined "objectification" of pain phenomena took firm root in Western medicine. This article provides a broad overview of landmark events and key imaging technologies, which represent the long developmental path of a field that could be called "algesiogenic pathology."

Melancholia before the twentieth century: fear and sorrow or partial insanity?

Throughout the history of psychopathology, several meanings have been assigned to the term melancholia. The main ones were related to affective disorders (fear and sadness) and abnormal beliefs. At the time of Hippocrates melancholia was regarded mainly in its affective component. Since that time, and until the eighteenth century, authors and opinions have been divided, with both aspects (affective disorders and abnormal beliefs), being valued. Finally, in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, with Pinel at its peak, melancholia becomes exclusively a synonym of abnormal beliefs. At the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century, the affective component returns as the main aspect characterizing melancholia.

A contextual analysis of nervous force in medico-scientific and literary writings in English of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries

This study concerns the context of use of the term "nervous force," as it appears in scientific and literary publications in English over the course of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century. The context of use, loss, or waste of nervous force and the context of nervous force as an expression of an attribute are analyzed in 189 scientific and 105 literary writings. Both contexts appeared in literary writings, where nervous force expresses the attributes of strength, forcefulness, vigor, or energy and use, loss or waste of nervous force explains such nonmorbid conditions as why someone is tired or needs rest. Only the context of use-loss-waste appeared in the medico-scientific literature, but here it explained both nonmorbid conditions (for example, effects of old age) and morbid conditions (like epilepsy). Changes in the number of these references give insights into the medico-scientific and the literary disciplines. Discussions include why nervous force is associated with explanation of disease, the persistence of its use in this capacity, and its influence on a similar use in literary writings.

The effect of anti-abortion legislation on nineteenth century fertility

Using nineteenth century legal information combined with census information, I examine the effect of state laws that restricted American women's access to abortion on the ratio of children to women. I estimate an increase in the birthrate of 4 % to 12 % when abortion is restricted. In the absence of anti-abortion laws, fertility would have been 5 % to 12 % lower in the early twentieth century.