In case you haven’t gathered from my increased Twitter activity this last week, I’ve been at the meeting of the Three Societies. Philadelphia is a gorgeous, historic city, and I found it to be an ideal setting for the meeting. And what a great meeting it was! It was fantastic to finally meet some of… Continue Reading
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I just finished teaching a course on History of Medicine from Antiquity to 1500 at Ryerson University, a job I started two days after I returned from a 3-week research trip to London. Having very little time to prepare, I was incredibly nervous at first, especially as medicine in antiquity wasn’t exactly my strongest subject.… Continue Reading
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Brief Chronology of the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb
Check out Dominic Stiles’s brief chronology with a short list of some deaf pupils who were at the asylum.
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What do you think? John Cunningham Saunders’ An Anatomy of the Human Ear (1806): The first disease of the middle part of the Ear which I shall endeavor to investigate, is the puriform discharge from the Tympanum. The disease is ichorous, sometimes tinged with blood, and imparts a yellow color to a silver instrument. This… Continue Reading
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William Wright lists a few common folk remedies for deafens in vol.3 of ‘The Aurist’ (1825), among some, which should be inserted into the ear: -oil of large earthworms -fat of eel -cast skin of serpent boiled in wine -wood lice, bruised and heated with rose oil -ant’s eggs, bruised and strained -fat of cow’s… Continue Reading
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We have seen a young gentleman lately, whose ear was swelled so much that the whole of the auditory passage was obliterated, and the ear resembled a mass of tumified flesh; this had arisen through an older brother having caught the younger by the ear, in mere play, to retain him from outstripping him in… Continue Reading
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[D]raw sparks from the tympanum, by introducing a wire, coated with sealing wax, into the meatus auditorius externus. William Wright commenting on other aurists’ professed cures (‘The Aurist,’ 1825)
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[I]f forceps or syringing will not bring out any extraneous body, the patient is to sit down quietly, and let it remain where it is, till the accumulating wax forces it out: this is surely not the way to treat such a case; it is, however quite as proper as the method recommended, as we… Continue Reading
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everyday, all day, the poor desk is neglected
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I wrote this paper for a course on the Philosophy of Nudity at IHPST, directed by Professor Paul Thompson. I truly enjoyed the course, particularly how it introduced me to different perspectives of nudity and nudism as cultural artifacts. “Nudity is a form of dress.” John Berger, Ways of Seeing (1972) INTRODUCTION: THE EMERGENCE OF… Continue Reading
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Accept then, most clement Prince, this gentle glory reserved by the stars for you. May you long enjoy those blessing which are sent to you not so much from the stars as from God, their Maker and their Governor. Your Highness’s most devoted servant, Galileo Galilei. Padua, Mach 12, 1610 -Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius (Venice, 1610); Dedication letter to Cosimo II… Continue Reading
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Punishing the Soul: The Ignoble Body and its Status of Honour The strong cultural connotation between the body and the soul raised conflicting accounts of death, the afterlife, and eschatological implications associated with the cutting of the body. While the dominant religious perspective of Medieval England centered on the doctrine of resurrected Christ, Restoration England… Continue Reading
From the Hands of Quacks 