Paper and Poster Abstracts
A Tradition of Western Collaboration:
The History of Multiple Sclerosis Investigations in Canada
Ramsha Almas
BSc Neuroscience Program
Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Science
University of Calgary
ralmas@ucalgary.ca
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects close to 2.5 million people, with Canada having one of the highest prevalence rates worldwide. The medical profession’s quandaries with MS may be traced back to 1849, with one of the clearest early descriptions of Hirnsklerose (“brain sclerosis”) by Friedrich von Frerichs (1819-1885). This presentation will provide an overview of the century of research (1850-1950) that followed the emergence of this clinical entity, with a focus on Canada, highlighting the influence of inter-dependent European and American developments on Canadian work during this period. Using journal articles, reviews, and case studies, the diagnostic and treatment challenges that confronted early Canadian neurologists in their encounters with MS will be discussed, including their attempts to understand its aetiology and epidemiology. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the enduring collaboration with Europe and the United States that continues to advance our understanding of this complex disease.
This paper itself has not been previously published or presented; however, aspects of the project have been presented at the 2011 International History of Medicine Days in Calgary, and the 2011 combined meeting of the International Society for the History of Neuroscience and the International Society for the History of Behavioural and Social Sciences (Cheiron).
(This research is directed by Dr. Frank Stahnisch, University of Calgary).
Platform
More than a Chair: A Re-examination of Patient Labour in the Asylum Era
Jennifer L. Bazar
PhD Candidate, History & Theory of Psychology, York University
Visiting Scholar, Texas A&M University, Department of Psychology
jlbazar@tamu.edu
Descriptions of moral treatment found within the textual records of nineteenth century asylums and state hospitals in North America stress the importance of the environment in which patients were housed and the activities provided for them. These records tend to emphasize the provision of (unpaid) employment in particular as an essential tool in the efforts taken to return the insane to their rational selves. Historians have expanded our understanding of these tasks, presenting the environments where this work took place, the financial savings brought to the institution, the gender differences in the type of work assigned, and both the willingness and unwillingness of patients to participate (see for example Reaume, 2000, especially chapter 3). These analyses have, however, limited their focus to understanding the practice of patient employment as an internal activity of the moral treatment system. In this paper I look at the influences outside of the asylum system that impacted the work assigned to patients. Specifically, I examine the impact of the Arts & Crafts and Sanitarian reform movements. My research draws especially on sources of material and visual culture from asylums and state hospital collections in North America.
Reference
Reaume, G. (2000). Remembrance of patients past: Patient life at the Toronto Hospital for the Insane 1870-1940. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.
Platform
When Nurses Were Knights: The Crusades (1096-1291)
Joseph Cerrato, B.S. and Barbara Reed, B.A.
College of Nursing
Texas A&M Health Science Center
cerrato@tamhsc.edu ; bred@tamhsc.edu
Intent:
The purpose of this project is to explore changes in perception of men as nurses when educating participants about the historical roots of nursing found in the Crusades.
Abstract:
Despite the elimination of gender bias in many previously held male professions (i.e. medicine, law), nursing continues to be viewed as predominately a female profession as evidenced by the current nursing work force comprised of approximately 6-7% men. In an attempt to attract more men into the profession as one solution to the shortage, an educational project is planned to inform participants about men serving in the role of nurses before the time of women nearly exclusively filling the ranks.
The early introduction of men in the role of nurse has been traced back to the time of the Crusades when Knights Hospitallers emerged as a religious order in response to the influx of pilgrims to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. During the Crusades (1096-1291) the Knights Hospitallers were a group of men known as “nurses” who emerged to care for the poor, the ill, the injured, and the insane during the Holy Wars. The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem were at first a purely nursing order and later became military. These nurses doubled as combatants used to protect the hospital during attack. After the advent of the Knights Hospitallers, the Knights Templars emerged. The Knights Hospitallers came to distinguish itself in battle by wearing a black surcoat with a white cross known as the Maltese Cross. Today, the Maltese Cross, the mark of the Knights Hospitallers, is still used on structures in Europe designated as hospitals or clinics.
A pre and post survey based on perceptions of men in nursing will be administered to individuals participating in an educational opportunity depicting the role of men in nursing during the Crusades.
(Research directed by Virginia Ann Utterback, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.E.)
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: A Template for Federal Intervention in Modern Healthcare Crises such as Diabetes and Obesity?
Laurent Ehrlich
Medical Student (MS I)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
In 1902, the state of Montana requested federal aid to combat a deadly disease referred to as “Rocky Mountain spotty fever.” Within ten years, the U.S. Public Health Service had constructed a permanent national laboratory in Hamilton, Montana stocked with federal funding and scientists to study the disease. Exhaustive and dangerous research revealed its etiology, that ticks transmitted the disease, as well as its subsequent inoculation.
Since the establishment of federal quarantine laws in 1878, the federal government had begun to play an increasingly larger role in managing public health. This paper explores the events surrounding Rocky Mountain spotted fever which represented the birth of a novel federal mandate to provide individual medical care to its citizens.
It reexamines the following questions: (a) what is the role of the federal government in public health, medical care, and healthcare crises? (b) do the actions of the U.S. government to control Rocky Mountain spotted disease serve as a possible template for federal intervention in current health-related crises such as obesity and diabetes?
(This research is supervised by Dr. G. A. Russell, Department of Humanities).
Platform
Then & Now: A Comparative Look at the Treatments
Following the Lincoln and Gifford Shootings
Shannon Essler
Medical Student (MS I)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
This project compares and contrasts the shooting of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 to that of U.S. House Representative Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. Both political figures were shot in the head at point blank range. Lincoln was shot through the right occipital bone with a 0.44-caliber ball from a single-shot black powder derringer pistol. Giffords was shot in the left forehead with a 9 mm bullet from a semi-automatic Glock model 19 pistol that had a 30-round magazine. Despite the fact that both bullets pierced their left brain, the outcome of each patient was incredibly different.
A physician immediately attended to Lincoln (56 years old) and found him comatose, not breathing, with a pulse of 44/minute and with a dilated pupil. The doctor probed the gunshot wound with his finger and removed a blood clot. Lincoln began breathing and was carried from Ford’s Theatre to a boarding house across the street. About four hours later, the Surgeon General probed the wound but was unable to locate the ball. The wound continued to ooze blood and brain tissue and it was confirmed that Lincoln had a mortal wound. He received no other medical treatment and died nine hours later without regaining consciousness. Lincoln received standard treatment for this type of injury. The end to the Civil War led to the almost immediate development of antisepsis and asepsis techniques. While much was known about head injuries from shrapnel and bullet wounds at the time of the Civil War, low fidelity treatment strategies for infection discouraged physicians from aggressive surgery. Efforts to remove projectiles were attempted at the time, but these types of injuries were almost always fatal. That being said, it is difficult to understand the effectiveness of such procedures because neuroimaging was not available and because patients were categorized by type, not severity of injury.
Giffords (40 years old) was immediately treated by her intern who applied pressure to the wound and kept her airway clear. She was rushed to a large, teaching Level 1 Trauma Center where she was treated by a special team that included neurosurgeons. She underwent surgery within 38 minutes of her arrival. The bullet had exited through the left side of her head and caused severe brain damage and bleeding. She had a portion of her skull removed and was placed in a medically-induced coma. A few days later, she regained consciousness and was able to respond to simple commands. After months of rehabilitation, Giffords acknowledged her continual struggle to enunciate words. However, she has relearned how to smile, raise fingers and nod, as well as communicate in the most basic forms.
As with Lincoln, Giffords also received state-of-the-art trauma care. This study demonstrates changes to our current system of pre-hospital treatment and transportation, trauma surgery innovation and advances in rehabilitation as compared to those available in the past.
Poster
Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon and the Anatomy Act of 1832:
An Analysis of the Underlying Influences
Anusha Ganesh
Medical Student (MS III)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
Jeremy Bentham, a prominent utilitarian, devised his personal auto-icon for reasons to both benefit mankind and the study of anatomy, as well as for a personal motive to preserve his self for eternity. He was guided by both his utilitarian ideals and the progressive ideas of Dr. Thomas Southwood Smith. Dr. Smith delivered a speech at the funeral of Bentham, in which he stated that Bentham’s idea to leave his body was not a newfound idea, but one that generated in 1769. Smith orated that Bentham’s reason for the gift was his intent that mankind could reap a benefit from him even after his passing. Bentham similarly played an extensive role in the formation of the Anatomy Act of 1832. The trend of his ideas was to step away from “grave-robbing” towards voluntary body donations.
My paper will explore the motivation behind Jeremy Bentham’s donation of his cadaver to the University College London, and his advocacy of voluntary body donations, by analyzing his unpublished manuscript, “Auto-icon, or, farther uses of the dead to the living”. This manuscript contains the documents that Bentham had written to explain the beliefs behind his auto-icon display, and his values supporting his idea of voluntary donations. His impact on the Anatomy Act of 1832 was heavily influenced also by Dr. Smith’s “Uses of the Dead to the Living”. This article is written in the June 1824 issue of the Westminster Review, a periodical initiated by Bentham. Bentham and Smith had no contact prior to the publication of Smith’s article, and yet, had strikingly similar beliefs. This shared interest is what started a meaningful collaboration between Bentham and Smith.
I will analyze both Bentham’s article “Auto-icon, or, farther uses of the dead to the living”, as well as Smith’s “Uses of the Dead to the Living”, and determine the overlap between the ideals of these two men. In researching the correspondences between the two men, I will establish their combined effect on propagating the Anatomy Act of 1832.
(This research is directed by Dr. G. A. Russell, Department of Humanities).
Platform
A Tradition of Western Collaboration:
The History of Multiple Sclerosis Investigations in Canada
Aravind Ganesh
BSc/MD candidate
Faculty of Medicine
University of Calgary
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects close to 2.5 million people, with Canada having one of the highest prevalence rates worldwide. The medical profession’s quandaries with MS may be traced back to 1849, with one of the clearest early descriptions of Hirnsklerose (“brain sclerosis”) by Friedrich von Frerichs (1819-1885). This presentation will provide an overview of the century of research (1850-1950) that followed the emergence of this clinical entity, with a focus on Canada, highlighting the influence of inter-dependent European and American developments on Canadian work during this period. Using journal articles, reviews, and case studies, the diagnostic and treatment challenges that confronted early Canadian neurologists in their encounters with MS will be discussed, including their attempts to understand its aetiology and epidemiology. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the enduring collaboration with Europe and the United States that continues to advance our understanding of this complex disease.
This paper itself has not been previously published or presented; however, aspects of the project have been presented at the 2011 International History of Medicine Days in Calgary, and the 2011 combined meeting of the International Society for the History of Neuroscience and the International Society for the History of Behavioural and Social Sciences (Cheiron).
(This research is directed by Dr. Frank Stahnisch, University of Calgary).
Platform
Environmental Pollution and the Effect on Disease in America
Jenny Glover
Medical Student (MS I)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
My presentation will review the history of air toxins in a post-Civil War industrialized area and how these toxins correlate with the health of the people in the area. Specifically, I will focus on the Southeast part of Houston in the Harrisburg/Manchester community, which is situated closely to the ship channel. The two air toxins that will be of focus on will be 1,3 butadiene and benzene. 1,3 Butadiene has been known cause cardiovascular disease and cancer. Benzene is also associated with multiple myeloma, acute lymphocytic leukemia, anemia, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This community has been reported to have one of the highest levels of 1,3 butadiene and benzene in Texas. My presentation will elaborate on the question of whether air toxins continue to be a source of poor health in industrialized areas.
Platform
(Research directed by Charles W. Sanders, M.D.)
The Interpretation and Treatment of Mental Illness as
Portrayed in Goya’s Later Works
Liam M. Guthrie, Medical Student (MS II)
M.D./Ph.D. Program TAMHSC COM
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
Francisco Jose de Goya (b. March 30, 1746 - d. April 16, 1828) is widely regarded as the last of the Old Masters and the first Modern painter. A man truly ahead of his time, Goya’s works incorporated themes deemed by society as taboo. Such themes include sexuality, realistic representation of the brutality of war, governmental corruption, and--in his later works--a vivid visual representation of mental illness. In fact, works such as Yard with Lunatics and Madhouse provide some of the earliest, if not the first, great works of art to accurately and viscerally represent the reality of the insane and how society treats those deemed mentally ill. This poster will explore how Goya’s physical illness, coupled with mental decline in his later years, prompted Goya to overcome socially imposed limits on artistic subject matter and pour his anxiety, anger, and stark social criticism into works of art that depicted the true face of insanity and the cruel treatment of the insane. These works provide a rare glimpse into the mind of one who converted his physical and mental pain into enduring art.
(This was a project in the Medical Humanities: Perception, Art, and Clinical Judgment” for Dr. G. A. Russell)
Poster
Correct Verification Placement of Nasogastric Tubes:
Auscultation Versus pH Evaluation
Shelly Hotz, Erin Cothran, Mallory Rogers, and Kristin Picha
Texas A&M Health Science Center
College of Nursing, BSN program
hotz@tamhsc.edu; Cothran@tamhsc.edu; mjrogers@temhsc.edu; picha@tamhsc.edu
Our discussion begins in the 14th century with accounts of two separate physicians, Aquapendente and Capivacceus, who were the first to use different form of nasogastric tubes which they created to administer nutrients to their patients. Between this time and the late 18th century little is documented concerning the use of any forms of feeding tubes. It was not until 1790, when John Hunter submitted his research about the use of nasogastric tubes as a way to feed a patient to “The Society for Improvement of Medicine and Chirurgical Knowledge” that the benefit of nasogastric tubes were officially documented. We will journey from this time to the 1930’s when nasogastric tubes were being used for feedings, medication administration, as well as suctioning the stomach. From here we will discuss the changes made in the kind of care that nurses administered regarding these tubes and the methods they used verify the tube’s placement. Our discussion will then follow with comparing the two most common bedside methods used today, looking at current evidence for auscultation while insufflating air into the stomach and pH testing of gastric aspirate. Cost of equipment as well as percentage of complications from misplaced nasogastric tubes will be taken into account. This presentation will conclude with the need for current change based on the evidence presented.
(This research is supervised by Dr. Karen Landry, College of Nursing).
Poster
Vivisection and the Salience of Animal Pain, 1660-1680
T.J. Kasperbauer
Texas A&M University
PhD student, Philosophy Department
t-kasperbauer@philosophy.tamu.edu
This paper looks at experiments on animals in Europe from 1660-1680. I focus particularly on experiments conducted by Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, and Richard Lower at meetings of the Royal Society of London, and question the extent to which they thought their experiments inflicted pain on their subjects. Commentary on these experiments has focused on the absence of cruelty, in that experimenters were keen to note when they thought that what they were doing was excessive, and that many of the researchers asserted that animals could feel pain. I argue, however, that these considerations fail to demonstrate that the researchers thought they were causing pain. Never in these experiments did the researchers claim as much, even in cases where they repeatedly observed animals expressing behaviors that would indicate pain. Nor do we find any speculation on the physiology of pain, even though the researchers were willing to speculate on a number of other physiological processes in the course of their experiments. These experimenters may have shown restraint, but it appears they did not do so out of a perception of pain.
(This research is directed by Dr. Gary Varner, Professor & Interim Head, Philosophy, Texas A&M University)
Platform
Albert Cook in Uganda: Missionary or Physician?
Conflicting Roles Under British Colonization
H. Elizabeth Koh, M.D.
Huntsville Hospital, Huntsville, AL
During Great Britain’s Age of imperialism, religion and medicine were carried on the backs of explorers to all corners of the world. Colonization efforts proved to be significantly aided by this combination of religious mission and medicine, although differing motives between individuals, government, and private organizations were often in conflict. My paper explores these roles in the example of Albert Cook, a British physician, who went to Uganda at the turn of the 20th century, funded by the Anglican Christian Missionary Society. Through his personal diaries, patient records, and unpublished correspondence, I analyzed his constant struggle between saving bodies and saving souls. His efforts to establish medical training left an enduring influence in Uganda that remains to this day.
(This research was conducted and completed in 2007 for the Medical Humanities (MHUM986) “Directed Research in History of Medicine in London” Program under Dr. G. A. Russell).
Platform
Children’s Hygiene, Eugenics Ideals, and
School Medical Inspections in Winnipeg, 1909-1912
Erna Kurbegović
PhD Student, History of Medicine
History Department, University of Calgary
During the first half of the twentieth century, public health authorities in Canada concentrated on the prevention of disease in school children. The public health officials focused on this group of children because they believed the school setting led to the spread of disease among the students. They did not accept that all schools met the minimum sanitary standards or that certain parents recognized symptoms of an infected child. Thus, the solution was to introduce a system of medical inspections in schools which would prevent the spread of disease but would also teach working class children and parents about cleanliness and health. In the case of Winnipeg, during the first decade of the twentieth century, the rate of infectious disease was on the rise, especially among children from working class homes. The purpose of this paper is to analyze school medical inspections in Winnipeg during the years 1909-1912 and to investigate the role that class and gender played within this setting. School medical inspections in Winnipeg were introduced to promote middle class ideas of health and to push the working class to conform to the standards of health prevalent among the middle class. Although the public health authorities and the School Board attempted to promote these ideas, this did not mean that the working class accepted them.
(This research is directed by Dr. Frank Stahnisch, University of Calgary).
Platform
Psychological Discourse and the Postwar Ideal: Reading problems of
public mental health in Kitimat, British Columbia, 1954-1959
Kelsey Lucyk
Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary
In her 1997 article “Psychology and the Construction of the ‘Normal’ Family in Postwar Canada, 1945-1960,” Mona Gleason ascertains that popular psychological discourse played an essential role in constructing postwar ideals of the model Canadian family. Following the Second World War, psychologists responded to a rapidly changing Canadian society by establishing fixed family ideals from middle-class, Anglo-Saxon values. As an early form of population-level mental health care, postwar psychologists maintained that emotional health could be protected by conforming to the hegemonic family model: heterosexual married parents consisting of stay-at-home mothers and breadwinning fathers, with obedient, well-behaved children. In support of Gleason’s findings, this project analyzes discourses of mental health from a town constructed during the peak of psychologists’ promotion of this family model. Apparent through local newspaper analyses from 1954-1959, the town of Kitimat, British Columbia was socially and physically constructed to reflect dominant psychological ideals of the family, in spite of the barriers that made this impractical. A micro-history in the history of public mental health, this project demonstrates the challenges involved with population-level definitions of mental health—such as language barriers and the built environment—by examining the experiences of a community that failed to fit the norm.
(This research is directed by Dr. Frank Stahnisch, University of Calgary).
Platform
Women and Medicine of the Civil War
Hormuz Nicolwala
Medical Student (MS II)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
Nicolwala@medicine.tamhsc.edu
The Civil War was considered a man’s war. However, there are many examples of women being involved in the conflict based on personal diaries, individual studies, and military records. Further support for the significant involvement of women in the civil war comes from vivandieres, nurses, and women who fought disguised as men. Vivandieres were women attached to a military unit to provide support to the troops. They were both formal and informal. Nursing also grew as a profession in the civil war following the steps of Florence Nightingale. Clara Barton is one fine example of nurse involvement and she was allowed to reach some of the grimmest battle fields of the war. Her work started after the Battle of Bull Run and culminated in her founding the Red Cross in 1881. Interestingly, many women (the exact number may be in the hundreds) disguised as men fought and died in battle. Sometimes their sexual identity became known only in death. Both sides of the civil war forbid women from being in active duty, however, it is important to note at the 150 year anniversary of the enormous influence that women had in the civil war.
(This research is supervised by Dr. Charles W. Sanders, Humanities in Medicine).
Platform
The Birth of the Obstetric Forceps:
A Debated Family Monopoly Platform
Daniel Peters
Medical Student (MS II)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
The history of the Chamberlen family and their invention of the obstetric forceps during 17th century England is shrouded by mystery. The device, which was born from a tool used for death and destruction, paved the way for the advent of obstetric medicine and helped transform birthing from a practice carried out by female midwives to a more male dominated procedure. A long line of Chamberlen's kept their family secret for over a hundred years and four generations of medicine men. I would like to argue that this secret was not kept lightly, that in fact there was an ethical debate between family members to release it to the general public. Unfortunately, the forceps were not generally used until the 1720s. But since then, they have stayed relatively unchanged and are used every day to bring life into the world.
(This research is directed by Dr. G. A. Russell, Department of Humanities).
Platform
Changing Perceptions of Death: Bruegel, Klimt, and the Present
Daniel Peters and Emily Newman
Medical Students (MS II)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
peters@medicine.tamhsc.edu; newman@medicine.tamhsc.edu
In this poster we will explore the changing perceptions of death by considering two paintings, The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) and Death and Life by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). We will analyze the beliefs of each artist and how they chose to depict death in their work. Dying is inevitable, and although all of humanity may share this burden together, our views and opinions of death may vary greatly. In our own culture it seems that discussing death openly is taboo. Many times this responsibility is placed on the physician’s shoulders. Despite that these two artists are separated from each other and from us, in time and culture, what insights they provide us in their paintings will allow us as future doctors to better care for our patients and their families during this difficult period of their lives.
(This was a project in the Medical Humanities: Perception, Art, and Clinical Judgment” for Dr. G. A. Russell in 2011).
Poster
The Influence of Charles Darwin on James Paget
Rajin Shahriar
Medical Student (MS III)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
The discovery that disease is affected by inherited genetic material revolutionized biomedical science, but the progression of ideas that led to modern medicine occurred in small steps. Certainly, the medical community did not immediately appreciate the implications of discoveries in evolution and inheritance that were being made from 1850-1900. My investigation focuses on the relationship between Charles Darwin and James Paget, who was a prominent surgeon in London and founded the field of surgical pathology. The continuous two-way correspondence about heritable phenomenon between Darwin and Paget, the focus on family characteristics in Paget’s scientific publications, and Paget’s personal reflections about disease all speak to the degree of influence Darwin had on Paget. Therefore, I argue that James Paget’s conception and description of disease was heavily influenced by Darwin, illustrating the early attempts of the medical community to grapple with the relationship between heritability and disease.
(This research is directed by Dr. G. A. Russell, Department of Humanities).
Platform
The Origins of Human Blood Transfusion and the Edinburgh Medical School: A New Link
Laura Tenner M.D.
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
Hematology Oncology Fellow
This paper will briefly explore the history of blood transfusion to identify the origins of its establishment based on a scientific understanding in the post Harveian period from the first human transfusion using lamb’s blood in 1667 to the first human transfusion with human blood in 1819. Blood-letting was still in practice, but early transfusions with lamb’s blood were unsuccessful, culminating in the sensational court case in Paris, and its subsequent ban. After a 152-year dearth of transfusion discussion, and at a time when transfusions were largely abandoned under the influence of the Catholic Church, a critical publication Researches Physiological and Pathological (1825) by Dr. James Blundell appeared advocating human blood transfusion. My research re-addresses the question: What brought about this shift? Although the re-introduction and the first performance of human transfusion is attributed to Blundell, my findings, based on research with primary sources, have traced its origins to another, earlier figure—a physician and professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. There is sufficient evidence to argue that it was this physician who dared to challenge the status quo and served as a catalyst for the study and development of blood transfusions that would ultimately change it from a fatal to a life-saving procedure in medicine.
(This research was conducted and completed in 2007 for the Medical Humanities (MHUM986) “Directed Research in History of Medicine in London” Program under Dr. G. A. Russell).
Platform
To Remove or Not to Remove?
Opinions Concerning Human Excrements in the Ancient World
C.R. van Tilburg
University of Leyden, Holland
c.r.van.tilburg@hum.leidenuniv.nl
In our days, human urine and excrements are considered as dirty substances, creating unhealthy situations and even diseases. In my research, I will examine the different opinions on this topic in Graeco-Roman medicine. Ancient medical authors, e.g., considered excrements as transformed food. Smell, however, was seen as dangerous for public health; negative opinions usually criticize the urine’s and excrement’s smell. Other ancient authors have more different opinions, like excrements as dung for agriculture and, on the other hand, complaining excrements in a house.
It is a general misunderstanding that the famous Roman sewers were constructed for the removal of urine and excrements, increasing sanitation. Their main purpose was, however, in first instance the removal of rain water and waste water coming from public baths. If possible, public toilets were connected with the sewer system. The streets were full of animal dung, so in daily life there was no need to remove human excrements from the streets for hygienic and smell aspects.
(Independent Scholar)
Platform
Anti-Vaccine Campaigns: A Brief Pictorial History
Katie Tran
Medical Student (MS IV)
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
ABSTRACT
Today, immunizations are widely recommended by physicians as a highly efficient means of controlling infectious diseases within a population. They are cost-effective, easily distributed and administered, and prevent a multitude of ailments that once were rampant in society. For these reasons, vaccines have become powerful tools in medicine. However, vaccination has been met with resistance since its introduction by Edward Jenner in the late 1700s. Although many advances in improving the quality and scope of vaccines have been made over time, opposition to immunizations has always been present in some form. This presentation will examine public perception of immunizations through historical cartoons published with the intent of dissuading people from obtaining vaccines. The cartoons, illustrated by artists such as James Gillray and George Cruikshank in the early 1800s, focused on the newly introduced smallpox vaccine and the concept of immunization in general. Gillray’s portrayal of the vaccine’s effects was highly negative, illustrating an indifferent Jenner administering vaccines to a scared crowd witnessing small cows (in reference to the vaccine’s serum originating from cow pocks) merging from the bodies of people who had already been inoculated. Since then, vaccines have gained acceptance into society widely enough to eradicate or greatly reduce the incidence of serious diseases such as smallpox, polio, and measles. However, despite advances in technology, there still remains a significant population with fears, hesitation, or doubts on the efficacy of vaccines. By gaining a better understanding of the history of anti-vaccination campaigns, the physicians of today can gain further insight in bridging the gap between modern science and current societal views against immunization.
(This research is directed by Dr. G. A. Russell, Department of Humanities.)
Poster
