Lumen in obscuris: The Winding Road of Modern Endoscopy

Nuncius ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Pogliano

AbstractThe historical process leading to the recent invention of endoscopic capsules that are swallowed and travel through the alimentary canal, or to virtual voyages inside the human body one of the last amazing digital technologies has been long and winding. This essay seeks to retrace some steps of that process, since the second half of the 18th century. Numerous medical practitioners, technicians, and instrument makers aimed to explore inner body parts and interspaces by means of the sense of sight. In the mid-19th century Endoscope was called the instrument that would allow to bring light into unknown recesses and visualize them; urethra and bladder were the organs at first investigated, but soon the medical gaze proceeded to penetrate the esophagus and the stomach, not without several obstacles to be overcome.

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-82
Author(s):  
Sean Hughes ◽  
Christopher Gardner-Thorpe

Sir Charles Bell, a 19th century surgeon, anatomist and artist, was heavily influenced by the religious practice of Natural Theology, a belief which implied that the world is created by an Intelligent Designer. In the 18th century, William Paley, later Rector of Bishop Wearmouth, wrote the seminal book about Natural Theology. Charles Bell who practised in London and Edinburgh used his artistic skills to underline his teaching of anatomy and surgery. Later, Bell wrote one of the eight Bridgewater Treatises on the Hand. Bell went on to illustrate the final edition of Paley’s Natural Theology in which he demonstrated that proof of Design were to be found in the animal frame, reflecting his earlier work on art and human structure. It is concluded that Charles Bell and William Paley’s ideals were in harmony with each other, holding the same belief about Creation. This paper argues that Bell’s understanding and devotion to Natural Theology allowed him to accurately explain function, realism and expression in the human body, all revealing the direct influence of the Divine Creator.


Author(s):  
Justine Pila

This chapter surveys the current legal position concerning property in bodies and bodily materials. Of especial relevance in the current age of advanced genetic and other bio technologies, it looks beyond property in bodies and their materials ‘as such’ to consider also (a) the availability of rights of personal and intellectual property in objects incorporating or derived from them, and (b) the reliance on quasi-property rights of possession and consent to regulate the storage and use of corpses and detached bodily materials, including so-called ‘bio-specimens’. Reasoning from first principles, it highlights the practical and conceptual, as well as the political and philosophical, difficulties in this area, along with certain differences in the regulatory approach of European and US authorities. By way of conclusion, it proposes the law of authors’ and inventors’ rights as simultaneously offering a cautionary tale to those who would extend the reach of property even further than it extends currently and ideas for exploiting the malleability of the ‘property’ concept to manage the risks of extending it.


2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (10) ◽  
pp. 15-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Kirkpatrick
Keyword(s):  

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-489
Author(s):  
Robert M. Cammarota

The modern-day custom of performing the 'omnes generationes' section from J. S. Bach's Magnificat twice as fast as the aria "Quia respexit" has its origins in Robert Franz's vocal and orchestral editions of 1864, the details of which were discussed in his Mittheilungen of 1863. Up until that time, 'omnes generationes' was inextricably connected to "Quia respexit" and formed part of the third movement of Bach's Magnificat. Moreover, when Bach revised the score in 1733, he added adagio to the beginning of "Quia respexit . . . omnes generationes," establishing the tempo for the whole movement. In this study I show that Bach's setting of this verse is in keeping with Leipzig tradition (as evidenced by the settings of Schelle, G. M. Hoffmann, Telemann, Kuhnau, and Graupner) and with early 18thcentury compositional practice; that he interpreted the verse based on Luther's 1532 exegesis on the Magnificat; that the verse must be understood theologically, as a unit; that the change in musical texture at the words 'omnes generationes' is a rhetorical device, not "dramatic effect"; and, finally, that there is no change in tempo at the words 'omnes generationes' either in Bach's setting or in any other from this period. An understanding of the early 18th-century Magnificat tradition out of which Bach's setting derives, with the knowledge of the reception of Bach's Magnificat in the mid 19th century, should help us restore Bach's tempo adagio for the movement.


Popular Music ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-41
Author(s):  
David Temperley

AbstractThe origins of syncopation in 20th-century American popular music have been a source of controversy. I offer a new account of this historical process. I distinguish between second-position syncopation, an accent on the second quarter of a half-note or quarter-note unit, and fourth-position syncopation, an accent on the fourth quarter of such a unit. Unlike second-position syncopation, fourth-position syncopation tends to have an anticipatory character. In an earlier study I presented evidence suggesting British roots for second-position syncopation. in contrast, fourth-position syncopation – the focus of the current study – seems to have had no presence in published 19th-century vocal music, British or American. It first appears in notation in ragtime songs and piano music at the very end of the 19th century; it was also used in recordings by African-American singers before it was widely notated.


1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Kramer

Opium smoking began spreading slowly but steadily in China from early in the 18th Century. It grew through the 19th Century to the point that by the end of the century it became a nearly universal practice among males in some regions. While estimates vary, it appears that most smokers consumed six grams or less daily. Addicted smokers were occasionally found among those smoking as little as three grams daily, but more often addicted smokers reported use of about 12 grams a day or more. An individual smoking twelve grams of opium probably ingests about 80 mg. of morphine. Thirty mg. of morphine daily may induce some withdrawal signs, while 60 mg. daily are clearly addicting. While testimony varied widely, it appears likely that most opium smokers were not disabled by their practice. This appears to be the case today, too, among those peoples in southeast Asia who have continued to smoke opium. There appear to be social and perhaps psychophysiological forces which work toward limiting the liabilities of drug use.


Polar Record ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Lähteenmäki

ABSTRACTThe academic study of local and regional history in Sweden took on a quite new form and significance in the 18th century. Humiliating defeats in wars had brought the kingdom's period of greatness to an end and forced the crown to re-evaluate the country's position and image and reconsider the internal questions of economic efficiency and settlement. One aspect in this was more effective economic and political control over the peripheral parts of the realm, which meant that also the distant region of Kemi Lapland, bordering on Russia, became an object of systematic government interest. The practical local documentation of this area took the form of dissertations prepared by students native to the area under the supervision of well known professors, reports sent back by local ministers and newspaper articles. The people responsible for communicating this information may be said to have functioned as ‘mimic men’ in the terminology of H.K. Bhabha. This supervised gathering and publication of local information created the foundation for the nationalist ideology and interest in ordinary people and local cultures that emerged at the end of the century and flourished during the 19th century.


Author(s):  
Thanh Ha Thi Mai ◽  

The nomenclature and polysemiosis of body parts has constituted a central part of linguistics, and of Linguistic Anthropology. The ramifications of such work make inroads into our understandings of many fields, including language contact, semiotics, and so forth, This current paper identifies the structures and emerging denotations of expressions of human body parts (HBPs) in Thai language, and ways in which these dimensions reflect polysemy. The study thus applies the following methods: Field research methods of linguistics, description, comparison, and collation. As sources of data, this study surveys Thai rhymes, fairy tales, riddles and riddle songs, rhyming  stories, children’s songs and linguistic data of daily speeches in the  northwest of Vietnam. The paper uses theories on word meaning and the transformation of word meaning. To aid analysis, this paper applies methods of  analyzing meaning components so to construct significative meaning structures of words expressing HBPs in Thai language, thus identifying the semantemes chosen to be the basis for the transformation. In the polysemy of  words expressing HBPs of the four limbs, the polysemy of words expressing  the following parts were studied: khèn - tay, cánh tay (arm); mễ – tay, bàn  tay (hand); khà - đùi (thigh); tìn - chân, bàn chân (leg, foot). Directions of semantic transformation of words expressing HBPs in Thai language are as  diversified and as multi-leveled as Vietnamese. Furthermore, in Thai language, there occur differences in the four scopes of semantic transformation, as compared with Vietnamese, including “people’s characteristics,” “human activities,” “nomination of things with activities like HBPs’ activities,” and “unit of measurement.” This study contributes to Linguistic Anthropology by suggesting that the polysemy of words expressing HBPs of the four limb area in Thai language will outline a list of linguistic phenomena which serve as the basis to understand cultural and national features, in the light of perception and categorization of the reality of the Thai minority with reference to Vietnamese.


2021 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Sara Matrisciano ◽  
Franz Rainer

All major Romance languages have patterns of the type jaune paille for expressing shades of colour represented by some prototypical object. The first constituent of this pattern is a colour term, while the second one designates a prototypical representative of the colour shade. The present paper starts with a short discussion of the controversial grammatical status of this pattern and its constituents. Its main aim, however, concerns the origin and diffusion of this pattern. We have not found hard and fast evidence that Medieval Italian pigment compounds of the type verderame influenced the rise of the jaune paille pattern, which first appears in French in the 16th century. This pattern continued to be a minority solution during the 17th century, but established itself during the 18th century. In the 19th century, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese adopted the pattern jaune paille, while it did not reach Catalan and Romanian before the 20th century.


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