“You Have Everything Confused and Mixed Up…!” Georg Schweinfurth, Knowledge and Cartography of Africa in the 19th Century

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 87-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Fritsch

Petermanns Geographische Mittheilungen, the leading German geographical journal of the nineteenth century, is of fundamental significance for the early scholarly study of Africa. It printed numerous accounts by practically all of the important explorers of the time, in particular under the aegis of the geographer August Petermann. Of particular significance are the cartographic supplements to the articles published in the journal. These maps showed for the first time hitherto unknown areas of Africa. Although the data for these maps were often collected in the field under difficult conditions by European travellers, and drawn up in Gotha with the assistance of numerous specialists (astronomers, geologists, cartographers, lithographers, graphic artists), their creation would have been impossible without the cooperation of Africans. That is to say, these maps, a medium seen as a most exact expression of scientific and technical progress, could not have been produced without the assistance of so-called “natives” or “savages.” This aspect of cartographic production, to which little attention has been paid so far, is the subject of a research project at the Institute for Regional Geography in Leipzig initiated in May 2009. In the course of this project, a range of German-language travelers' accounts will be studied, giving special attention to the role of indigenous informants and in combination with archival materials. This paper is based on the example of the German African explorer Georg Schweinfurth.In September 1863, the as yet unknown botanist Georg Schweinfurth announced the start of his African projects in a “call to botanists” in Petermanns Geographische Mittheilungen, describing his planned “expedition over several years to Egypt, Nubia and the countries of the Upper Nile, devoted solely to botanical purposes.” Although Schweinfurth did not publish solely in the Geographische Mittheilungen in the following years, he remained in close contact with Petermann, especially with regard to new geographical discoveries. Unlike other travelers, Schweinfurth often visited areas barely known to geographers, where he compared existing maps most carefully with his own observations. In this way he was able to correct many inaccuracies and improve European cartographic knowledge of these regions. A total of six maps by Schweinfurth appeared in the Geographische Mittheilungen between 1865 and 1877.

Purpose. The article aims to highlight the history of the emergence and spread of the shaloput sect in the Pavlograd district of the Yekaterinoslav province. Research methodology. The methodological basis of the article is formed by the principles of historicism and objectivity, implemented using several methods: general logical (analysis and synthesis), as well as classification, comparative, and periodization methods. Scientific novelty. For the first time in Russian historiography, the subject of a special scientific study was the sect of pranksters and its activities in the Yekaterinoslav province. Based on missionary and police reports, the role of Grigory Shevchenko in the creation of the sect is considered, the area of ​​its distribution within the region is highlighted, the national and social composition of its members is determined. Conclusions. It has been established that Grigory Shevchenko brought in the Pavlograd district of the Yekaterinoslav province the shaloput doctrine from the southern Ukrainian regions, probably from the Tauride province. The sect he created was by its nature Christover or Khlyst. Its dogmas and ceremonial were of a pronounced mystical coloring. Grigory Shevchenko remained a completely independent leader of a group of his fellow believers, he did not belong to any more ramified community, and his community throughout its existence remained an autonomous unit. The attitude of the dignitaries of the Russian Orthodox Church and representatives of the secular authorities to the new religious organization was extremely negative. Various means of pressure were used against the sectarians: from forced interviews to sentences of the rural community and outright repression by punitive bodies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 7-19
Author(s):  
Ryszard W. Gryglewski

Medicine in terms of Jędrzej Śniadecki Jędrzej Śniadecki (1768–1838) remains one of most eminent scholars of his times. Remembered as a founder of modern chemistry in Poland, one of early pioneers in anthropology and social sciences, and author of the two volume book Theory of organic being (Teoria jestestw organicznych), in which the modern metabolic concept of life processes can be considered as grounded; he was also a highly educated and gifted physician. This paper aims to show the importance of medicine in Śniadecki’s theory of life, in its physiological and pathological manifestations in regard to the clinical model and the medical practice which he followed. It deals with the concept of illness as described in Śniadecki’s writings, focusing on the role of irritation and organic reaction as the major components of his proposed pathological model. The dynamic and variable conditions of diseases are explained by means of metabolic changes, which was a truly pioneering concept, already described in Śniadecki’s earlier theoretical works on the subject of life and nature. The paper discusses the problem of influence in terms of the leading medical doctrines at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, namely those of John Brown (1735–1788) and François Broussais (1772–1838), on Śniadecki as a researcher and practitioner. For practical (clinical) medicine his reserve towards auscultation and percussion, then a slowly gaining field in clinical subjects, is clearly present in Śniadecki’s writings and teaching. His passive and, as far as we can tell, sceptical attitude is explained by the lack of convincing evidence, based on empirical and experimental data, which would enable to connect the physical signs of a diagnosis fulfilled by means of stethoscope to that of the percussion process. It must be remembered that the books by Adam Raciborski (1809–1871) and Joseph Škoda (1805–1881) were both published in the 1830s, where modern diagnosing methods were established using a suitable scientific background to explain their importance. This was too late to influence the clinical work of Śniadecki. The same scepticism, with an obvious demand for strict and experimentally derived data, is probably responsible for the conservative therapy present in Śniadecki’s teaching.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Yu. Rudyak ◽  
Elena Yu. Kozhunova ◽  
Alexander V. Chertovich

Abstract In this paper we propose a new method of coarse-grained computer simulations of the microgel formation in course of free radical precipitation polymerization. For the first time, we simulate the precipitation polymerization process from a dilute solution of initial components to a final microgel particle with coarse grained molecular dynamics, and compare it to the experimental data. We expect that our simulation studies of PNIPA-like microgels will be able to elucidate the subject of nucleation and growth kinetics and to describe in detail the network topology and structure. Performed computer simulations help to determine the characteristic phases of the growth process and show the necessity of prolongated synthesis for the formation of stable microgel particles. We demonstrate the important role of dangling ends in microgels, which occupy as much as 50% of its molecular mass and have previously unattended influence on the swelling behavior. The verification of the model is made by the comparison of collapse curves and structure factors between simulated and experimental systems, and high quality matching is achieved. This work could help to open new horizons in studies that require the knowledge of detailed and realistic structures of the microgel networks.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Hogenmüller

The third volume of the "Opera omnia Melchioris Cani" covers Cano's first "Relectio de sacramentis in genere". Melchor Cano held this important lecture in the early summer of 1547 as a professor at the University of Salamanca, as a ceremonial lecture at the end of the academic year. The subject itself offers a highly interesting example of sacramental theology, which was widely discussed in the 16th century, in particular at the Council of Trent. First printed in 1550, the lecture was intensively studied until the 19th century. In addition to a general introduction to the author and the topic, a text-critical Latin edition including a German translation is offered here for the first time.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Yolanda Gamarra Chopo

The bibliography of Spanish international law textbooks is a good indicator of the evolution of the historiography of international law. Spanish historiography, with its own special features, was a recipient of the great debates concerning naturalism v. positivism and universalism v. particularism that flourished in European and American historiography in the nineteenth century. This study is articulated on four principal axes. The first states how the writings of the philosophes continued to dominate the way in which the subject was conceived in mid-nineteenth century Spain. Secondly, it explores the popularization and democratization of international law through the work of Concepcion Arenal and the heterodox thought of Rafael Maria de Labra. Thirdly, it examines the first textbooks of international law with their distinct natural law bias, but imbued with certain positivist elements. These textbooks trawled sixteenth century Spanish history, searching for the origins of international law and thus demonstrating the historical civilizing role of Spain, particularly in America. Fourthly, it considers the vision of institutionist, heterodox reformers and bourgeois liberals who proclaimed the universality of international law, not without some degree of ambivalence, and their defence of Spain as the object of civilization and also a civilizing subject. In conclusion, the article argues that the late development of textbooks was a consequence of the late institutionalization of the study of international law during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, the legacy of the nineteenth century survives in the most progressive of contemporary polemics for a new international law.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (12) ◽  
pp. 3606-3611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinzhou Yuan ◽  
David M. Raizen ◽  
Haim H. Bau

The ability to orient oneself in response to environmental cues is crucial to the survival and function of diverse organisms. One such orientation behavior is the alignment of aquatic organisms with (negative rheotaxis) or against (positive rheotaxis) fluid current. The questions of whether low-Reynolds-number, undulatory swimmers, such as worms, rheotax and whether rheotaxis is a deliberate or an involuntary response to mechanical forces have been the subject of conflicting reports. To address these questions, we use Caenorhabditis elegans as a model undulatory swimmer and examine, in experiment and theory, the orientation of C. elegans in the presence of flow. We find that when close to a stationary surface the animal aligns itself against the direction of the flow. We elucidate for the first time to our knowledge the mechanisms of rheotaxis in worms and show that rheotaxis can be explained solely by mechanical forces and does not require sensory input or deliberate action. The interaction between the flow field induced by the swimmer and a nearby surface causes the swimmer to tilt toward the surface and the velocity gradient associated with the flow rotates the animal to face upstream. Fluid mechanical computer simulations faithfully mimic the behavior observed in experiments, supporting the notion that rheotaxis behavior can be fully explained by hydrodynamics. Our study highlights the important role of hydrodynamics in the behavior of small undulating swimmers and may assist in developing control strategies to affect the animals’ life cycles.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-66
Author(s):  
Piotr Krzysztof Marszałek

In Polish literature on the subject, the military governor’s office is usually associated with the organisation of the administrative system that prevailed in the partitioning states (Poland’s Partitions 1791-1918). However, the governor’s office had already been known in Poland during the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815), when it was, like many other solutions of administrative and military law, imported directly from France. In the structure of Polish public organs, the office of governor was created for the first time during the Polish-Austrian war in 1809. Although no documents have survived from which we could learn of the competences of a Polish governor in those times, what is known is that the description of his authority followed closely the model set out by the French legislation. It was not before the Polish-Russian war in 1830-1831 that first attempts were made to independently set out the authority o f a governor of the Polish state, but even then, at least initially, the solutions set forth by the regime o f the Napoleonic decree were directly referred to and copied. In the second half of the 19th century, shortly before the collapse of the November Uprising, a draft describing the office and competences of a Polish governor was finally ready to be put forward for parliamentary discussion, but it was already too late for the Sejm to deal with it.


Author(s):  
Tetiana Sovhyra

Purpose of article. Explore technological progress in the context of the development of a primitive culture. The methodology is based on an integrated approach and relies on analytical (when analyzing philosophical, art history, cultural studies literature on the subject of research), historical (when clarifying the stages of development of primitive culture), and conceptual (when analyzing the role of technology in the cultural development of mankind) research methods. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that for the first time the formative role of technology in the cultural development of mankind is investigated, and also the cooperative nature of the production of artifacts of primitive culture is determined. Conclusions. As a result of the study of archaeological finds of primitive culture, it has been established that in the course of cultural evolution, tools of labor have become cultural artifacts, works of art. The emergence of production technologies (stone processing, fire control, metal melting) radically transformed the specifics of the organization of production activities, and therefore changed the course of cultural development. Therefore, in the course of the study, the formative role of technology in the formation of artistic culture was proved.


Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Hoan ◽  
Galina G. Yermilova

The article for the first time explores the translation of the ‟evangelical text” of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel ‟Crime and Punishment” into Vietnamese. The ‟evangelical text” refers to the New Testament quotations, for the first time both in the writer’s work and in the Russian literature of the 19th century as a whole, widely used by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Threeauthoritative translations by Trương Định Cư (1972), Lý Quốc Sinh (1973), Cao Xuân Hạo (1982-1983) are involved. The translation of the Bible into Vietnamese used by translators and involved in the liturgical practice of the Vietnamese Orthodox Church, has been revealed. On the basis of a continuous text sample of the «evangelical text» three translations were compared with the original and reverse translations, followed by an analytical commentary. The subject of the article is a monologue of «drunken» Semyon Marmeladov in the tavern (p. 1, ch. 2), saturated with New Testament quotations, and an evangelical scene about raised Lazarus (p. 4, ch. 4). It is concluded that when translating the «evangelical text» of the novel, the Vietnamese translators experienced serious difficulties due to ignorance of Russian Orthodoxy, which is still perceived in Vietnam to this day as a kind of exotic. Some specific refinements to existing translations are proposed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena K. Kuzmina ◽  
Gulnara G. Nazarova ◽  
Lilia R. Nizameeva ◽  
Gérard Broussois

The comprehension of admirativeness as an independent category took place relatively recently – at the end of the 20th century. Until now, some scholars have not recognized an independent character of admirative. However, in recent years there has been an increasingly noticeable tendency to recognize the separate role of admirativeness and to indicate that the expression of surprise evoked by unexpected information cannot be combined with similar meanings. At the same time, the ways and degree of expression of admirativeness in different language systems vary significantly. The introduction of such grammatical category as admirativeness and the term “admirative” refers to the second half of the 19th century. In 1879, O. Dozon coined the term in his works on the Albanian language. The choice of this name (Fr. admiratif comes from the verb “to admire”) is determined by the fact that the linguist interpreted the concept as a certain sense of admiration or surprise, often having an ironic character. Further the development of this direction showed that admirative had the meaning of surprise rather than admiration. In this connection, in 1997, S. de Lancey first singled out this concept into a separate grammatical category. The scholar substantiates it by the fact that in a number of languages, such as Korean, Turkish, Tibetan, Dardic, Sanvar, etc., admirative has a separate grammatical expression. The identification of admirativeness as a separate linguistic phenomenon with a number of specific features has been still the subject of controversy among the researchers. Characteristics and distinctive features of admirativeness, allowing for the separation it from other similar categories will be considered later in the paper (Davletbaeva et al., 2013). In his writings, S. de Lancey uses the term “mirative”, thereby excluding its correlation with admiration introduced by O. Dozon from the meaning of the concept, and indicating that its primary function is to convey the subject’s astonishment. To date, the term “mirative” is widely used in English-language grammar. V.A. Plugnyan notes that the use of this term is more grounded from a typological point of view, however, the use of the concept “admirative” is often retained in domestic works (Smagina, 1996).


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