Hunting for Previous Coronavirus Pandemics Using Corpus Linguistic Analysis of 19th Century British Newspapers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosita Solovejute ◽  
Derek Gatherer
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Pandemic Strains ◽  
Human Coronaviruses ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The 19Th Century

COVID-19 is the first known coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, the seasonal circulation of the four milder coronaviruses of humans – OC43, NL63, 229E and HKU1 – raises the possibility that these viruses are the descendants of more ancient coronavirus pandemics. This proposal arises by analogy to the observed descent of seasonal influenza subtypes H2N2 (now extinct), H3N2 and H1H1 from the pandemic strains of 1957, 1968 and 2009, respectively. Recent historical revisionist speculation has focussed on the influenza pandemic of 1889-1892, based on molecular phylogenetic reconstructions that show the emergence of human coronavirus OC43 around that time, probably by zoonosis from cattle. If the “Russian influenza”, as The Times named it in early 1890, was not influenza but caused by a coronavirus, the origins of the other three milder human coronaviruses may also have left a residue of clinical evidence in the 19th century medical literature and popular press. In this paper, we search digitised 19th century British newspapers for evidence of previously unsuspected coronavirus pandemics. We conclude that there is little or no corpus linguistic signal in the UK national press for large-scale outbreaks of unidentified respiratory disease for the period 1785 to 1890.

scholarly journals Rhetorical uses of precise numbers and semi-magical round numbers in political discourse about COVID-19: Examples from the government of the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 095792652110131
Author(s):  
Michael Billig
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
British Government ◽  
Political Incentives ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Round Numbers ◽  
Magical Power ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The 19Th Century

This paper examines how the British government has used statistics about COVID-19 for political ends. A distinction is made between precise and round numbers. Historically, using round numbers to estimate the spread of disease gave way in the 19th century to the sort precise, but not necessarily accurate, statistics that are now being used to record COVID-19. However, round numbers have continued to exert rhetorical, ‘semi-magical’ power by simultaneously conveying both quantity and quality. This is demonstrated in examples from the British government’s claims about COVID-19. The paper illustrates how senior members of the UK government use ‘good’ round numbers to frame their COVID-19 goals and to announce apparent achievements. These round numbers can provide political incentives to manipulate the production of precise number; again examples from the UK government are given.

scholarly journals PEREDARAN OPIUM DI MINANGKABAU ABAD KE-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nasir
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Opium Trade ◽  
Islamic Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Made In

This article discusses the history of Minangkabau in the 19th century AD. One of the themes of 19th century Minangkabau history is the Islamic reform movement promoted by religious groups commonly called the Padri movement. One of the central issues of the Padri movement was eradicating the habit of drinking alcoholism that occurred in Minangkabau society. The habit of smoking the drug that comes from boiling opium certainly indicates the existence of the drug on a large scale. Therefore, this article will present a picture of the opium trade in Minangkabau in the 19th century from upstream (providers) to downstream (dealers). It is hoped that this article will be useful as an explanation for the habit of smoking made in the Minangkabau community at that time.

Macroevolutionary trends in the genus Torvoneustes (Crocodylomorpha: Metriorhynchidae) and discovery of a giant specimen from the Late Jurassic of Kimmeridge, UK

2019 ◽  
Vol 189 (2) ◽  
pp. 483-493
Author(s):  
Mark T Young ◽  
Davide Foffa ◽  
Lorna Steel ◽  
Steve Etches
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Body Length ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Occipital Region ◽  
Posterior Surface ◽  
Carotid Canal ◽  
Attachment Sites ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Clay Formation ◽  
The 19Th Century

Abstract The metriorhynchid crocodylomorph fauna of the Late Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation (KCF) of the UK was highly diverse. One genus from this Formation, Torvoneustes, was unique in evolving dentition similar to known chelonivorous crocodylomorphs and enlarged attachment sites for the pterygoideus adductor musculature. Here we report the largest known Torvoneustes specimen, the occipital region of a large cranium that was discovered on the shore of Brandy Bay, Dorset, UK (KCF). We also report three tooth crowns discovered during the 19th century from Oxfordshire that can also be referred to Torvoneustes. The partial braincase is unique in having: verticalized basioccipital tuberosities that have thickened ventral margins, the notch between the basioccipital tuberosities is a narrow inverted ‘U’-shape and a subrectangular-shaped carotid canal foramina. The presence of ‘occipital fossae’ (deep concavities with the hypoglossal foramina in their dorsomedial corners) and carotid foramina with raised rims relative to the basioccipital posterior surface, allow us to refer it to Torvoneustes. Although incomplete, the exceptional size of the specimen demonstrates that Torvoneustes attained larger body lengths than previously supposed (3.7–4.7 m). Comparing the dimensions of this specimen to other metriorhynchids suggests that at least some Torvoneustes specimens rivalled Plesiosuchus manselii in body length.

Academic surgery in the UK and the Surgical Research Society 50 years ago

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Harold Ellis
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Medical Schools ◽  
Research Society ◽  
Surgical Research ◽  
Academic Surgery ◽  
Surgical Units ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The 19Th Century

Fifty years ago, in 1970, academic surgical units had finally been established throughout the universities in the UK. Such departments had been created in the Scottish university cities in the 19th century; some medical schools in London had resisted this custom, but by now these bastions of the old system had surrendered!

Extinction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark V. Barrow
Keyword(s):  
Endangered Species ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
Captive Breeding ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Apex Predators ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
Extinction Events ◽  
The 19Th Century

The prospect of extinction, the complete loss of a species or other group of organisms, has long provoked strong responses. Until the turn of the 18th century, deeply held and widely shared beliefs about the order of nature led to a firm rejection of the possibility that species could entirely vanish. During the 19th century, however, resistance to the idea of extinction gave way to widespread acceptance following the discovery of the fossil remains of numerous previously unknown forms and direct experience with contemporary human-driven decline and the destruction of several species. In an effort to stem continued loss, at the turn of the 19th century, naturalists, conservationists, and sportsmen developed arguments for preventing extinction, created wildlife conservation organizations, lobbied for early protective laws and treaties, pushed for the first government-sponsored parks and refuges, and experimented with captive breeding. In the first half of the 20th century, scientists began systematically gathering more data about the problem through global inventories of endangered species and the first life-history and ecological studies of those species. The second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries have been characterized both by accelerating threats to the world’s biota and greater attention to the problem of extinction. Powerful new laws, like the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, have been enacted and numerous international agreements negotiated in an attempt to address the issue. Despite considerable effort, scientists remain fearful that the current rate of species loss is similar to that experienced during the five great mass extinction events identified in the fossil record, leading to declarations that the world is facing a biodiversity crisis. Responding to this crisis, often referred to as the sixth extinction, scientists have launched a new interdisciplinary, mission-oriented discipline, conservation biology, that seeks not just to understand but also to reverse biota loss. Scientists and conservationists have also developed controversial new approaches to the growing problem of extinction: rewilding, which involves establishing expansive core reserves that are connected with migratory corridors and that include populations of apex predators, and de-extinction, which uses genetic engineering techniques in a bid to resurrect lost species. Even with the development of new knowledge and new tools that seek to reverse large-scale species decline, a new and particularly imposing danger, climate change, looms on the horizon, threatening to undermine those efforts.

Złote łany, ziemniaczane pola i zagony buraków. Roślinny krajobraz polskiej wsi w perspektywie historii gospodarczej

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1 (460)) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
Piotr Koryś
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Sugar Beet ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Sugar Industry ◽  
Diesel Oil ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Village

The article discusses the role of plants in Poland’s economic development over the last 500 years. The author presents the role of five plants in the history of Poland’s development: cereals (wheat and rye), potatoes, sugar beet and rape. The specificity of the economic development of modern Europe has made Poland one of Europe’s granaries and an important exporter of cereals. This shaped the civilization of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and contributed to its fall due to institutional specificity. In the 19th century, potatoes played an important role in the population development of Polish lands, as they helped feed the rapidly growing population. The spread of sugar beet cultivation created the conditions for the development of modern sugar industry in the second half of the 19th century. It became one of the first modern branches of the food industry in Poland and contributed to the modernization of the village. Quite recently, oilseed rape was to become a plant that would bring back the times of agricultural sheikhs – no longer the nobility would trade in cereals on the European markets, but entrepreneurs producing a vegetable substitute for diesel oil.

scholarly journals Reindeer pastoralism in Sweden 1550-1950

Rangifer ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Lundmark
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Reindeer Herding ◽  
The North ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The 19Th Century

In the middle of the 16th century we get the first opportunity to a more detailed knowledge of reindeerpastoralism in Sweden. At that time the Sami lived in a hunter-gatherer economy. A family had in average about 10-20 domesticated reindeer, mainly used for transport. They could also be milked and used as decoys when hunting wild reindeer. During late 16th century the Swedish state and merchants bought large amounts of fur from the Sami. The common payment was butter and flour. This created a new prosperity, which lead to a considerable increase in population in Swedish Lapland. The population became too large for a hunter-gatherer economy. A crisis in early 17th century was the starting point for the transition to a large-scale nomadic reindeer pastoralism. Up to the middle of the 18th century intensive reindeer pastoralism was successful. But the pastoralism became gradually too intensive and diseases started to spread when the herds were kept too densely crowded for milking in summertime. During the first decades of the 19th century reindeer pastoralism in Sweden went through a major crisis. The number of reindeer herding mountain-Sami decreased considerably, mainly because they went to live permanently along the Norwegian coastline. Intensive reindeer pastoralism started to give way for extensive herding towards the end of the 19th century. In the north of Sweden influences from the Kautokeino Sami were an important factor, in the south extensive reindeer herding started to expand when the market for meat came closer to the Sami. During the 1920s the milking of reindeer ceased in Sweden, except in a few families. At that time Sami families from the north had been removed southwards. They further demonstrated the superiority of extensive herding to the Sami in mid- and southern Lapland. Reindeer pastoralism is basically a system of interaction between man and animal, but it has been heavily influenced by market forces and state intervention during hundreds of years. To a large extent these long-term external influences have made reindeer pastoralism what it is today. That aspect should not be overlooked when assessing the future prospects of reindeer pastoralism in Scandinavia.Renskötseln i Sverige 1550-1950Abstract in Swedish / Sammanfattning: Först vid mitten av 1500-talet finns det källmaterial som ger oss en tämligen detaljerad bild av renskötseln i Sverige. Vid den tiden levde samerna i en jakt- , fiske- och samlarekonomi. En familj hade normalt 10-20 renar som främst utnyttjades vid transporter. Tamrenarna kunde också mjölkas och fungera som lockdjur vid vildrensjakt. Under senare delen av 1500-talet köpte svenska staten och handelsmän stora mängder pälsverk av samerna. Den vanligaste betalningen var smör och mjöl. Detta skapade ett välstånd som ledde till en betydande folkökning i svenska lappmarken. Befolkningen blev för stor för att rymmas inom ramarna för en jaktochfiskeekonomi. En kris i början av 1600-talet blev startpunkten för övergången till en storskalig rennomadism.Fram till mitten av 1700-talet var den intensiva renskötseln framgångsrik. Men renskötseln blev efterhand alltför intensiv. Under senare delen av 1700-talet började det spridas sjukdomar i de tätt sammanhållna hjordarna. De första decennierna av 1800-talet innebar en allvarlig kris i renskötseln. Antalet renskötande fjällsamer minskade kraftigt, främst genom utvandring till norska kusten. Den intensiva renskötseln med mjölkning av renarna började ersättas av en extensiv renskötsel inriktad på köttproduktion de sista decennierna av 1800-talet. I norr var naturförhållandena och influenser från Kautokeino-samerna en viktig faktor, i söder utvecklades renskötseln i extensiv riktning främst därför att marknaden för renkött kom närmare renskötarna. Under 1920-talet upphörde mjölkningen av renar i Sverige, utom i några enstaka familjer. Då hade förflyttningarna av samer från nordligaste Sverige söderut påskyndat utvecklingen och ytterligare markerat den extensiva renskötselteknikensöverlägsenhet. Tamrenskötsel är ett samspel mellan människa och djur, men det är inte bara en fråga om renskötaren och hans hjord. Externa marknadsfaktorer, beskattning och lagstiftning har haft ett betydandeinflytande på renskötselns utveckling under hundratals år. De har till stor del format renskötseln till vad den är idag. Detta bör beaktas när man gör bedömningar av renskötselns framtid. 

scholarly journals CLASSIFICATION OF INVALID TRANSACTIONS IN PRESENT LAW DOCTRINE OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

10.23856/4624 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-194
Author(s):  
Roman Tashian
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
The Times ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
The 19Th Century

The aim of this paper is providing the analysis of the classification of invalid transactions into void and voidable, which is recognized in many countries. This classification takes roots from the times of Ancient Rome, and was further developed in the 19th century thanks to the works of pandectists, primarily F.K. von Savigny and B. Windscheid. Today many European states are reforming their civil legislation. This fact allows us to take a fresh look at many institutions of civil law. In addition to the traditional approaches that are characteristic of the countries of the pandecto system, special attention should be paid to the “theorie moderne”, which is widespread in the countries of the Romanesque legal system. In the context of the invalidity of transactions, the article analyzes the provisions of the legislation of the leading European countries – Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Belgium. Based on the above, it is concluded that this classification of the invalidity of transactions has not lost its meaning and is relevant today.

scholarly journals Large-scale drivers of Australian east coast cyclones since 1851

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Stuart A. Browning ◽  
Ian D. Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Winter Period ◽  
Storm Activity ◽  
Data Scarcity ◽  
Tasman Sea ◽  
The 19Th Century

Subtropical maritime low-pressure systems are one of the most complex and destructive storm types to impact Australia’s eastern seaboard. This family of storms, commonly referred to as East Coast Cyclones (ECC), is most active during the late autumn and early winter period when baroclinicity increases in the Tasman Sea region. ECC have proven challenging to forecast at both event and seasonal timescales. Storm activity datasets, objectively determined from reanalyses using cyclone detection algorithms, have improved understanding of the drivers of ECC over the era of satellite data coverage. In this study we attempt to extend these datasets back to 1851 using the Twentieth Century Reanalysis version 2c (20CRv2c). However, uncertainty in the 20CRv2c increases back through time due to observational data scarcity, and individual cyclones counts tend to be underestimated during the 19th century. An alternative approach is explored whereby storm activity is estimated from seasonal atmosphere-ocean circulation patterns. Seasonal ECC frequency over the 1955 to 2014 period is significantly correlated to regional sea-level pressure and sea surface temperature (SST) patterns. These patterns are used to downscale the 20CRv2c during early years when individual events are not well simulated. The stormiest periods since 1851 appear to have been 1870 to the early 1890s, and 1950 to the early 1970s. Total storm activity has been below the long-term average for most winters since 1976. Conditions conducive to frequent ECC events tend to occur during periods of relatively warm SST in the southwest Pacific typical of negative Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO-ve). Extratropical cyclogenesis is associated with negative Southern Annular Mode (SAM-ve) and blocking in the southern Tasman Sea. Subtropical cyclogenesis is associated with SAM+ve and blocking in the central Tasman Sea. While the downscaling approach shows some skill at estimating seasonal storm activity from the large-scale circulation, it cannot overcome data scarcity based uncertainties in the 19th century when the 20CRv2c is effectively unconstrained throughout most of the southern hemisphere. Storm frequency estimates during the 19th century are difficult to verify and should be interpreted cautiously and with reference to available documentary evidence.

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