Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Health, Pollution, Hygiene, Public Health

Publications cited:

Atkinson 1848 Atkinson, John Charles 1848. Change of Air: Fallacies Regarding it, London: John Oliver
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    Discusses 'received fallacies as to the effects of change of air in certain forms of disease' (95).

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Skill, Medical Treatment

    Describes the feelings of a young French physician, Fournier, who learns that a fellow student has gained a situation through 'efficient friends' rather than 'merit' (108). The physician diagnoses a serious illness in an elderly patient and offers to pay for the expensive medical treatment, although the patient's god-daughter tells him to point out to the patient that the medicine is a gift. The physician later renounces 'the application of the ineffectual remedies' (110).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment

People mentioned:

Dr Day, Day, Dr (fl. 1855) ED1/4/4/2
Close   View the register entry >> Dominic J Corrigan, Corrigan, Sir Dominic John (1802–80) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> James Copland Copland, James (1791–1870) ODNB
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    Describes treatments for lumbago, and the 'transference of vitality, which appeared to take place when young persons are habitually placed in contact with the aged'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Nutrition

Publications cited:

Farmer's Register Farmer's Register (cited 1865) ED1/4/5/1
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    Dicussses the medicinal properties of tomatoes, with reference to the work of Dr Bennett Bennett, Dr (fl. 1855) ED1/4/5/1
Close   View the register entry >>, 'a professor of some celebrity' (159), and to Constantin S Rafinesque Rafinesque, Constantin Samuel (1783–1840) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, Dungleson Dungleson, —— (fl. 1855) ED1/4/5/1
Close   View the register entry >>, and Prof. Dickens Dickens, Prof (fl. 1855) ED1/4/5/1
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Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Disease, Mental Illness, Psychology, Medical Treatment, Supernaturalism

People mentioned:

William Cullen, Cullen, William (1710–90) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> William Gregory Gregory, William (1803–58) DSB
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    Upholding the efficacy of 'mental remedies' for physical pain, describes a case of a 'complete though temporary cure performed on a young lady' by the effect of mental agency. The author explains that 'mental medicine' failed to cure his own bout of quartan fever. (164) Describes a failed attempt to treat a 'mental malady'—a man's vision of a phantom form of his sister—by 'corporeal means', namely, by inviting the man's sister to masquerade as the phantom. (165) Concludes with a similarly disastrous attempt to cure a woman suffering from catalepsy by introducing her to the husband she mistakenly believed to be dead. Warns people against the 'incautious use of the means to which we are accustomed to attribute less power than they really possess' (166).

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Disease, Death

    Describes a doctor giving advice to a woman about the best treatment of her sick young daughter. The condition of the girl worsens to the point where the doctor tells the woman, 'your own feelings probably tell you as much as all my science can' (183). Following the girl's death, the doctors who had been brought in to save her life argue over the treatment she should have received. One doctor concludes that although it was 'unprofessional' to say so, 'the child should not have died'; the mother exclaims to the practitioners 'Heaven help you' (184).

Genre:

Introduction; Address, Spoof

Subjects:

Monstrosities, Animal Behaviour, Hunting

    Reports on a speech, putatively made by Babylon W Baldeagle, concerning the recent American capture and antics of the 'great national monstrum', particularly its collision with an iceberg (198). Baldeagle proceeds to argue that the 'incomparable basilik' is 'eminently and exclusively' the property of America and urges others to leave it alone, wherever it may roam or whatever it does. Claims that the 'people will rise up a mass' and 'chastise the dastards' who threaten or 'offer indignities' to the serpent. (199) Laments the fact that the serpent lies in its oceanic cavern, with an injured fin, and calls on the American people to attend to the sick beast.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Psychology, Meteorology, Natural Law

    Noting that science has 'unfolded the laws which regulate the seeming irregularity of storms', anticipates that 'the present system of minute contemplation will discover the signs' of mankind's 'moral storms and diseases' (226).

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Health

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Health, Hygiene, Gas Chemistry, Nutrition, Putrefaction, Physiology, Pollution, Sanitation

    Presents 'Fifteen Rules for the Preservation of Health'. These explain the chemical processes involved in respiration, the importance of food, water and warmth to the body, the dangers of inhaling gases produced in combustion or by decaying organic matter, the physiological reasons for cleansing the skin, the importance of simple foods and of maintaining steady body temperature.

Genre:

Introduction / Essay

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Education, Disease, Human Development, Medical Treatment, Gender

    The introduction to 'Notes on Nurses', the winning entry in a competition for an essay on nurses, points out that all the essays urge the need for a college for training nurses, and thus appear to agree with John F D Maurice's Maurice, John Frederick Denison (1805–72) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> scheme for a 'Female College for the Help of the Rich and the Poor'. The introduction picks out some of the key features of each essay.

    Noting the sparseness of nurses like 'Sairey Gamp', 'Notes on Nurses' insists that nurses typically show 'the greatest care' and 'watchful solitude'. It upholds the importance of appropriate 'looks and voice' when dealing with infants. (333) Thinks nurses are great 'rarities' and agrees with a report from The Times The Times (1777–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> linking infant mortality to nurses' poor and brutal treatment of infants. Notes that rich patients are nursed by individuals who 'do not understand nursing [...] as a science'. Urges that nurses need to have a 'trained mind to comprehend the course of treatment prescribed' and the skill to create the best conditions for recovery. (334) Adds that nursing education should consist of 'grafting the principles of science on the natural tenderness of woman'. Fears that the 'institution' financed by the 'Nightingale Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> testimonial' will not enroll people of 'youth and religious enthusiasm' but hopes it will improve nurses' medical knowledge and career. Concludes by praising the 'noble self-denial' of the nurses at the Crimea. (335)

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Anon 1855 Anon. 1855. Lectures to Ladies on Practical Subjects, Cambridge: Macmillan & Co.
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Subjects:

Education, Disease, Sanitation, Hygiene, Gender

    Notes that among the duties to which this work 'call[s] ladies' are to know the 'number and character' and breeding propensity of fevers, and to know 'the laws that apply to the suppression of dirt or nuisances' (339).

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Neilson 1855, Neilson, William [1855]. Mesmerism in its Relation to Health and Disease and the Present State of Medicine, Edinburgh: Shepherd & Elliot
Close   View the register entry >> , Entomologist's Annual Entomologist's Annual (1855–74) Waterloo Directory
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[1] [Review of Mesmerism in its Relation to Health and Disease, by William Nielson]

[5] [Review of the Entomologist's Annual]

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Light, Instruments, Amusement

    Following the suggestion of Edward G Wood Wood, Edward George (1811–96) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, 'optician of Cheapside', explains the principle of the stereoscope. Concludes from a series of 'Elementary Scientific Papers' that Wood sent to the periodical with one of his stereoscopes, that the 'workman is not a workman merely, but well read in the science he labours for'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Physiology, Health

    Explains the physiological reasons for allowing infants to sleep as much as possible.

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Pulte 1855 Pulte, Joseph Hippolyt 1855. Homeopathic Domestic Physician: Containing the Treatment of Diseases; with Popular Explanations of Anatomy, (revised and supplied with explanatory notes by John Epps), London: James Epps
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Subjects:

Homeopathy, Mesmerism, Hydropathy, Health, Medical Treatment

    Notes the evidence supporting the possibility of curing diseases by faith or imagination. Advises followers of allopathy, hydropathy, and mesmerism to turn to the Royal College of Physicians Royal College of Physicians
Close   View the register entry >>, 'wet towels', and 'the mesmeric pass' respectively (373). Recommends the book under review, and notes that with it and 'faith' in the homeopathic system, a reader can become their 'own homeopathic domestic physician' (374).