History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons^™

Assessing Legacy Collections: Analyzing The Preservation, Recovery, And Interpretive Value Of Archaeobotanical Remains From Site 15le70 (Pine Crest Rockshelter), Lee County, Kentucky, Jennifer Carroll

Graduate Final Projects

This paper uses the archaeobotanical assemblage from Site 15Le70, a multi-excavated and extensively looted rockshelter in eastern Kentucky, while opening new lines of inquiry into gendered labor and practice during the Archaic-Woodland transition. Because legacy collections are often dispersed across institutions and/or research projects, the materials from any single site may be fragmented, as was the case for 15Le70. Such collections can be overlooked, yet this investigation into 15Le70’s archaeobotanical assemblage demonstrates that partial or scattered datasets can yield meaningful results and hold the potential to fill gaps in the archaeological record left by looting.

In this study, a small …

Field Guide To Big Bone Lick, Kentucky: Birthplace Of American Vertebrate Paleontology, Glenn W. Storrs, H Gregory Mcdonald, Eric Scott, Robert A. Genheimer, Stanley E. Hedeen, Cameron E. Schwalbach

Special Publication--KGS

Big Bone Lick is the birthplace of vertebrate paleontology in the Western Hemisphere and has a long and celebrated history in the exploration of the American colonial frontier and of the early United States. Notable European scientists of the 18th century such as Buffon, Cuvier, and Hunter discussed the fossils found there. Prominent Americans of the time, such as Boone, Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson are also part of the site’s history. It is the type locality for several extinct late Pleistocene megafaunal mammals, most notably the iconic American Mastodon, who were attracted to the area by salt licks dictated by …

Colonial Contraception: American Birth Control Advocates And Their Work In Appalachia, Puerto Rico, And India; 1930-1970, Dana Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--History

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the development of better contraceptives and changing cultural attitudes led to an increased interest in contraceptive research. Although major political, legal, social, religious, and cultural obstacles remained, birth control advocates began to perform clinical trials to identify effective contraceptives and to disseminate contraceptive information. These trials began in the United States, but birth control advocates quickly introduced them into other areas. In this dissertation, I examine the research efforts of the American birth control movement through an analysis of the activities and discourse of its key advocates and promoters during the middle decades …

Building Public Health In A Rural State: Strategies For Preventing Disease In Kentucky, 1883-1914, Abigail Stephens

Theses and Dissertations--History

During the period from 1883-1914, the Kentucky State Board of Health developed strategies for preventing disease in the state by enforcing hard power measures of vaccination, quarantine, and isolation of disease suspects, and through the soft power measures of written and spoken communication. Throughout this period their efforts to prevent and contain disease were limited by inadequate funding as well as opposition from the public, local authorities, and the state legislature, demonstrating that while hard power measures can be effective in combating disease, they cannot be fully successful without support from the people they aim to protect.

Appalachia On The Airwaves: A History Of Public And Educational Television In The Southern Mountains, Carson Benn

Theses and Dissertations--History

Through a series of historical case studies of individual states within the multi-state region of the Appalachian mountain range, as well as the region as a whole, this dissertation examines educational television (ETV) operations, both at the network level and that of individual stations. Though mostly thought of as “public television”—an educational and noncommercial alternative to mainstream broadcast media—these ETV networks offered, I argue, something more analogous to present-day understandings of distance education and the use of instructional media and technology. Station directors, philanthropic benefactors, and school administrators took different approaches to providing the service of ETV, but all were …

The Coulter Principle: For The Good Of Humankind, Marshall Graham

Theses and Dissertations--History

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 made Wallace H. Coulter abruptly comprehend the critical need for rapid and accurate blood-cell counts in providing care for victims of radiation exposure. This thesis documents the unwritten story of his journey from that comprehension through his invention and implementation of the Coulter Principle, its commercialization in the first widely available automated blood-cell counter, and elaboration of that ground-breaking counter into increasingly sophisticated instrumentation for analysis not only of blood cells, but of particles involved in many other scientific disciplines. International cold-war politics and the burgeoning of increasingly powerful nuclear …

Historical And Cross-Cultural Perspectives On Parkinson's Disease, Lee Xenakis Blonder

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting up to 10 million people worldwide according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Epidemiological and genetic studies show a preponderance of idiopathic cases and a subset linked to genetic polymorphisms of a familial nature. Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda recognized and treated the illness that Western Medicine terms PD millennia ago, and descriptions of Parkinson’s symptomatology by Europeans date back 2000 years to the ancient Greek physician Galen. However, the Western nosological classification now referred to in English as “Parkinson’s disease” and the description of symptoms that define it, are accredited to …

‘Something A Little Bit Tasty’: Women And The Rise Of Nutrition Science In Interwar British Africa, Lacey Sparks

Theses and Dissertations--History

Widespread malnutrition after the Great Depression called into question the role of the British state in preserving the welfare of both its citizens and its subjects. International organizations such as the League of Nations, empire-wide projects such as nutrition surveys conducted by the Committee for Nutrition in the Colonial Empire (CNCE), sub-imperial networks of medical and teaching professionals, and individuals on-the-spot in different colonies wove a dense web of ideas on nutrition. African women quickly became the focus of efforts to end malnutrition due to Malthusian concerns of underpopulation in Africa and African women’s role as both farmers and mothers. …

The Hopes And The Realities Of Aviation In French Indochina, 1919-1940, Gregory Charles Seltzer

Theses and Dissertations--History

My dissertation examines how and why the French employed aviation in the five constituent parts of French Indochina (Annam, Cambodia, Cochinchina, Laos, and Tonkin) during the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. I argue that the French, believing that the modern technology of powered flight possessed seemingly endless potential, saw aviation as a vehicle for extending, consolidating, developing, and protecting their interests both within the colony and around Southeast and East Asia. Aircraft, whether civil or military, were viewed and used as a multi-purpose tool of empire. Indeed, planes were employed for a variety of tasks in Indochina: transportation …

Impermeable Assemblages: Flooding, Urban Infrastructure, And Stormwater Politics In São Paulo, Brazil, Nate Millington

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This project analyzes efforts to remake the relationship between water and city in São Paulo, Brazil. Currently experiencing overlapping problems of flooding, scarcity, and pollution, São Paulo illustrates the challenges of managing water in a contemporary mega-city. This dissertation subsequently considers the city’s water management through an approach that borrows from urban political ecology, social studies of science, and post-colonial urban theory. With an epistemological grounding in these literatures, this project analyzes ongoing conversations about water management in São Paulo, and focuses on how water is encountered and engaged with in the landscape by engineers, artists, and activists. This project …

Patient-Prisoners: Venereal Disease Control And The Policing Of Female Sexuality In The United States, 1890-1945, Evelyn A. Sorrell

Theses and Dissertations--History

Sexual politics were central in the United States’ venereal disease control movement in the early decades of the twentieth century. This dissertation analyzes the evolution of the venereal disease control movement from the Progressive Era reformers focus on creating a single standard of morality to the Public Health Service’s (PHS) concern over maternal and economic health during the Great Depression. I examine the intersections of public health, gender, sexuality, and citizenship through reactions and policies addressing venereal disease. In particular, the United States’ entry into World War I heightened fears of moral and health crises, as military physicals uncovered a …

Transylvania University And Its Hemp Connection, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)–An Unfinished Life, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

The fame of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) rests on his anatomy text, De humani corporis fabrica, regarded as a seminal book in modern medicine. It was compiled while he taught anatomy at Padua, 1537-1543. Some of his findings challenged Galen’s writings of the 2c AD, and caused De fabrica to be rejected immediately by classically trained anatomists. At age 29, Vesalius abandoned his studies and over the next two decades served as physician to Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) and later to King Philip II of Spain in Madrid. In 1564, he sought to resume teaching anatomy …

Plagiarism Of Ideas. Benjamin Rush And Charles Caldwell--A Student-Mentor Dispute, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Grave Robbing In Lexington And Elsewhere, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Emmet F. Horine And Transylvania’S Special Collections, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Unique Treasure: Transylvania's 1,760 Medical Theses From The Early Nineteenth Century--11 On Yellow Fever, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sir William Osler And The Muniments Of The Almshouse At Ewelme, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Historical Importance Of Transylvania University’S Medical Department (1799-1859), Focusing On The Little Known Secret Kappa Lambda Society Of Hippocrates And The Origin Of The American Medical Association's Principles Of Medical Ethics, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Osler Came To Boston, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transylvania Medical Alumni Who Served In The Union And Confederate Armies, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transylvania Medical Alumni Served Both Sides During The Civil War, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Transylvania Medical Graduate Searches For His Sons After A Civil War Battle, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Joseph Hersey Pratt, M.D.: The Man Who Would Be Osler, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

Joseph Hersey Pratt (1872-1956) was a member of the second class of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he became a devoted student of William Osler and life-long disciple. Pratt received his medical degree in 1898 and spent his professional career in Boston. He maintained a close association with Osler until the latter's death in 1919, when Osler's deification as a secular medical saint began. When Pratt died in 1956 at age 83, the Boston Globe eulogized him in an editorial which read, "Dr. Pratt earned a place in the group of Boston medical immortals who have done so much …

Osler And The Infected Letter: A History Of Disinfecting Mail With Special Reference To Smallpox, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

In January 1876 William Osler, a young Canadian physician, was recovering from a mild case of smallpox contracted while attending patients at the Montreal General Hospital (Figure 1). In a letter written that same month to an old schoolmate (ArthurJarvis), Osier described his illness and noted in closing, "You need not be afraid of this letter. I will disinfect it before sending." Concern about disseminating smallpox via the letter was well founded. In his medical textbook of 1892, Osler would later write that smallpox can be conveyed by fomites: "the dried scales [of variola scabs] ... as a dust-like powder …

Rafinesque And Transylvania’S First Botanical Garden, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Five Early American Botanists: Works And Opinions Of Rafinesque, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Carolus Linnaeus (Carl Von Linné), 1707-1778: The Swede Who Named Almost Everything, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transylvania’S Skull With A Hole In It, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Carolus Linnaeus (Carl Von Linné), 1707-78: The Swede Who Named Almost Everything, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.