Darwinian Debates

The Darwinian debates are useful not only for their effect on science but also for their far reaching effect on society. The debates tie everything that we learned about the Victorian era together. First, the Darwinian debate engaged all sections of literate society instead of an esoteric group of people. By reaching all of literate society, the debate was widened and applied to many different things, so much so that the term “Darwinian” or “Darwinists” became associated with many different things had had little or no relation to Darwin’s actual arguments. Also in reaching an entire swath of society, the book was spread across the world, creating a global as well as domestic debates about the meanings and consequences of evolution through natural selection. How many editions of the Origin of Species were sold when the book first came out? How many evolutionary-minded clubs or organizations were founded after the work was published? Were the lower, semi-literate or illiterate classes aware of Darwin’s theories?

With the societal debates came accelerated secularization. Evolution through natural selection provided a scientific explanation instead of relying on scripture and Biblical teaching for an explanation of the creation of the earth. Another element of the increased secularization was the realization that the earth is older than 5,000 years and so the teachings in the Bible were not historically accurate, although they were still useful for moral instruction. The Great Exhibition of 1850 had started a trend of venerating science as the way for explaining natural phenomenon and using reason and logic to solve problems. In about 100 years, the idea of religion had radically changed and the power and influence of the Church had noticeably declined going from an era of religiosity alien to today’s society to an increasingly modern view of religion’s place in everyday life. How many people became agnostic or atheists as a result of Darwin and Wallace’s work? Were there any churches that explicitly supported Darwin’s theories? Were new religious sects created advocating Darwin’s ideas?

Another equally interesting aspect of Victorian life the Darwin debates influenced was medicine and gender roles. Because Darwinism advocated ideas of struggle for survival, people began to think of creating a more perfect race and ideas of eugenics began appearing. Did these ideas influence Adolf Hitler when he began his work with eugenics to try and create a perfect Aryan race?

After hearing and seeing so many references to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it was really nice to actually read the book. I was really interested in the extensive discussion of physiognomy. Mr. Hyde was considered to look deformed although there appeared to be nothing wrong with his appearance. That he was considered evil just because of physical appearance and evoked emotions of fear is an important element of Victorian philosophy. Cesare Lombroso studied physiognomy and phrenology and said one could determine if a person was evil or mad from their physical appearance. Stevenson utilized Lombraso’s ideas in his writing. Mr. Hyde can be clearly classified as a degenerate criminal type from studying his unnerving appearance.

In addition to utilizing ideas of physiognomy for identifying a criminal, Stevenson exploits different genres in his book to make it seem more believable. By calling the novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson uses the idea of a medical case study and of a police case history. I think it is even more interesting that he used such specialized areas because through evoking the idea of a specialist, Stevenson places himself in a special kind of authority role which another writer would not have been able to presume because there were no centralized police forces and medicine was beginning to get specialized. I think that the book was very effective in conveying its ideas because it appealed to the inner Mr. Hyde in all of us, which is both frightening and exhilarating. On the one hand it was terrifying to see a person from whom all seemed to be good and at least relatively righteous even if he was a bit fairy in the character of Dr. Jekyll, to a character who exudes pure evil: from the way he walks, to the way he talks to the way he looks and carries himself. I also thought it was interesting that after the novella came out, Jack the Ripper started on his bloody rampage, so much so that the play Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was shut down and some people believed that the actor playing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was Jack the Ripper. He was not, and was acquitted of his charges. I found it interesting how people were communicating more easily and people were getting involved in their communities.

Darwin, Wallace and Bad Nerves

Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace came to parallel discoveries of the principle of evolution through natural selection. However, though they came to similar conclusions, the path they each took to come to their conclusions and what they did after their discoveries was very different. Both Darwin and Wallace went to relatively uninhabited island formations (Darwin went to the Galapagos and Wallace to the Malay Archipelago) and traveling from island to island, noted the wide variety of species even at short distances. Wallace and Darwin were both influenced by Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population which argued that there was a greater population than available food which created a struggle for existence and created misery. Both Darwin and Wallace were wary of publishing their work after seeing the way Sedgwick, one of Darwin’s advisors at Cambridge, had lambasted Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation in 1844.

After Wallace sent Darwin his ideas on evolution through natural selection, Darwin realized that his ideas might be taken so he worked to publish before Wallace. Darwin’s good friends Hooker and Lyell, pushed him to publish his work and present his work with Wallace in a joint paper. After Darwin and Wallace presented their work, they went in different directions with their work. Wallace became involved in Socialism and many other radical causes, whereas Darwin avoided confrontation and promoted more conservative ideas including the belief that women were the inferior sex. I found it interesting that men with such similar ideas would have completely diverged in almost the next instant. I also found it interesting that Darwin had bad nerves because it meant that he was clearly in the upper class and educated because bad nerves and nerve exhaustion was a common problem for people in the upper class whereas the people of the lower classes might have been institutionalized. By blaming problems on brain function, people could save face. During the “great debate” between Huxley and Wilberforce, Darwin did not attend because he was ill. I wonder if he was ill or was suffering from a nervous problem. When did Darwin’s nervous condition begin? How widespread was the problem? Did nervous conditions come about because more people were entering the middle class and with the improvements and faster pace of life, did people just mentally collapse?

Malaria

With Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, the English began a period of almost unchecked imperial growth. The expansion created opportunities for ambitious members of the middle class to amass large sums of money and live in imperial lands like members of the upper class. However, living in a distant colony was anything but easy and the lands were termed the “white man’s grave” because of the droves of people that died from malaria. Due to the high mortality rates, in the 1890s, the London School of Tropical Medicine was set up to deal with the diseases people encountered in the colonies. The London School of Tropical Medicine is interesting because although the institution was created to deal with colonial diseases, there were no satellites in the colonies . The founders wanted to keep it within the established framework of medicinal institutions.

Two doctors, Manson and Ross, were critical in dealing with the malaria problems. They proposed two different and effective solutions for combating malaria. Manson focused on the etiology of tropical diseases and research in the UK with established networks and centers, particularly with the London School of Tropical Medicine. Ross, on the other hand, proposed direct involvement with the problem by cleaning stagnant water, finding breeding grounds and eliminating them to eradicate mosquitoes. The malaria debate shows two very different ways of dealing with public health problems recognizable today. Extensive study allowed scientists to identify that there were two cycles of malaria and that both humans and mosquitoes acted as vectors and helped people realize that they could use quinine as an effective prophylaxis. I found it interesting that the biggest reason for creating studies to deal with malaria were to increase profits because with so many people dying, businesses were not as efficient because their workforce was not lasting. I also thought it was interesting that no care was given to the natives. I would have thought that they would have wanted to take care of them so they could use them as cheap labor. The malaria question nicely ties science, medicine, and government into one. Without Chamberlain’s influence the London School of Tropical Medicine would never have been created. The London School of Tropical Medicine focused more on etiology and scientific research into the disease than going into the colonies. How much did medicine change after the London School was created? Did large numbers of people still die after the introduction of quinine, particularly in gin and tonics? Did alcoholism increase in the colonies after gin and tonics because people could rationalize drinking?

Transatlantic Telegraph

Aside from railroads, the most important invention during the Victorian era was the telegraph. With the first attempt of underwater telegraphs in 1839 in Calcutta until the first successful transatlantic cable linking the United States to Great Britain in 1865, the way people expected to get information completely changed. The telegraph reduced the time for transmitting information from a few hours to minutes, although longer distance such as from India to England could take up to a month. The telegraph provided the British with more control over their colonies.

I was intrigued that the telegraph would be used as a metaphor for the brain and nervous system. The metaphor could also extend to the idea of Great Britain being the brain and the nervous system being the wires running to the different outposts in the British Empire. I think it is interesting that the Victorians were so interested in the brain and the workings of the mind and would liken the brain to machinery especially with the high incidence of mental illness and the primitive understanding of nerve function. How much did colonial control change after the telegraph? Did the local civil service lose power? Was administration conducted increasingly from England? If colonial administration was conducted from England, were the decisions carried out effectively or did the local authority implement their directives effectively?

With the insulation of copper wires with gutta percha, cable could be placed in nearly any conditions. The House of Commons realized that submarine cables could be extremely useful and created a Select Committee to look into lying cable to more remote parts of the empire. When the cables were finally placed, it is interesting that the British would have gone to so much effort to place their cables in specifically zones within the empire even if that meant taking a more expensive and longer route. Did any of the other European countries create extensive telegraph lines to their colonies? Did any country ever propose creating an international telegraph service? Like other Victorian inventions, I found it surprising how quickly people accepted the telegraph and how quickly the submarine telegraph wires were taken for granted.

Maudsley

After the progress with Conolly’s ideas manifest in Colney Hatch and domesticity, a new era of psychiatry came about, supported by Maudsley, turned from optimism to therapeutic pessimism and professionalization of psychiatry and distance from the patients. Unlike other medical professions, psychiatry did not experience major improvements in diagnoses or treatment. During the Victorian era, many new psychiatric clinics were built. The public began to worry about the number of the mentally ill sharply increased. The Times declared, “If lunacy continues to increase as at present, the insane will be in the majority, and freeing themselves, will put the sane in asylums.” I thought it was really interesting that Victorians noted such a sharp increase in the number of psychiatric patients and were so concerned, when before they had prided themselves for having mental asylums and used them as evidence of their superiority over native peoples. What would have caused such high numbers of people to be institutionalized? Was there a changing view of the role of the family where people no longer felt responsible to look after their ill family? Did people resort to asylums for ill family members because they had to work in factories and could not provide the care that their family members would need? Was the asylum a place for putting the mentally ill person in an asylum a way to maintain the family’s status which may have been ruined otherwise?

Maudsley changed psychiatry during his lifetime. He believed there was a physical basis for all mental illness and there were hereditary origins for mental weakness. The idea that mental illness is hereditary was prevalent and can be seen in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte in the character of Bertha, Mr. Rochester’s first wife. Bertha’s mother is insane and her mental illness is hidden from Mr. Rochester as he courts Bertha, however, after he marries, she also goes mad and Rochester attributes his wife’s insanity to her Creole upbringing and her mother. Maudsley would have supported the way Rochester took care of his wife: isolation. The psychiatric movement at the time was one of alienation and as little contact as possible with the patient because the intimate, paternalistic treatments used at Colney Hatch had not worked and the asylums were unprofitable. With Maudsley’s model, the clinics made money and the practitioners consulted wealthy families on the side. I thought it was really interesting how radically psychiatry changed within the span of a century. It went from a form of entertainment with freaks to study as examples of moral degradation to a paternalistic, family-style caring environment, back to a harsh and pessimistic outlook on recovery and mental illness as a whole. Why did psychiatry take so long to catch up with the other medical professions for dealing with illness? I also find it fascinating that Colney Hatch was made into luxury apartments with no mention that it was once a lunatic asylum.

Annihilation of time

In an age marked by invention, one of the most important from Victorian England was the railroad. One of the first engines built was the Rocket by the Stephensons, a prominent engineering family, in 1829 for the Rainhill trials. Railways are seen as a symbol of progress and a symbol of mechanical triumph bringing people one step closer to having power over the Earth. It can be taken so far as to be seen as a cultural metaphor of the Victorian era because it embodied everything the Victorians wished to portray: progress, power, innovation, pride, and strength. The railroad changed the landscape of the earth and changed the way people lived and their concept of travel. Before the railroad, methods of transportation had remained unchanged for centuries: the only possibilities for travel were with some sort of draft animal, walking, or by boat.

One consequence of railroads was standardization of time. Before the invention of the railroad, time was dictated by local areas and varied from town to town. With the standardization of time, the pace of life sped up. People could now travel greater distances relatively easy and the idea of commuting from town to the city became a feasible idea. This also brought about a preoccupation with time and punctuality. One example of Victorian’s preoccupation with time is Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days in which the protagonist, Phileas Fogg plans an entire trip according to a basic understanding of train time tables and an obsession with punctuality. Another important aspect of Around the World in 80 Days is its use of technology, particularly trains and how they seem ubiquitous by the time Verne writes, although they had not even been around for 50 years. Did the increased preoccupation with time lead to more psychiatric problems, anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder? If people were constantly worrying about time and their lives sped up, would this, along with the disruption of their way of life have caused for more anxiety problems? Did technology, specifically the train, with its prosperity bring about more mental illness because people had more things to worry about and more time on their hands? Would the idea of “the annihilation of space by time” have helped bring about the loss of regional identities and specific traditions because people were so able to travel?

Bedlam

In the 1760s, William Hogarth engraved a series of plates relating a moral tale of a character named Tom Rakewell. These plates criticized contemporary society and plate 8, shows Tom dying in Bethlem asylum. The engraving is important because it shows the pervading ideas about mental illness and its various forms. Tom is being restrained using chains because his sinful living has driven him mad. Religion and science are also causes for madness as seen in the delusional man dressed as the pope and the man performing geometric calculations on the wall. The aristocratic women spectators viewing the insane as a form of entertainment would have been common.

Prompted by images such as Hogarth’s, Victorians reacted against Bedlam and pushed for reforms. One of the first reforms was the County Asylums Act of 1808 which provided asylums for pauper mentally ill and empowered Justices of Peace to get money to finance mental institutions. The County Asylums required counties to create asylums and the Lunacy Act of 1845 worked to improve people’s living conditions within the asylum system. Colney Hatch, a mental institution that Conolly supported, did not allow for restraints to be used against the patients and focused instead on domestication particularly moral management which advocated treating the mentally ill like rational people and providing psychiatric help. Its opening in 1851 comes from Victorian optimism and the grandeur view of psychiatry as the highest product of human civilization.

During our visit to Benthem we were able to look into old case record books from the late 1890s. It was interesting that scientists still had a difficult time explaining mental illness. The formalized process of taking detailed notes on psychiatric patients began in 1816, although doctors had been taking notes in their private journals for many years before the system went into place. The case book that my group and I got was one for women admitted to Bedlam in 1899. One of the cases we looked at was regarding a woman who had had attacks where she would be able to speak coherently and was generally anxious. The doctor responsible for her care suggested that she take a series of baths which would last anywhere from an hour to five or six. These baths were carefully recorded on a piece of graph paper and had been stapled in with her other medical records.

Why did mental illness increase so dramatically in the Victorian era? Did domestication actually help? Did domestication and improvements of asylums make paupers willing to enter them as an alternative to workhouses? Why were Victorians so proud that they were constructing more asylums than had ever been constructed before? How would having mental illness make them superior to the countries they were colonizing?

Anesthesia and Simpson

One of the most important inventions in medicine was anesthesia. I found the debates around the use particularly interesting. For centuries surgeries had been conducted without anything that would let the patient totally relax and not feel pain. Laudanum, a mixture of alcohol and opium, was used to help with surgery pain, but it was expensive and very addictive. When Dr. James Simpson, an Edinburgh obstetrician discovered chloroform could be used as an anesthesia, he began using it in hospitals to help women deliver their babies with more comfort. However, there was a huge theological debate over chloroform. Some believed that women should not be allowed to have chloroform because the Bible had written that childbirth should be a painful experience as a reminder of Adam and Eve’s Original Sin. I thought Simpson’s counter was perfect: Adam was put to sleep when God removed his rib to create Eve; therefore, God had anesthetized Adam making it acceptable for all Eves to be as well. Although the Bible was an effective tool, April 1853, marked a conversion in chloroform’s acceptability when it was administered to Queen Victoria while she was in labor. If Queen Victoria were able to use chloroform and survive, it was deemed safe enough for use by the general public. It struck me that it was common knowledge that the Queen used chloroform during her delivery. With the Royal endorsement, people began to shift their attitudes within medicine and society toward pain. With the use of chloroform, surgeons became more willing to perform longer surgeries, yet they were not performing them under hygienic circumstances. How much did mortality rates increase after the use of anesthetics?

When we visited the Royal College of Physicians, we saw a collection of books from Simpson’s private library. The building was constructed during the Victorian era, though the Royal College of Physicians existed long before they moved into their current building. One of the books that we saw recorded the first use of chloroform in a hospital for the assistance in a delivery. The use of chloroform was noted nonchalantly in the book, in the notes column like any other special note the doctor needed to write. How long after Simpson used chloroform on his private patients did he wait to bring it into the hospital or did he just use it on his hospital patients first?

Another book in the collection was one that Simpson’s nephew wrote before Simpson died. I thought it was interesting that both Simpson and his nephew would have considered a project recording his own death. We heard that he was making this journal because he wanted to be remembered. I wonder if he was inspired by Plato’s Trial of Socrates to try and leave his teachings to the world. Was Simpson not inspired by the classics and instead inspired by contemporary religious beliefs? Why would a religion inspire people to want to hear accounts of people’s deaths? Was taking an account just before death a method to make a person into a saint?

Pasteur, Koch, and Lister Combating Microbes Worldwide

With the beginnings of the germ theory of disease from Anton Von Leuwenhoek who showed that microorganisms existed everywhere, French scientist Louis Pasteur and German physician Robert Koch founded bacteriology. The two men made their discoveries using different techniques and formed a sense of rivalry. Pasteur came up with the idea of pasteurizing wine to kill microbes responsible for turning wine. His idea that boiling wine would kill the bad microbes and save the good ones was revolutionary and saved the wine industry. In addition, Pasteur proved that germs can be artificially attenuated to create vaccines that confer immunity, most famously in his rabies vaccine that he gave to a young boy that had been bitten by a rabid animal.

On the other side of the field was Dr. Robert Koch. He formalized the process for hunting microbes and formulated “Koch’s postulates” to establish if an organism is the cause of a disease. His postulates were applied to tuberculosis bacillus, vibrio cholera and a number of other deadly diseases that plagued 19th century Europe. The main difference between Koch and Pasteur was in the way they conducted their research: Pasteur prepared his experiments in liquids and Koch used agar gel in a Petri dish to grow his cultures. The two men together disproved the idea of spontaneous generation and by the end of the 19th century, thanks to their work, Germ Theory was accepted and remains one of the greatest successes of laboratory medicine. With Germ theory’s acceptance laboratory medicine, medical practice and public health converged. How much did Koch and Pasteur’s rivalry influence the hastened creation of a new field of science: bacteriology?

Pasteur’s support of germ theory influenced a doctor named Joseph Lister. Lister realized that the minute organisms that Pasteur had described could be killed through the use of carbolic acid as a disinfectant. Lister’s most important contribution was showing that carbolic acid applied to compound fractures would prevent the victim from needing an amputation due to septicemia. I thought it was interesting that germ theory and anesthesia were readily accepted, yet the simple act of trying to maintain an anti-septic environment was met with resistance. The act of washing one’s hands before surgery, an action that has become automatic, was a revolutionary idea in Lister’s time. I wonder why doctors and surgeons were so resistant to adopting Lister’s idea of antiseptic. I know that it must have been annoying to smell carbolic acid as it was being sprayed, but I would have thought that the patient outcomes would be evidence enough to support Lister’s claims. Surgeon’s tradition of conservatism might make sense, as the Galen model of medicine was used for nearly 1000 years before the ideas were finally rejected. I wonder if Lister was unpopular in the academy and it was more about politics than his discovery that prevented his ideas from disseminating more rapidly. Even with the advent of anesthetics to make surgery more tolerable, real improvements in mortality rate were not seen until after widespread use of antiseptic and aseptic techniques. Why did it take doctors so long to realize that pus was not a normal part of healing?

The Hunterian

Following the example of the great anatomy schools in Italy, John Hunter opened his anatomy academy in London, where besides teaching anatomy/physiology and surgery, he had a teaching museum that held preserved specimens. These specimens were used to help medical students identify diseases that they would likely encounter as they practiced. In addition to having preserved human remains, Hunter had animal remains and a collection of paintings. The remains show a wide variety of illnesses from syphilis to lung cancer in various stages. By carefully preserving remains, Hunter allowed students to make more accurate diagnoses of patients. One way to legitimize his venture and to professionalize surgery was to obtain body parts from prominent officials or other well-known medical curiosities. For example, Hunter was given the Archbishop of Canterbury’s rectum and allowed to purchase Charles Byrne’s, a 7’ 7” man, body and displayed it in his collection. I thought it was interesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury would have donated his body to science and allowed for it to be dissected especially when other religions, including Catholicism were adamantly against autopsies or dissection. Why would these differences have existed especially when France and Italy, both traditionally Catholic countries, were the leaders in anatomy for a long period of time?

Another interesting aspect of the Hunterian was the way things were arranged. There was a huge emphasis on correctly classifying diseases and putting everything into categories. For example, the sexually transmitted diseases, such as syphilis, were together. Near the syphilis specimens was another product of sexual intercourse: fetuses that had died during various points in gestation. This classification of diseases and development shows Linnaeus’ influence on the way science was conducted and marked a change in classification to the system that we still use today. Classification allowed people to assert control over nature through reasoning and logic and marks the beginning of modern biology.

I thought it was incredible that surgeons would have spent so much time collecting specimens for future generations to study, especially when there was little surgeons could do for patients. Most surgeries performed were relatively superficial because there were no anesthetics and sterile conditions in surgery was a foreign idea. Keeping diseased body parts in preservatives was valuable and even if surgeons could not do much to help their patients the specimens remained important tools for teaching so when anesthecis and hygienic practices were introduced, surgery could operate on areas that were formerly inconceivable, though surgeons knew what was wrong with the patient. This increased surgeons’ status and importance in a new chapter in medicine from palliative to preventative.

Crossness Pumping Station

The Crossness Pumping Station, like the Natural History Museum, exemplifies the Victorian concept of building a cathedral for science, in the unlikely form of a sewage pumping station. The station, completed April 4, 1865, is no longer in use; however, the reservoirs under the station are still used for rain water. The architecture is aesthetically beautiful and it struck me how even a modest sewage pumping station looked important and beautiful, much different from the ugly and utilitarian buildings of the DWP. This amazing building not only marks an architectural achievement but an achievement for the Victorians by using science to overcome diseases of filth, particularly cholera. The pumping station helped remove pollution from the London water supply emphasizing public health as an important component of a prosperous and successful society.

The Crossness Pumping Station was only a small component of a larger sewage plan. I was surprised that the Victorians were able to put into place one of the largest civil service projects in the world and how quickly they were able to complete their project. The conditions before the sewage system sound terrible: disease, night-soil building up in people’s basements and front yards and the River Thames so polluted that sticking a piece of white paper in the water edgewise would render the bottom of the card impossible to see. The other important benefit of the cleaning the Thames was reducing cholera outbreaks. Cholera had killed thousands of people each time an epidemic broke out and unlike other filth diseases, it discriminated against no one.

In addition to scale, I was amazed with Bazalgette’s foresight in pipe construction. That the pipes that Bazalgette constructed 150 years ago are still in use today proves his skill because he was able to take into account factors which were present in his time, but by doubling the width of the pipes from his original estimate he acknowledged that there were variables that he could not comprehend. I was shocked to learn how few people know of Bazalgette and he has a statue in one of the London Underground stations, where as Brunel has monuments in more prominent places.

Motivation for building the sewage system reminded me of contemporary policymaking decisions. During the Great Stink of 1858, Parliament had to be shut down because the stench was so horrid and people were worried about miasma causing disease. In an example from class, we saw a cartoon showing a look under a microscope of what one would see if he was to look under a microscope at water from the Thames. Fears of miasmas causing illness promoted Parliament to consider physically removing the building from its position along the Thames to further inland from the smell to keep the MPS safe from disease. Until the stench affected those in positions of political power, little had been done in terms of public health. However, once Parliament was overwhelmed with the stench, they were very active in searching for solutions.

Medical Walking Tour

Walking Tour with Sue

This walking tour was exhausting. I have no idea how Sue, our tour guide, was able to walk as much as she did without being tired. I thought it was funny that most of us are around 20 and she was probably in her 70s and she had more energy than we did. Having said that, I really enjoyed myself and got a lot out of the tour and would recommend it to anybody interested in Victorian medicine because it is so much more interesting to actually see where things happened.

After visiting Guy’s hospital, we walked to an operation theater. One interesting note about Guy’s is that it accepted any person even if they had infectious disease unlike St. Thomas. The operation theater was a tiny, poorly ventilated room at the top of 32 winding stairs. In the Victorian era, medical students were required to watch a certain number of operations per year. A bell would ring signifying to the students who were working in Guy’s hospital that an operation was going to start soon and they would rush over to see what would happen. There were only about 12 of us in the room which could probably hold 30 or 40 students so I would not want to imagine how much hotter it would be in summer. Sue explained how doctors would amputate legs. I felt queasy when I found out that the surgeon had to use three saws for an amputation and could perform it complete with sewing the person back up in about one minute. Also knowing that there was no anesthesia until later in the period made everything worse. Obviously the horrific nature of surgeries pushed doctors to look for ways to make the patient more comfortable. I wonder how many doctors turned to chemistry to try to create better medicine or of they accepted the fainting and infections and part of the process.

The operation theater also had a reconstruction of an apothecary as well as other medical tools and devices. I think the most interesting medical tools were the obstetric and gynecology tools. Many of them looked like torture devices. Did doctors create devices that were designed from their understanding of women’s anatomy or from women’s needs? How useful were the devices? These tools were created by men for women so I wonder if they projected what they thought women needed and was proper for them to do as doctors.

Visit to the Wellcome Collection

After Wednesday’s class we visited the Wellcome Collection. I really enjoyed seeing the three dimensional displays because I was able to visualize what we had just discussed in class. During the visit we were instructed to focus on specific exhibits which would show us aspects of Victorian medicine and surgery.

The first exhibit I saw was of Mr. Gibson’s pharmacy in 1905. In class I was shocked to learn that there were little to no regulations on the production, distribution, or testing the efficacy of drugs. Mr. Gibson’s pharmacy opened in Hesham, Northumberland, in 1834 and when it closed in 1978, the Wellcome acquired the furniture and medical objects. This pharmacy was no exception, Mr. Gibson made many of the medicines he sold in his store as well as filling doctor’s prescriptions. In addition to filling prescriptions, the pharmacy performed eye tests, developed film, they referred to it as, “photographic publishers,” and, my favorite, sold wine. The pharmacy was so different from any I have ever seen and I was surprised how quickly things have changed in a little over 100 years after seeming to follow the same principles for a few thousand.

The second exhibit I saw was on of a sickroom in the 1870s. The sickroom revealed a lot about the underlying philosophy of Victorian medicine: a focus on palliative treatments as opposed to curing. The main reason for this mindset was there were few known medicines that cured disease. In the room was a wheelchair with two iron cranks so the invalid could move the chair backwards, forwards and to the left or right. The chair was really interesting because it looks like a modern wheelchair save for the hand cranks on the side. My favorite artifact in the room was a portable washstand for the invalid. It looked like almost any other washstand; however it would have been easier to move and it had a bidet in one of the cabinets. The washstand must have belonged to a wealthy person because I think only the upper class would have had access or known what a bidet was, especially since upper class British society incorporates aspects of upper class French society. From the second exhibition I saw a display showing an operation in 1895 of an amputation below the knee, a display showing what it would have been like to consult a doctor in 1900 and one showing electrotherapy from 1905.

Defining a Victorian Scientist

I found the effect of class stabilization from BA meetings surprising because there was so much class conflict within the Victorian era. I think opening BA meetings to the general public marked a change in thought of science for everyman, not just for aristocrats who would have had access to education. The prevalence of a science-minded people came through even in advertisements for medicine where medicines explained that they had used the scientific method to come to their conclusions.

The idea of progress and improving oneself must have helped science flourish because people saw that they could get involved from the top levels such as the Royal Society, to the Church of England, and even in local or amateur groups and discuss science. Mary Anning’s story was a perfect example of an “amateur” practicing paleontology, making important discoveries both scientifically and historically and improving her own and her family’s situation by discovering and selling fossils.

In class we discussed Henry de la Beche and Charles Lyell. Both of them and Mary Anning had different experiences to becoming scientists; however, I think that all three can be considered scientists for different reasons. Charles Lyell wrote books, had the proper education, and did not conduct much field work. De la Beche was also from a prosperous family in Lyme Regis, the same town as Mary Anning, and was elected to the Royal Society at age 19 and conducted geological research at an institution. Mary Anning actually conducted fieldwork, but was not from a prosperous family unlike the two men. That all three can be considered scientists for their contributions to a scientific field shows the complexity in defining a scientist in Victorian England.
Thomas Huxley and his work helped connect the idea of a Victorian scientist with the idea of a Victorian doctor. Thomas Huxley, within the first generation of professional scientists, challenged traditional scientific values much in the same way that Lister challenged traditional medicinal values. I wonder how much these changes have actually affected today’s society especially with the huge number of creationists, there is even a museum now devoted to the idea of creationism, and that we still face problems with contamination, evidenced by the recent food recalls, simply because people do not wash their hands or are not provided with sanitary working conditions. How far have we really come?

The Great Exhibition and the V&A

Question: Did the Great Exhibition achieve its goals of maintaining England and the UK's economic competitiveness and inventiveness?

The Great Exhibition definitely showcased the British Empire and especially England's ability to compete in the beginning of a globalized market. One interesting aspect of the Great Exhibition was the speed with which it went from conception to reality. I found it hard to imagine that people would have been able to imagine and create a huge structure in such a short amount of time. I wonder how much Prince Albert's role in organizing the exhibition effected the willingness and speed of constructing and securing funding. I was shocked to learn that the exhibit only lasted 141 days; it seemed to me that after all the time and effort in planning and building, that it would have lasted for at least a year. I did like that museums (including the Victoria and Albert Museum) were constructed as a result of the Great Exhibition's success.

Were the English compensating by hosting a world's fair? Were they as self-assured and arrogant as they indicated in letters and other primary sources or were they trying to appear self-assured and confident when in fact they had serious doubts about their hold on world dominence?