Browsing by Subject "History, 19th Century"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    A brief history of research synthesis.
    (Eval Health Prof, 2002-03) Chalmers, Iain; Hedges, Larry V; Cooper, Harris
    Science is supposed to be cumulative, but scientists only rarely cumulate evidence scientifically. This means that users of research evidence have to cope with a plethora of reports of individual studies with no systematic attempt made to present new results in the context of similar studies. Although the need to synthesize research evidence has been recognized for well over two centuries, explicit methods for this form of research were not developed until the 20th century. The development of methods to reduce statistical imprecision using quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis) preceded the development of methods to reduce biases, the latter only beginning to receive proper attention during the last quarter of the 20th century. In this article, the authors identify some of the trends and highlights in this history, to which researchers in the physical, natural, and social sciences have all contributed, and speculate briefly about the "future history" of research synthesis.
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    Allan McLane Hamilton.
    (The American journal of psychiatry, 2018-07) Davidson, Jonathan
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    Bayard Holmes (1852-1924) and Henry Cotton (1869-1933): Surgeon-psychiatrists and their tragic quest to cure schizophrenia.
    (Journal of medical biography, 2016-11) Davidson, Jonathan
    Early 20th-century medicine was dominated by the infectious theory of disease. Some leading physicians believed that infection or the accumulation of toxic substances from bacterial stasis caused a wide range of diseases, including schizophrenia. In the case of schizophrenia, one theory held that intestinal stasis lead to the bacterial production of toxins that affected brain function, resulting in psychotic illness. This theory predicted that clearing the stasis by drainage or by removal of the offending organ would be curative. Bayard Holmes and Henry Cotton, surgeon-psychiatrists, achieved notoriety for their efforts to cure schizophrenia surgically. Their endeavours were not only a failure but resulted in tragedy to their families and to a wider population. Treatment of their own sons also represented a violation of the ethics of their time. This account describes the life and career of Holmes and Cotton and reappraises their work in the light of recent developments.
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    Cholera in Haiti and other Caribbean regions, 19th century.
    (Emerg Infect Dis, 2011-11) Jenson, Deborah; Szabo, Victoria; Duke FHI Haiti Humanities Laboratory Student Research Team
    Medical journals and other sources do not show evidence that cholera occurred in Haiti before 2010, despite the devastating effect of this disease in the Caribbean region in the 19th century. Cholera occurred in Cuba in 1833-1834; in Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Nevis, Trinidad, the Bahamas, St. Vincent, Granada, Anguilla, St. John, Tortola, the Turks and Caicos, the Grenadines (Carriacou and Petite Martinique), and possibly Antigua in 1850-1856; and in Guadeloupe, Cuba, St. Thomas, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Martinique, and Marie Galante in 1865-1872. Conditions associated with slavery and colonial military control were absent in independent Haiti. Clustered populations, regular influx of new persons, and close quarters of barracks living contributed to spread of cholera in other Caribbean locations. We provide historical accounts of the presence and spread of cholera epidemics in Caribbean islands.
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    Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919): Psychiatric hospitalization and the abduction of an American landscape artist.
    (Journal of medical biography, 2017-02) Davidson, Jonathan Rt
    Ralph Blakelock was a leading American landscape painter. Much of his life was lived in obscurity and destitution. He developed late onset paranoid schizophrenia, resulting in prolonged hospitalization. During his time in hospital, demand for Blakelock's works grew, but he was unable to enjoy any of this success. Instead, the artist fell prey to unscrupulous and unlikely exploitation by a self-appointed guardian, aided and abetted by Blakelock's psychiatrists, which broke his spirit and may well have hastened his demise.
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    Richard Dadd and the Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke.
    (The American journal of psychiatry, 2015-11) Davidson, Jonathan
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    Steep increase in best-practice cohort life expectancy.
    (Popul Dev Rev, 2011) Shkolnikov, Vladimir M; Jdanov, Dmitri A; Andreev, Evgeny M; Vaupel, James W
    We analyze trends in best-practice life expectancy among female cohorts born from 1870 to 1950. Cohorts experience declining rather than constant death rates, and cohort life expectancy usually exceeds period life expectancy. Unobserved mortality rates in non-extinct cohorts are estimated using the Lee-Carter model for mortality in 1960–2008. Best-practice cohort and period life expectancies increased nearly linearly. Across cohorts born from 1870 to 1920 the annual increase in cohort length of life was 0.43 years. Across calendar years from 1870 to 2008, the annual increase was 0.28 years. Cohort life expectancy increased from 53.7 years in the 1870 cohort to 83.8 years in the 1950 cohort. The corresponding cohort/period longevity gap increased from 1.2 to 10.3 years. Among younger cohorts, survival to advanced ages is substantially higher than could have been anticipated by period mortality regimes when these cohorts were young or middle-aged. A large proportion of the additional expected years of life are being lived at ages 65 and older. This substantially changes the balance between the stages of the life cycle.
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    The Wesselhoefts: A medical dynasty from the age of Goethe to the era of nuclear medicine.
    (Journal of medical biography, 2017-11) Davidson, Jonathan Rt
    For six generations, members of the Wesselhoeft family have practiced medicine in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Canada and/or the USA. In the early decades of the 19th century, two Wesselhoeft brothers left Europe to eventually settle in New England, where they and their progeny gave rise to a regional medical dynasty. The Wesselhoeft doctors became well-known practitioners of homeopathy, hydropathy, conventional medicine and surgery, in academic and general clinical settings. An additional connection was established to the literary worlds of Germany and the USA, either through friendships or as personal physicians.