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Adventures in Human Being

Page 20

by Gavin Francis


  p. 23“funding from the CIA …” Anne Collins, In the Sleep Room: The Story of CIA Brainwashing Experiments in Canada (Toronto: Key Porter Books, [1988] 1998) 39, 42–3, 133.

  p. 25“loss of memories …” I. Janis, “Psychologic Effects of Electric-convulsive Treatments,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 3(6) (1950), 469–89.

  p. 28“Lucy Tallon, a …” Lucy Tallon, “What Is Having ECT Like?,” Guardian G2, 14 May 2012.

  p. 28“quoting Carrie Fisher …” Carrie Fisher, Shockaholic (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011).

  p. 28“All physicians, yourselves …” Sigmund Freud, 1904, published in Collected Papers Vol. 1 (London: Hogarth Press, 1953).

  3. Eye: A Renaissance of Vision

  p. 32“As when a man …” Empedocles, “On Nature,” Fragment 43, in The Fragments of Empedocles, translated by William Ellery Leonard (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1908).

  p. 36“Ophthalmologists struggle to …” J. García-Guerrero, J. Valdez-García and J. L. González-Treviño, “La Oftalmología en la Obra Poética de Jorge Luis Borges,” Arch Soc Esp Oftalmol 84 (2009), 411–14.

  p. 36“scharlach, scarlet, ecarlata …” Jorge Luis Borges, “Blindness,” in Seven Nights (New York: New Directions, 1984).

  p. 40“a book on …” John Berger and Selçuk Demirel, Cataract (London: Notting Hill Editions, 2011).

  p. 40“The image of …” John Berger, “Who Is an Artist?,” in Permanent Red: Essays in Seeing (London: Methuen, 1960), 20.

  p. 40“Shelf of a field …” John Berger, “Field,” in About Looking (London: Writers and Readers Cooperative, 1980), 192.

  4. Face: Beautiful Palsy

  p. 46“The joint of …” “La giuntura delli ossi obbediscie al nervo, e’l nervo al muscolo, e’l muscolo alla corda, e la corda al senso comune, e’l senso comune è sedia dell’anima,” Leonardo W. 19010r, quoted after Richter Literary Works §838.

  p. 47“And you, man …” From folio 2, recto, of the anatomical drawings in the Royal Collection.

  p. 50“One of the leaves …” Martin Clayton and Ron Philo, Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man (London: Royal Collection Trust, 2013).

  p. 53“when forty winters …” Sonnet 2.

  p. 53“creased like a …” Iain Sinclair, Landor’s Tower (London: Granta, 2002), 120.

  p. 53“who taught the boy …” Charles Bell, Letters of Sir Charles Bell: Selected from His Correspondence with His Brother, George Joseph Bell (London: John Murray, 1870).

  p. 54“system of dissections …” Charles Bell, A System of Dissections (Edinburgh: Mundell & Son, 1798). Vesalius’ masterpiece was De humani corporis fabrica (Of the fabric of the human body) (1543).

  p. 55“The sketches he …” M. K. H. Crumplin and P. Starling, A Surgical Artist at War: The Paintings and Sketches of Sir Charles Bell 1809–1815 (Edinburgh: Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 2005).

  p. 56“later published as …” Charles Bell, Essays on the Anatomy of the Expression in Painting (London: John Murray, 1806). Later published as Essays on the Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as Connected with the Fine Arts (1844).

  p. 57“[Bell] may with …” Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (London: John Murray, 1872).

  p. 57“Your painting will prove …” Author’s translation from Leonardo da Vinci’s Trattato della pittura, loosely adapted from the English translation of 1721 by John Senex.

  p. 59“borne out by psychological …” James D. Laird, “Self-attribution of Emotion: The Effects of Expressive Behavior on the Quality of Emotional Experience,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 29(4) (April 1974), 475–86.

  5. Inner Ear: Voodoo & Vertigo

  p. 66“published in a journal …” J. M. Epley, “The Canalith Repositioning Procedure: For Treatment of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo,” Otolaryngol – Head and Neck Surgery 107(3) (September 1992), 399–404.

  7. Heart: On Seagull Murmurs, Ebb & Flow

  p. 84“Nurses and Doctors …” Hilary Mantel, “What Is Going on in There?” London Review of Books 31(21) (5 November 2009), 29–31.

  p. 90“General anaesthesia …” The Halving” by Robin Robertson. Copyright © Robin Robertson 2014. Published in Sailing the Forest: Selected Poems by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. Reproduced by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN.

  8. Breast: Two Views on Healing

  p. 96“The healing that …” Brigid Collins, October 2014, personal communication.

  p. 96“The exhibition …” The exhibition Frissure took place at the Scottish Poetry Library, November 2013. A book of images and text is published by Polygon (Edinburgh: 2013).

  9. Shoulder: Arms & Armor

  p. 106“Hector jumped down …” quote from The Iliad adapted by the author from Samuel Butler’s 1898 translation.

  p. 107“there are some medically …” E. Apostolakis et al., “The Reported Thoracic Injuries in Homer’s Iliad,” Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery 5 (2010), 114. See also A. R. Thompson, “Homer as a Surgical Anatomist,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 45 (1952), 765–7.

  p. 110“A historian of …” P. B. Adamson, “A Comparison of Ancient and Modern Weapons in the Effectiveness of Producing Battle Casualties,” Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps 123 (1977), 93–103.

  10. Wrist & Hand: Punched, Cut & Crucified

  p. 121“Teenagers admit to …” Edward Hagen, Peter Watson and Paul Hammerstein, “Gestures of Despair and Hope: A View on Deliberate Self-Harm from Economics and Evolutionary Biology,” 2008, philpapers.org.

  p. 121“As the blood flows …” J. Harris, “Self-harm: Cutting the Bad Out of Me,” Qualitative Health Research 10 (2000), 164–73.

  p. 121“a strategy of withdrawal …” F. X. Hezel, “Cultural Patterns in Truckese Suicide,” Ethnology 23 (1984), 193–206.

  p. 121“Communication of emotional …” A. Ivanoff, M. Brown and M. Linehan, “Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Impulsive Self-injurious Behaviors,” in D. Simeon & E. Hollander (eds.), Self-injurious behaviors: Assessment and treatment (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 2001).

  p. 126“Barbet found that …” Pierre Barbet, Les Cinq Plaies du Christ (Paris: Procure du carmel de l’action de grâces, 1937).

  p. 127“the professor of anatomy …” Nicu Haas, “Anthropological Observations on the Skeletal Remains from Giv’at ha-Mivtar,” Israel Exploration Journal 20 (1970), 38–59.

  p. 127“came to different …” Joseph Zias and Eliezer Sekeles, “The Crucified Man from Giv’at ha-Mivtar: A Reappraisal,” Israel Exploration Journal 35(1) (1985), 22–7.

  p. 128“I’ve read of them …” C. J. Simpson, “The Stigmata: Pathology or Miracle?,” British Medical Journal 289 (1984), 1,746–8.

  11. Kidney: The Ultimate Gift

  p. 133“De Zerbis was …” Richard Eimas (ed.), Heirs of Hippocrates (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1990): entry no. 137, GABRIELE DE ZERBIS (1445–1505), Gerentocomia [1489].

  12. Liver: A Fairy-Tale Ending

  p. 150“if he were opened …” Speech by Sir Toby Belch, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene 2.

  p. 150“For the king of Babylon …” Ezekiel 21:21.

  p. 153“sweet, biddable girls …” Marina Warner, “How Fairy Tales Grew Up,” Guardian Review (13 December 2014).

  13. Large Bowel & Rectum: A Magnificent Work of Art

  p. 161“According to the psychology …” Paul J. Silvia, “Looking Past Pleasure: Anger, Confusion, Disgust, Pride, Surprise, and Other Unusual Aesthetic Emotions,” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 3(1) (February 2009), 48–51.

  14. Genitalia: Of Making Babies

  p. 167“would have no desire …” Mrs. Jane Sharp, The Midwives Book (1671) is referenced in Thomas Laqueur, “Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology,” in The Making of the Modern Body: Sexuality and Society in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Catherine
Gallagher and Thomas Laquer (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). I owe a great deal to Professor Laqueur’s paper for many of the ideas explored in this chapter.

  p. 167“Of the commingling …” Marquis de Sade, La philosophie dans le boudoir (1795).

  p. 167“so that she can …” Rachel Maines, The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).

  p. 172“the area around the …” Giovanni Luca Gravina et al., “Measurement of the Thickness of the Urethrovaginal Space in Women with or without Vaginal Orgasm,” The Journal of Sexual Medicine 5(3) (March 2008), 610–18.

  p. 172“Like Ernst Gräfenberg …” Ernst Gräfenberg, “The Role of the Urethra in Female Orgasm,” International Journal of Sexology 3(3) (February 1950), 145–8.

  p. 173“so the poetic …” Arthur Aikin (ed.), The Annual Review and History of Literature for 1805, Volume IV (London, 1806).

  p. 174“Woman’s psychology is …” Carl Jung, “Women in Europe,” in Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10: Civilization in Transition, edited and translated by Gerhard Adler and R. F. C. Hull (Princeton University Press, 1970), 123.

  p. 176“do not fulfil …” Avicenna’s Canon 3:20:1:44.

  p. 177“the man is quicke …” John Sadler, The Sicke Woman’s Private Looking Glass (London, 1636), 108.

  p. 177“a paper appeared …” The Lancet, 28 January 1843, p. 644.

  p. 177“Marie Stopes’s bestselling …” Marie Stopes, Married Love (London: A. C. Fifield, 1919).

  16. Afterbirth: Eat It, Burn It, Bury It Under a Tree

  p. 190“One might recall …” Herodotus, Histories 3:38, in Aubrey de Selincourt’s Penguin Classics Translation (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1954).

  p. 191“From Morocco to Moravia …” E. Croft Long, “The Placenta in Lore and Legend,” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 51(2) (1963), 233–41.

  p. 192“I was born with …” Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (London: Bradbury & Evans, 1850).

  p. 192“with earth piled …” James Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 194.

  p. 192“The Russians traditionally …” Barbara Evans Clements, Barbara Alpern Engel and Christine Worobec (eds.), Russia’s Women: Accommodation, Resistance, Transformation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991), 53.

  p. 194“read an essay …” Seamus Heaney, “Mossbawn,” in Finders Keepers: Selected Prose 1971–2001 (London: Faber & Faber, 2003).

  17. Hip: Jacob & the Angel

  p. 199“He had studied …” Italo Svevo, La Coscienza di Zeno (Milan: Einaudi, 1976), 109 (author’s translation).

  p. 202“If someone over the …” J. A. Grisso et al., “Risk Factors for Falls as a Cause of Hip Fracture in Women,” The New England Journal of Medicine (9 May 1991), 1,326–31.

  p. 202“Around 40 percent …” Figures from Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (London: Profile, 2014).

  p. 202“Between 5 and 8 …” P. Haentjens et al., “Meta-analysis: Excess Mortality After Hip Fracture Among Older Women and Men,” Annals of Internal Medicine 152 (2010), 380–90.

  p. 202“his name Yaakov …” My reading of Jacob’s story has been informed by Geoffrey H. Hartman, “The Struggle for the Text,” from Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Budick (eds), Midrash and Literature (London: Yale University Press, 1986), 3–18.

  p. 208“Some commentators have …” Roland Barthes, “The Struggle with the Angel,” in Image, Music, Text, translated by Stephen Heath (Glasgow: Fontana Press, 1977). See also the theories of Vladimir Propp on the universal problems of folk tales.

  18. Feet & Toes: Footsteps in the Basement

  p. 219“A halo of wonder …” Virginia Woolf, “The Elizabethan Lumber Room,” in The Common Reader (London: The Hogarth Press, 1925).

  LIST OF IMAGES

  p. 8Graffito, Turin 2014. “Agitare prima dell’uso” translates to “Shake up before use.” Photograph by the author.

  p. 9Descartes: The Nervous System. Diagram of the brain and the pineal gland. Wellcome Image Collection.

  p. 17Corridor sign, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, 2014. Photograph by the author.

  p. 24“Generalized 3 Hz spike and wave discharges in a child with childhood absence epilepsy” from Der Lange, 11 June 2005, reproduced under commons license.

  p. 32Der Mensch durchbricht das Himmelsgewölbe, an anonymous woodcut in Holzstich von Camille Flammarion’s L’Atmosphere: Météorologie Populaire (Paris, 1888), p. 163.

  p. 35Horizontal section of the eyeball (figure 869 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 41Les Etoiles, from Cataract by John Berger, reproduced by kind permission of Selçuk Demirel.

  p. 46From Charles Bell, Essays on the Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as Connected with the Fine Arts (London: John Murray, 1844).

  p. 48Giampietrino’s copy of The Last Supper – viewer’s left. Public domain.

  p. 49Giampietrino’s copy of The Last Supper – viewer’s right. Public domain.

  p. 54This image by Charles Bell shows a soldier suffering from a head wound, and is inscribed “Waterloo.” Wellcome Image Collection.

  p. 62Interior of right osseous labyrinth (figure 921 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 73“Bronchial tube with its bronchules,” from Popular Science Monthly (1881).

  p. 77Chest X-ray (this one suggests a developing right upper lobe pneumonia rather than subcarinal lymphadenopathy). From Public Health Library (no. 5802), by Dr. Thomas Hooten (1978).

  p. 79Laryngoscopic view of interior of larynx (figure 956 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 83Section of the heart showing the ventricular septum (figure 498 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 86Aorta laid open to show the semilunar valves (figure 497 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 94Dissection of the lower half of the mamma during the period of lactation (luschka) (figure 1172 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 97“Cancer of the breast, field operation, just before the final cut.” Wellcome Image Collection.

  p. 98Dog Rose by Brigid Collins, reproduced by kind permission of the artist.

  p. 98Kist by Brigid Collins, reproduced by kind permission of the artist.

  p. 99In September by Brigid Collins, reproduced by kind permission of the artist.

  p. 106A fractured right collarbone, reproduced here thanks to Sam Woods of the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.

  p. 108The right brachial plexus with its short branches, viewed from the front (figure 808 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 117Quatre Mains, ink drawing by Yves Berger, reproduced from the book Caring (Galleria Antonia Jannone, October 2014).

  p. 120Detail from a copy of Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, which hangs at the entrance to the Anatomy Museum, University of Edinburgh.

  p. 127Image reproduced from Pierre Barbet, Les Cinq Plaies du Christ (Paris: Procure du carmel de l’action de graces, 1937), p. 63.

  p. 133Diagrams from the work of Vesalius, demonstrating orthodox belief.

  p. 135Microscopic view of a glomerulus, the filtering unit of the kidney (figure 1130 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 140The illustration on the kidney donor gift circle was produced by the author.

  p. 144From Alec Finlay, Taigh: A Wilding Garden (Edinburgh: Morning Star Publications, 2014).

  p. 145Ibid.

  p. 147Grid of biochemistry results, author’s collection.

  p. 152“Snow White,” illustrated by Walter Crane (1882).

  p. 159Barium enema, courtesy of Diagnostic Image Centers, Kansas City.

  p. 161French poster of glass bottles, varying shapes. Public domain.

  p. 168“Demonstration using the vibrator, 1891” from “A description of the vibrator and directions for use.” Wellcome Image Collection.

  p. 188“
Fetus attached to umbilical cord and placenta.” Wellcome Image Collection.

  p. 193“Human placenta.” Wellcome Image Collection.

  p. 200“The bones and muscles of the hip and thigh,” drawing, 1841. Wellcome Image Collection.

  p. 204“X-ray of Right Total Hip Replacement,” from the US National Institute of Health.

  p. 211Romería poster from 2011, courtesy of Chemi Marquez.

  p. 213Skeleton of the foot (medical aspect) (figure 290 in Gray’s Anatomy, 1918 edition).

  p. 221Photograph by Edwin Aldrin, Apollo 11, courtesy of NASA.

  INDEX

  A

  abdomen

  kidney 131–45

  large bowel and rectum 156–62

  liver 146–55

  About Looking (Berger) 40

  acrylic 39

  Adamson, P. B. 110–12

  Aeneid (Virgil) 111

  afterbirth 186–96

  alanine transaminase (ALT) 147

  albumin 147, 155

  anatomy 1–2, 7–8, 214–22

  and beauty 158

  Bell 54, 56, 96

  brain 9–10

  breast 94

  da Vinci 50

  ear 61–2

  eye 35

  face 44–51

  foot 213–14

  hand 125

  heart 83, 86

  Homer 107

  lung 79–80

  shoulder 108–9

  Anaxagoras 53

  anger 50, 58, 59

  angor animi 85

  Antarctica 109–10

  aortic valve 83, 86–8

  Aristotle 33, 89, 133, 171

  arms 110, 113–14

  shoulder 103–9, 113

  wrist and hand 115–28

  Armstrong, Neil 210

  astronomy 33, 35–6

  asylums 15–16

  Aurora Leigh (Browning) 115

  Australopithecus afarensis 212–13

  Avicenna 176

  Ayurvedic medicine 72–3

  azoospermic 165

  B

  Babylon 150

  Bacon, Roger 33

  balance 60–62

  Bamforth, Ian 199

  Bárány, Robert 65

  Barbet, Pierre 126–7

  Bartholin’s glands 173

 

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