CSI: India

I’ve been looking at the Chemical Examiner’s reports, which are among the remaining medical items in the India Papers. The NLS plans to put in a bid to the Wellcome Trust to have these digitised and added to the Medical History of British India website. The NLS holds reports dated 1874-1942 from the Punjab, Burma and North-West and Central Provinces and Oudh.

The Chemical Examiners gave independent scientific advice to the Criminal Justice Administration System. The first laboratory was established in Madras in 1849, with one formed in Kerala in 1890 under the orders of Government as part of the Health Department.

The Chemical Examiner’s laboratory investigated cases of human and animal poisoning, stain cases (blood, semen, faecal matter) plus purity of drugs (opium, hemp drugs, cocaine, chloroform) and water.

The reports include short notes on the more important medico-legal cases, including strychnine poisoning and a case of an apple tart laced with croton oil, a ‘drastic purgative.’ The cook had poisoned the tart, which was served up after a cantonment dinner party (Report of the Chemical Examiner to Government, North-West Frontier Province, 1930, shelfmark: IP/29/CB.3).

Hair was also used to detect crime, examined by microscope and ultra-violet light to identify its origin. The work of the American scientific crime detection lab in North-Western University was of interest in India as ‘hair-rings’ could show the age of a human. Hair was as important as a finger-print in tracing criminals, Dr. Hood claimed.
(Report of the Chemical Examiner to Government, North-West Frontier Province, shelfmark: IP/29/CB.3).

The Chemical Examiner’s Laboratory still exists at Kerala and its work is very similar to that of last century.

(picture credit: www.cartoonstock.com)

Referendum: the big questions

The Scottish Affairs Select Committee has produced a short report  on its second inquiry into the devolution referendum, scheduled to take place in 2014. It looks at bank regulation, pensions, national currency, membership of international organisations, Scotland's defences and the potential costs of separation from the UK.

Medical Congress 1887

Carrying on with the audit of Official Publications I came across the report on the ninth International Medical Congress held in Washington in 1887 The author is from the army in England, and he notes the presentations given, and the discussions following them.
One of the presentations remarked about a European Officer in the Afghan Campaign whose duties and responsibilities made great calls upon his energies. He listened to a native officer who suggested to try opium as they do, the officer followed his advice with a “striking benefit.”
Another was about abdominal surgery - An Italian was stabbed, he walked to the hospital where the wound was dealt with. On the following day, although his pulse and temperature were normal he felt a lot of pain and then he vomited green material.
Following on from the Medical Congress the author visited the John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He mentions “ Nor do I think that such a hospital, with its elaborate and expensive organisation and arrangements would be necessary or even warranted in this country, where there are so many other and more pressing needs. As regards the sick, the same objects might be attained at a much less cost.”
The plans for this hospital are attached to the book and show great depth of detail. This book gives such an insight into the 1880s field of medicine, civilian and army situations, from drinking water to various gunshot wounds, and the spread of disease.
(photo from book)

Happy Australia Day!

G’day folks, I thought as it is Australia day I should highlight some of the Australian collection in the Official Publications Unit.
We have a small, in depth range of books from the Australian Government departments. These range from books from the National Library of Australia, the Australian National Gallery and Australian Museum. There is a series on the Historical Records of Australia from series 1 vol. 1, and a wealth of statistics from the mid 60s to the mid 80s from the Bureau of Statistics. We even have books and periodicals from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. There is also the Australian yearbook from 1980 onwards; the latest can be found in the reading room.
There is a book about the insects of Australia, although I am too scared to look at that one!
If you can’t find the books you are looking for remember to contact the Official Publications Unit.
(photo credit Sydney-australia.biz)

World Leprosy Day 29th January

World Leprosy Day
is on the last Sunday in January, this year the 29th.
World Leprosy Day encourages prayer, fundraising, awareness and donations to aid those who have the disease. Over 100 countries are taking part and 2012's focus is transformation, focusing on Mozambique, one of the least developed countries in the world.
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's Disease, is caused by the bacillus, Mycobacterium leprae. Although spread by droplets from the nose and mouth - like colds and flu - it is not highly infectious.
It is curable by use of multidrug therapy (MDT). MDT consists of 3 drugs: dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine.
The World Health Organization is aiming to eliminate leprosy from as many places as possible, by working to have leprosy care integrated into health services, committing resources and funding and removing the stigma of having the disease.
Leprosy was known in ancient civilizations as far back as 600 BC and it is very well documented in the Medical History of British India reports.

(Photo credit: www.idealeprosydignity.org)

Scotland's future

I have just catalogued the Scotland’s constitutional future command paper. This consultation paper discusses how to deliver a referendum that is legal, fair and decisive. It sets out the UK Government’s view on the issues in the referendum process which needs to be addressed and offers proposals on how to address them.
(image from BBC.co.uk)

Bygone Britain

I was dealing with an enquiry yesterday and I came across these seven fascinating books from the Central Office of Information. They are entitled Bygone Britain 1900-1970, and each concentrate on one topic: in the news, at play, at home, on the move, on holiday, childhood and at work.
These books have a preface by Sir Harry Secombe and contain a mixture of illustrations and articles from newspapers and magazines. They explore the vast changes that took place through the first 70 years of the 20th Century, through the serious, and the trivial stories of that period.
In the In the News book, there are wonderful photographs and articles. There is a picture of Dr Crippen as he walks down the gangway of the Montrose with his mistress Ethel Le Neve (she had been travelling disguised as a boy). After a five day trial at the Old Bailey, Crippen was found guilty and hanged on 8 October 1910.
There are pictures of Captain Scott and his ship (Terra Nova), and Mr Meares and Captain Oates cooking food for the dogs in May 1911. From the Daily Mirror 1913 there is an article with the tape message which told London the terrible news of the disaster to the Scott expedition.
There are photographs, cartoons and newspaper articles of Suffragettes. There are articles about the war years, an article from the Daily Herald 1953 when Everest was conquered and loads more.
These books are fascinating to look at to see what was happening in the various decades.
More information about the NLS mountaineering and polar collections here.

War Horse, Army Donkey, Military Mule

I was pleased to be alerted to this blog entry which features a National Library of Scotland photograph.

The photograph, taken during World War I, shows a man with his arm around a mule . On the back he has written about his animal companion: "She is very stupid but I am very fond of her."

Michael Morpurgo's 2007 moving book War Horse is due out as a Steven Spielberg film this month. It tells the story of farm horse Joey's journey through the battlefields of the First World War.

Morpurgo was inspired to write the book after reading that millions of horses perished on the Western Front. Used in the thick of battle in cavalry charges and for pulling artillery, horses, mules and donkeys were seen as more reliable than
mechanised means.

Horses were very important in British India for the same reasons. The National Library's Medical History of British India website contains many digitised reports dedicated to the procurement of suitable breeding horses for serving the army. Horses imported from England often sickened and died en route. Those which survived were found to be unable to stand hard work in a tropical climate. In 1892 it was recorded that Indian-bred horses were hardier, with greater powers of endurance. Arab and Persian breeds had the same sought-after traits.

Horses, donkeys and mules who served in India, like their human counterparts perished from a variety of ailments and afflictions as this page shows.

Perhaps Michael Morpurgo would consider writing a book about one of these animals?

(Photograph is from the National Library of Scotland's Digital Gallery, First World War Official Photographs collection, image number 74549584)

The truth is out there - somewhere

A report from the UK Border Agency's Migration Advisory Committee, Analysis of the impacts of migration, got very different headlines in the media when it was published today. They ranged from "Migrants keep Britons out of jobs" in the Telegraph, to the Independent's "Immigration does not cause unemployment". Hmm, but which is better? as Harry Hill would say. Well, don't fight about it, read the report and decide for yourself...

Merry Christmas!

At this time of seasonal indulgence, I just had to share something with you from the Wellcome Trust blog's "Film of the Month" produced by the Scottish Health Education Unit in 1978. Apart from digging those 1970s fashions, look out for a very young Gregor Fisher (famous as Rab C. Nesbitt) overdoing it down the pub.

Veterinary medicine reports now available for free

I'm delighted to announce that 146 volumes of Veterinary medicine reports are now available on the Medical History of British India website. Click here to browse and search 40,000 pages for free.

The Veterinary collection covers 1864-1959, focusing on veterinary diseases, colleges and laboratories and Civil Veterinary Departments. This free to access, important material provides extensive research on animal diseases such as surra and rinderpest. Detailed reports show how veterinary medicine was used by the British colonists to control disease, maintain livestock and alleviate famine and its effect on military and local communities.

Illustrated with many photographs, maps and charts, this material will be useful to those interested in veterinary science, military medicine, animal husbandry and agriculture.

A new viewing function enables up to 30 pdf pages to be selected and then 'stitched' together for easier reading.

The material, from the National Library's India Papers collection, was microfilmed and digitised using a grant from the Wellcome Trust.

(Picture is from the Indian Journal of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, volume 10, 1940, part I. Image number: http://digital.nls.uk/75248387)

Public Health in India

New to the NLS is Public Health in India, which analyses the current health scenario of the population of India. The book introduces the history of public health in India from the 1860's Sanitary Commissions through Acts and censuses to the twenty-first century scope of public health.

India's government has taken steps to improve and develop the health of its citizens, yet obstacles still exist, such as ignorance and lack of health services particularly in rural areas. This book examines the impact of socio-economical background, gender and lifestyle on the health of India's population today.

While the Medical History of British India website gives users the chance to examine these issues in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries under British rule, this book enables readers to assess the current public health situation in India.

Public Health in India is at NLS shelfmark OP1.211.40

(Picture of book's front cover from www.vedamsbooks.com)

A dedicated Medical History of British India blog

The National Library of Scotland is now hosting a blog solely dedicated to the Medical History of British India Online project.
The blog will cover topics such as digitisation issues, updates of the project's progress in microfilming, digitisation and OCR, medical history and modern health issues and India.
The Wordpress blog appears here on the Medical History of British India website and is listed here on the NLS blogs page.
The blog also features pages about the current specifications for the project which may be useful to those involved in digitisation projects.

Comments about the project and blog are most welcome!

Last Slave Market

Last Slave Market

I attended a talk in the NLS by Alister Hazell who discussed his research into the life of the Scottish explorer Dr John Kirk, who fought against the slave trade in East Africa including the infamous Zanzibar slave market which closed in 1873. There was a House of Commons Commission set up and I thought it would be interesting to look at this parliamentary paper. I decided to use the on-line electronic resource called HCPP which stands for the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. It is a full-text digital archive to the 19th and 20th century House of Commons parliamentary papers, 1801 to 2000, with an index of papers to 2004. It also includes debates, proceedings and reports of the committees and outside bodies on public affairs.
I did a simple search using the words: slave, trade, Zanzibar and dates 1870, 1874
And the wealth of information that appeared on my screen was amazing.
I found the actual treaty that mentioned Dr John Kirk and the suppression of the slave trade, but also found House of Commons and Lords Hansard extracts.
I usually prefer looking at the paper copy as there is something exciting about opening an old volume of parliamentary papers, but for the convenience at getting all the information I need on my screen HCPP is excellent and saves a lot of time.
Note on licensed digital collections
When you register with the National Library of Scotland you have free access to an extensive range of licensed digital collections. If your main address is in Scotland you can also use many of these resources from any computer outwith NLS. You can also use a number of open access resources without registering.
Picture credit:- http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/

Painter at the court of Milan

The landmark Leonardo da Vinci exhibition in London, which examines his career as a painter in Milan, is thought to be one of the most popular art exhibitions ever. The National Gallery is showing more than half of all the surviving da Vinci paintings and seven paintings which have never been shown publicly before. These, alongside many drawings, offer a unique opportunity to compare his works and understand his influences.
I won't be able to travel to London to see it and I believe that tickets are now scarce so I was very pleased to see the exhibition catalogue book arrive in the OPU office last week.
The book focuses on the period in the 1480s and 1490s when Leonardo was working as a salaried court artist to Duke Ludovico Sforza in Milan. During this time, freed from the commercial pressures of Florence, Leonardo produced some of his most influential work. The book has large glossy illustrations and detailed analyses of these - his two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper and The Lady with an Ermine together with details and drawn studies.
There are essays on Leonardo's service to the Duke of Milan, his painting technique and studies of other works in the catalogue.
Leonardo set a new standard when he was in Milan; his style became the visual language of the regime through his ideals of beauty and his theories of expression and character.

Leonardo da Vinci: painter at the court of Milan by Luke Syson (et al) is at NLS shelfmark OP4.211.2 and the National Gallery exhibition runs until 5th February 2012.

Sign up for the flusurvey!

The flusurvey is an online system for measuring influenza trends in the UK and it is now live for the
2011/12 flu season. Anyone can register for free, fill out the survey, and help scientists track the spread of flu this winter.

In contrast to traditional surveillance methods, the flusurvey collects data directly from the general public, rather than via hospitals or GPs. This is particularly important because many people with flu don't visit a doctor.

The influenza virus changes every year and no two influenza epidemics are the same. The flusurvey means that information on a new epidemic can be quickly assimilated and used to plan a targeted response to mitigate the worst effects of influenza epidemics.

Each week, participants report any flu-like symptoms they have experienced since their last visit. The site provide participants with regular updates on the epidemic, all the latest news and advice about flu. There are maps and even 'epidemic games'. If you are feeling well enough to play them, that is....

(Image shows 'Counterplague' game from www.flusurvey.org.uk)

Nuclear Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has responded to the latest IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) report on Iran's nuclear programe, saying that Iran will not cease its nuclear development programme.

Reach for the sky

I found this House of Commons parliamentary paper when looking for something else. It was the title "Report from the Select Committee on Sky-writing"that grabbed my attention and from then on I was captivated by it. The item is from a bygone era compared to nowadays where we are so used to all sorts of technology and advertising.
The Committee that produced this paper was appointed to consider the use of appliances for projecting writing, and other displays on the sky, or for broadcasting speech or other sounds from aircraft.
The Committee, when discussing smoke writing, sees no harm in this and indeed states that “perhaps only in a small measure, provides employment for pilots.”
However, private sky writing should be prohibited on a Sunday and in certain cases when there are parades and demonstrations.
However, Sky shouting did not have such a favourable result, it had not met with commercial success in foreign countries, and “in any case the objectionable character of sky shouting as described by those who have heard it, is beyond question.” Raucous noise therefore would be forced on anyone whether they would wish it or not so the committee put its foot down on that idea.
Night sky writing has a number of problems associated with it, clouds are needed, but not all clouds will do plus there was the problem about timing, in the summer it is too light.
There is also a danger for coastal navigation. It is a shame that the estimated time of one hour per night that is suitable for sky projection could not be checked by the Committee.
There are 186 pages of evidence that goes with the report not even including the appendixes.
This House of Commons paper was no 95 in session 1931-32 and was printed on 23rd June 1932.

Armistice day

We're planning a major exhibition for 2014 to commemorate World War I. I've been reading a lot on the subject, and one book which caught my eye was "The Quick and the Dead" by Richard van Emden.
At the end of the First World War more than 192,000 wives had lost their husbands, and nearly 400,000 children had lost their fathers. A further half a million children had lost one or more siblings. One in eight wives died within a year of receiving news of their husband's death.
Richard van Emden has produced his book from many interviews with families of those lost in the Great War, as well as diaries and letters.
Through the stories in this groundbreaking history, we realise not just what became of our grandfathers but how their experiences influenced the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of a generation that they left at home.

Accessing a treasure trove of images

© RCAHMS. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.

I was very pleased to place around 100 Medical History of British India images on SCRAN earlier this year. SCRAN, part of the Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, is an online learning resource service hosting 360,000 images, movies and sounds from museums, galleries, archives and the media.

The NLS images form part of SCRAN's Scottish Cemetery in India web exhibition which went live on the 5th October 2011. There are also excellent images taken from glass plate negatives showing scenes from early twentieth century Bengal like the one above.

SCRAN is available to UK educational institutions by subscription. But if you hold a National Library of Scotland reader's ticket you can access it in the George IV Bridge Reading Room. If you wish to browse in the comfort of your own armchair and are a member of the wonderful Edinburgh City Libraries you can view SCRAN by clicking on here and typing in your borrower number.
Open University students can also access SCRAN as part of their online learning package.


SCRAN also hosts many fine images from the V&A museum, whose publications feature in OPU's collection and on this very blog.

Fox hunting

Those of you interested in the furore over Defence Minister Dr Liam Fox's friendship with Adam Werritty should take a look at The guide to the rules relating to the conduct of Members(pdf, 57 pages, 529 kb).

Mr Werritty had accompanied Dr Fox on almost a third of his ministerial trips overseas and had business cards describing himself as an advisor to the Secretary of State for Defence. When Dr Fox was the shadow health minister Werritty described himself as a health policy advisor. Dr Fox has aplogised for his "lack of judgement" but there is an inquiry into the matter. Watch this space.

Fewer than nine lives

Medieval Cats, new to OPU's collection this week.

Cats are illustrated in medieval manuscripts throughout the Middle Ages, often in exquisite detail. Medieval cats were viewed as treasured pets, as fearsome mousers, as canny characters in fables, as associates of the Devil and as magical creatures. A medieval cat had fewer than nine lives to toy with - danger was never far around the corner, whether in the form of a fur-trader or by being burnt alive in popular celebrations.

This charming book, published by the British Museum, features an array of fascinating images of cats in medieval manuscripts. The book also includes anecdotes about cats - both real and imaginary - to provide an interesting picture of the life of the cat and its relationship with humans in the medieval world.

(Text adapted from front flap of book)