| | 81 | Author: | Gould, George M., and Walter L. Pyle | Add | | | Title: | Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Menstruation has always been of interest, not only to the
student of
medicine, but to the lay-observer as well. In olden times there were many
opinions concerning its causation, all of which, until the era of physiologic
investigation, were of superstitious derivation. Believing menstruation to
be the natural means of exit of the feminine bodily impurities, the ancients
always thought a menstruating woman was to be shunned; her very presence
was deleterious to the whole animal economy, as, for instance, among the
older writers we find that Pliny [1.1]
remarks: "On the approach of a woman
in this state, must will become sour, seeds which are touched by her become
sterile, grass withers away, garden plants are parched up, and the fruit
will fall from the tree beneath which she sits.'' He also says that the
menstruating women in Cappadocia were perambulated about the fields to
preserve the vegetation from worms and caterpillars. According to
Flemming, [1.2] menstrual
blood was believed to be so powerful that the mere
touch
of a menstruating woman would render vines and all kinds of fruit-trees
sterile. Among the indigenous Australians, menstrual superstition was so
intense that one of the native blacks, who discovered his wife lying on his
blanket during her menstrual period, killed her, and died of terror himself
in a fortnight. Hence, Australian women during this season are forbidden
to touch anything that men use. [1.3]
Aristotle said that the very look of a
menstruating woman would take the polish out of a mirror, and the next person
looking in it would be bewitched. Frommann
[1.4] mentions a man who said
he saw a tree in Goa which withered because a catamenial napkin was hung
on it. Bourke remarks that the dread felt by the American Indians in this
respect corresponds with the particulars recited by Pliny. Squaws at the
time of menstrual purgation are obliged to seclude themselves, and in most
instances to occupy isolated lodges, and in all tribes are forbidden to
prepare food for anyone save themselves. It was believed that, were a
menstruating woman to step astride a rifle, a bow, or a lance, the weapon
would
have no utility. Medicine men are in the habit of making a "protective''
clause whenever they concoct a "medicine,'' which is to the effect that the
"medicine'' will be effective provided that no woman in this condition is
allowed to approach the tent of the official in charge. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 83 | Author: | Haldeman-Julius, Emanuel and Anna Marcet Haldeman-Julius | Add | | | Title: | Dust | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | DUST was piled in thick, velvety folds on the
weeds and grass of the open Kansas prairie;
it lay, a thin veil on the scrawny black
horses and the sharp-boned cow picketed near a
covered wagon; it showered to the ground in little
clouds as Mrs. Wade, a tall, spare woman, moved
about a camp-fire, preparing supper in a sizzling
skillet, huge iron kettle and blackened coffee-pot. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 86 | Author: | Hazeltine, Alice I. | Add | | | Title: | Library Work with Children | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | The history of library work with children is yet to be written. From
the bequest made to West Cambridge by Dr. Ebenezer Learned, of money to
purchase "such books as will best promote useful knowledge and the
Christian virtues" to the present day of organized work with children
—of the training of children's librarians, of cooperative evaluated
lists of books, of methods of extension—the development has been
gradual, yet with a constantly broadening point of view. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 90 | Author: | Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911 | Add | | | Title: | Malbone: an Oldport romance | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | AS one wanders along this southwestern
promontory of the Isle of Peace, and
looks down upon the green translucent water
which forever bathes the marble slopes of the
Pirates' Cave, it is natural to think of the ten
wrecks with which the past winter has strewn
this shore. Though almost all trace of their
presence is already gone, yet their mere memory
lends to these cliffs a human interest. Where
a stranded vessel lies, thither all steps converge,
so long as one plank remains upon another.
There centres the emotion. All else
is but the setting, and the eye sweeps with indifference
the line of unpeopled rocks. They
are barren, till the imagination has tenanted
them with possibilities of danger and dismay.
The ocean provides the scenery and properties
of a perpetual tragedy, but the interest arrives
with the performers. Till then the shores remain
vacant, like the great conventional arm-chairs
of the French drama, that wait for
Rachel to come and die. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 96 | Author: | Key, Ellen | Add | | | Title: | The Education of the Child | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | GOETHE showed long ago in his Werther a
clear understanding of the significance of
individualistic and psychological training, an
appreciation which will mark the century of
the child. In this work he shows how the future
power of will lies hidden in the characteristics
of the child, and how along with every
fault of the child an uncorrupted germ capable
of producing good is enclosed. "Always,"
he says, "I repeat the golden words of the
teacher of mankind, `if ye do not become as
one of these,' and now, good friend, those who
are our equals, whom we should look upon as
our models, we treat as subjects; they should
have no will of their own; do we have none?
Where is our prerogative? Does it consist in
the fact that we are older and more
experienced? Good God of Heaven! Thou seest
old and young children, nothing else. And in
whom Thou hast more joy, Thy Son announced
ages ago. But people believe in Him and do
not hear Him—that, too, is an old trouble,
and they model their children after themselves."
The same criticism might be applied to our
present educators, who constantly have on
their tongues such words as evolution, individuality,
and natural tendencies, but do not
heed the new commandments in which they say
they believe. They continue to educate as if
they believed still in the natural depravity of
man, in original sin, which may be bridled,
tamed, suppressed, but not changed. The new
belief is really equivalent to Goethe's thoughts
given above, i.e., that almost every fault is but
a hard shell enclosing the germ of virtue.
Even men of modern times still follow in education
the old rule of medicine, that evil must
be driven out by evil, instead of the new
method, the system of allowing nature quietly
and slowly to help itself, taking care only
that the surrounding conditions help the work
of nature. This is education. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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