HistoryofScience.com Blog

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Malfeasance from a "Garrison-Morton" Author!

  • In order to bring the "Garrison-Morton" medical bibliography up to date for the new online, revised and interactive version at www.historyofmedicine.com one of the processes I have had to follow is checking the names and birth and death dates of the thousands of authors in the bibliography. This is a task that I never attempted 25 years when I put out the 5th edition in book form. At that time the process was impossibly time consuming, so I added in what I found in the process of revising the text, but I did not make an effort to revise all author names and author dates in a systematic way. As a result of the Internet it is, of course, now possible to find birth and death dates for many authors relatively quickly, though some continue to elude me.

  • When I checked the dates for Cecil Bryan Jacobson, junior author of the paper describing the first use of amniocentesis to diagnose genetic disorders, I was surprised to find that Dr. Jacobson was recently involved in a notorious scandal, and had his license to practice medicine revoked. I included the relevant paragraph from the Wikipedia article on Jacobson in the note to entry 6235.2, a copy of which is below. For more information see the full Wikipedia article and the many news articles on this scandal.

  • 6235.2. 
  • BARTER, Robert Henry. 1913 – 1999
  • JACOBSON, Cecil Bryan. 1936 –

Intrauterine diagnosis and management of genetic defects.

 Amer. J. Obstet. Gynec., 99, 796-807. 1967.
Amniocentesis used to diagnose genetic disorders in utero. First detailed report. See also Fuchs, F., Genetic information from amniotic fluid contents. Lancet, 1960, 2, 180.

"During the course of the criminal investigation, another type of fraud came to light. For a variety of reasons, some patients had arranged to be artificially inseminated with sperm provided by screened, anonymous donors arranged by [Cecil Bryan] Jacobson. In order to preserve the anonymity of the donors, Jacobson explained, he identified them in records using code numbers; only Jacobson was to know their true identities. Investigators found no evidence that any donor program actually existed. Some of Jacobson's patients who had conceived through donor insemination agreed to genetic testing. At least seven instances were identified in which Jacobson was the biological father of the patients' children, including one patient who was supposed to have been inseminated with sperm provided by her husband. DNA tests linked Jacobson to at least 15 such children, and it has been suspected that he fathered as many as 75 children by impregnating patients with his own sperm" (Wikipedia article on Cecil Jacobson, accessed 05-22-2015).

posted by Jeremy Norman @ 8:10 AM   232 Comments

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

HistoryofMedicine.com, the Electronic Version of "Garrison-Morton" is Launched!

We launched HistoryofMedicine.com, the online interactive version of my 1991 printed edition of "Garrison-Morton", at the meeting of Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences (ALHHS.org) held in New Haven, Connecticut on April 29-30, 2015. Having a deadline for a functioning version of the site was a helpful, and perhaps a necessary incentive for making a presentable version available by a specific date.  Having this reference work online and freely available is something that I have wanted to do for about twenty years! It became possible when the copyright reverted to me in 2014.

 The new site has many interactive features that make it far easier to use than the printed version, plus it is usable on your favorite electronic devices, including your cell phone!

 I greatly appreciate the ability to revise and improve the work as time permits, as it is no longer a fixed printed work. Since launching the site I have made perhaps 1000 corrections, many of which involved filling in birth and death dates for authors, but I also corrected a lot of mistakes, some of which were caused by scanning errors, some of which were just errors in the printed text. You can find significant new additions simply by clicking on "Additions or Significant Revisions to the Website", which happens to be the first topic under the letter A in the subject index.

posted by Jeremy Norman @ 2:52 PM   257 Comments

Monday, February 9, 2015

Sex Remains a Topic of Wide Interest--Even Antique Sex!

In November 2014 I purchased at auction the only complete copy in private hands of the first edition of the first English sex manual, Aristoteles Masterpiece, a small volume published in London in 1684. Copies of this work were mostly read out of existence, nearly all of the few that survive are incomplete. At the time of purchase I knew that this book was likely to receive publicity in connection with the California International Antiquarian Book Fair in February 2015, at which we planned to exhibit,  For that show we issued our 51st catalogue, which included our description of Aristoteles Masterpiece.  The catalogue is available at his link. We also provided a press release about our book that was used by the publicist for the book fair.

What I did not expect was the extent of the publicity about our book that would be generated on the Internet. Among the most widely read articles was Alison Flood's "Inflame her to venery with wanton kisses: the joy of sex, 1684-style," published in TheGuardian.com on February 6, 2015. When I wrote this post on February 9th that article had been liked on Facebook more than 17, 000 times, and there were over 160 comments posted.

Our book was discussed by Fang-Ling in her blog read in China by tens of thousands of
people, and it was even reported by our London colleagues at Peter Harrington in their Newsletter 21 available at this link.  I guess all this proves what we already know: that sex remains a topic of continuing interest--even antique sex!

posted by Jeremy Norman @ 7:43 PM   120 Comments

Sunday, June 23, 2013

The Most Famous Theoretical Work in the History of Computing, and a New Price Record for a Published Work of 20th Century Science

On June 19, 2013 I was pleased to purchase for 205,250 GBP (about $316,000) at Bonham's in London the copy of the offprint of Alan Turing's On Computable Numbers (1936) along with the offprint of Turing's Correction to the paper (1937) that Turing presented to the philosopher R. B. Braithwaite. This represented a new price record for any published work of 20th century science, a new price record for any offprint, and a new price record for any work on the history of computing. The offprint of On Computable Numbers was inscribed to Braithwaite by Turing; the offprint of Turing's "Correction" was signed by Braithwaite. Documented in the standard biography of Turing by Andrew Hodges, this is one of the most famous copies of the most famous theoretical work in the history of computing. The pair of offprints was later presented by Braithwaite to the English philosopher Timothy Smiley, who may have been the consignor. Turing received and distributed very few copies of these offprints, so it is conceivable that this set of offprints may be the last complete copies in private hands.


posted by Jeremy Norman @ 5:53 PM   207 Comments

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Introducing Database Maps for From Cave Paintings to the Internet

Over the ten years or so that I have been writing From Cave Paintings to the Internet I have been thinking about ways of visualizing the data beyond text, images, and links. In late August 2012 we introduced our first database mapping program.  This lets you review the data by theme, era, or region, or combination.  After you make your selection the map populates depending upon what happens to be in the database.  Then if you click on one of the markers a portion of the data appears. Clicking further takes you to the full database entry.

When I began writing the database I never imagined approaching the data geographically. Much later, after I thought of it, I had to go back and review all the entries to include latitude and longitude information whenever appropriate. This gave me the opportunity to revise and improve some entries--an ongoing process. Then Jessica Gore worked her programming magic to bring this concept to life

I hope you find From Cave Paintings to the Internet Database Maps fun; I do.

posted by Jeremy Norman @ 1:58 PM   223 Comments

Monday, June 25, 2012

Appraising the Benoit Mandelbrot Papers



Last week I finished appraising the Benoit Mandelbrot papers for donation to Stanford University. Comprised of 215 bankers boxes, this archive of one of the most famous mathematicians of the second half of the 20th century concerned mathematics, physics, mathematical economics, information theory and computer graphics.  Mandelbrot is best known for the invention of fractals and fractal geometry and the Mandelbrot Set, but his work has impacted many other fields in science from geology and oil exploration to the design of fractal antennae in cell phones.  I posted a portion of my appraisal on our website which you can download here. The images in this blog piece are of the Mandelbrot Set taken from the Wikipedia article on the subject.

posted by Jeremy Norman @ 9:37 AM   362 Comments

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Probably the Funniest Method of Reading Ever Invented


On January 6, 2012 The New York Times published an article entitled "Turning a Page the Joseph Herscher Way, describing a Rube Goldberg device constructed by computer programmer and kinetic artist Joseph Herscher.

The caption to the image read:

"Joseph Herscher drinks his coffee (1) which pulls a string which yanks a pencil (2) which tips paintings one by one as the balls roll down. The third ball rolls onto a shelving unit (3) and swings a ladle, which pours glycerin from a jug into a cup which combines with potassium and combusts. A fuse catches fire and burns, which releases the pool balls (4) one by one. The fourth ball lands in a hanging green shot glass (5) which turns on the gas . Meanwhile the fuse (still burning) ignites the gas, which boils the liquid and sends steam into a sponge (6) which becomes heavy and tips, sliding a fly swatter (7) up which releases a ball which rolls along the top of the books, knocking the other balls, and eventually knocking a Velcro-covered ball. The weight of the Velcro ball tips a book (8) out of the bookcase which opens it and allows a small marble to roll out of the book and knock a vase (9) off the table. Headphones (10) are pulled by the vase which releases an orange glass (11) which rolls along the slanted table, sticks to the tape (12) and yanks a pencil in the computer (13). The screen shuts and the computer falls off the table which pulls a cable switching on a hair dryer (14) which annoys the hamster (15). He runs which causes the cage to tip. The pool ball (16) rolls along the top of the cage and drops, which knocks a baking pan (17) off the table which pulls the hair dryer with it and causes tape (18) to roll across the table, sticking to, and turning the front page of the newspaper (19)."

The best way to appreciate this is to view the video:


posted by Jeremy Norman @ 7:38 AM   182 Comments

Friday, December 16, 2011

A Kinky Side of Book Collecting: Bindings in Human Skin

During the past 40+ years of my experience in the book trade I have only seen two books bound in human skin, and I have never actually bought and sold such a volume. Books bound in this way are very rare, and hardly ever appear on the market. My favorite of the two I have seen is a volume of rare anatomical pamphlets by Albinus, including the first color-printed anatomical illustrations by Jan Admiral. One of these pamphlets by Albinus is on human skin, and presumably for this reason its early twentieth century owner, Hans Friedenthal, thought it would be appropriate in 1910 to have it bound in human skin. This before Friedenthal appears to have perished in the Holocaust. His volume is preserved in the Lane Medical Library at Stanford.

To some, just the thought of a book bound in human skin connotes evil like lampshades made of human skin in SS concentration camps. Or perhaps the idea of having books bound in human skin suggests gruesome behavior like cannibalism. Yet the two books bound this way that I saw over the decades were innocuous in their appearance, and were we not told from notes inside the books that the bindings were made from human skin, we might not even notice, as the tanned leather made from human skin can look similar to bindings made from calf or goat.

Recently I happened to be rummaging through a reference volume on my shelves entitled Bibliologia Comica or Humorous Aspects of the Caparisoning and Conservation of Books by the former FBI Special Agent, Librarian, and Professor of Classics, Lawrence S. Thompson. Thompson's misuse of Caparisoning in the title was probably an "in" joke. As the final chapter of that book, Thompson issued perhaps the definitive English language account of books bound in human skin, with a suitably obscure Latin title, Religatum de pelle humana. As Thompson recounts, the practice has a long and arcane history. For the curious we have posted Thompson's complete essay in the Traditions section of our website.

Regarding the binding of rare anatomical books I pose the question, "Would it be appropriate to bind a rare book on human dissection in the skin of a dissected cadaver, after it had been appropriately tanned, of course?"

posted by Jeremy Norman @ 12:57 PM   72 Comments

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Marking a Milestone with a Record Three Catalogues!

Though we were having our first office at 442 Post Street in San Francisco remodeled by late 1970, we did not open for business until early 1971, so 2011 is our 40th year in business. This year I also reached my 66th birthday.

Reflecting increased business activity rather than less, in 2011 Diana Hook and I issued three catalogues, all as PDFs. This was a record for us, especially since some years we issued no catalogues. The 39th catalogue was distributed in February for the San Francisco Antiquarian Book Fair, the 40th in July, and the 41st in late October. All can be downloaded from the Catalogues and Special Items page under the Rare Books tab at historyofscience.com. We will issue our next catalogue, number 42 for the Los Angeles Antiquarian Book Fair in February 2012.

posted by Jeremy Norman @ 3:49 PM   58 Comments

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Introducing Historyofinformation.com


On February 8, 2011 Jessica Gore created a new website for my chronological and thematic studies on the history of information and media at historyofinformation.com. There you will find the latest version of my database, From Cave Paintings to the Internet, as well as a nifty new Outline View of the database, and some essays on themes related to the database under the Narrative and Analysis tab.

Now all I need to do is add about a thousand more images. Coming soon: images and captions for the essays in the Narrative and Analysis sections.

posted by Jeremy Norman @ 2:59 PM   471 Comments


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