31 July 2022 - ABANDONED SEASIDE SANATORIUM

 

ABANDONED 

SEASIDE 

SANATORIUM 

G'day folks,

The  abandoned ruins of a historic medical facility sits eerily by the water. 

This brick fortress, designed in 1934 by architect Cass Gilbert, was America’s first medical facility designed to offer heliotropic treatment to children with tuberculosis. This type of treatment involved spending prolonged periods of time in the sun, in hopes that the exposure might help cure the patient.

The theory is literally built into the facility, which is renowned for its Tudor Revival architecture. Massive terraces facing the sea wrap around the main building, so the children could try to sun themselves to health. It wasn’t long, however, before new drugs were developed that rendered this treatment obsolete. 

 

As such, the building’s role would shift several times over the next six decades before it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Over the ensuing decades, the facility would turn first into a home for the elderly, then into a traditional medical hospital, and finally into a hospital for the intellectually disabled.

It was showcased in the expose book named: Christmas in Purgatory, A Photographic Essay on Mental Retardation, by Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan. The expose was written to show the appalling condition in various state schools through the country. The majority of the institutions included in the book were not named. Yet, the last chapter did name one institution: Seaside Regional Center (AKA Seaside Sanatorium). This institution was not named due to anything bad that occurred in the center but how it was an example of how state schools should be run. The book commented that the staff really cared for the residents and that there had never been any overcrowding, underfunding, abuse, or understaffing like in other similar institutions. 

 

It closed in 1996 due to a lack of need.

Now a Connecticut State Park, visitors can enjoy the grounds and walk the perimeters of the various buildings. 

Still an architectural marvel, the Seaside is today a complicated monument to both genuine attempts at medical innovation.

 

18 February 2022 - OSLER LIBRARY - THE HISTORY of MEDICINE

 

OSLER LIBRARY 

- THE HISTORY of MEDICINE -

G'day folks,

One of the world's largest collections of rare medical texts and ephemera. 

This library began as the personal collection of one of McGill University’s most famous graduates: Sir William Osler. After his death in 1919, it was bequeathed to McGill. The library and its fittings were disassembled in Oxford, England and shipped to Montreal. After moving several times over the years, it was reconstructed within the modern biomedical library.

Now one of the largest and most valuable collections of rare medical books and ephemera in the world, to step into the Osler Library is to enter the study of a late-Victorian gentleman scholar. Osler’s desk, bookcases, reading tables and other furnishings are all around you. It is a startling contrast to the modern biomedical library around it, rather like stepping into a literary Tardis.

If you visit, say hello to Sir William, his ashes are held in his library!

 

Clancy's comment: An amazing wealth of knowledge.

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26 September 2015 - WHERE DID THE Rx SYMBOL COME FROM?

WHERE DID THE Rx 

SYMBOL COME FROM?

G'day folks,

Do any of you know where this symbol came fom? Well, check this out ...

Commonly seen on doctor’s prescription pads and signs in pharmacies, Rx is the symbol for a medical prescription. According to most sources, Rx is derived from the Latin word “recipe,” meaning “take.” Among several alternative theories, however, is the belief that the Rx symbol evolved from the Eye of Horus, an ancient Egyptian symbol associated with healing powers. What is known for certain is that the practice of pharmacy, the preparation and dispensation of drugs, has been around for thousands of years. The world’s first recorded prescriptions were etched on a clay tablet in Mesopotamia around 2100 B.C., while the first drugstores were established in the ancient city of Baghdad in the eighth century A.D.

America’s earliest drugstores date to the 17th century, in places such as Boston and New York. Before he became infamous as a traitor during the Revolutionary War, Benedict Arnold was an apothecary, or pharmacist, in Connecticut. The first college of pharmacy in the United States was founded in 1821 in Philadelphia. In the late 19th century, it was an Atlanta pharmacist, John Pemberton, who invented the formula for what would become Coca-Cola. At the time, Pemberton claimed his new concoction cured a variety of afflictions.

Prior to the 1950s, the majority of prescription medications in America were compounded by pharmacists; that is, each medication was custom-made from raw ingredients to suit an individual patient’s needs. After the mid-20th century, pharmacists filled most prescriptions with mass-produced products from drug companies. Today, the mortar and pestle, used by pharmacists for centuries to make medications, remains an industry symbol, often appearing on drugstore signs along with Rx.

Clancy's comment: There ya go. Did you know that?

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23 May 2015 - LOUIS PASTEUR

LOUIS PASTEUR

1822 - 1895

G'day folks,

No doubt you have heard of this man.

Louis Pasteur worked tirelessly to develop antidotes and cures to many dangerous illnesses such as anthrax and rabies. He also successfully invented a way to pasteurise milk and make it safe from Tuberculosis.

Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, Eastern France. He was a conscientious and hard working student, though not considered exceptional. One of his professors called him ‘mediocre’. He received a doctorate in 1847 and after obtaining posts at Strasbourg, Lille and Paris he spent much time researching aspects of Chemistry. One key discovery related to research on tartrate acid showing the crystals contained a mirror image of right-handed and left handed isomers.

 His most important discoveries were in the field of germ study. He showed that germs required certain micro-organisms to develop; using this knowledge he found that the fermentation of yeast could be delayed. Louis Pasteur then turned to practical ways of killing bacteria in liquids such as milk. His process of pasteurisation successfully killed bacteria in milk without destroying milk protein. This was a radical discovery and made drinking milk safe. The process of pasteurisation was named after him and it saved many lives.

Louis Pasteur was a great believer in hard work, never content to rest on his laurels he continued to work very hard in his laboratory to develop more cures. He said in advice to other scientists:

 “An individual who gets used to hard work can thereafter never live without it. Work is the foundation of everything in this world.”

Louis Pasteur next created a cure for anthrax – a disease that mainly affects cattle. He found that by giving cattle a weakened form of the illness they were able to develop immunity to the illness.

This success encouraged him to develop a cure for rabies – a very common disease at the time. Using similar principles he developed a weakened strain of the disease. Testing on animals affected with rabies was successful, however he was reluctant to test on humans for fear it might not work. At one point he considered testing on himself by subjecting himself to a rabies and then trying his cure. However, before he could implement his scheme a young boy was brought to him who had been bitten 14 times by a rabid dog. His parents agreed to try the uncertain new technique. His treatment was a success and news of the treatment soon spread. Over 350 people came to Louis Pasteur for treatment. Louis and his team of scientists worked around the clock to save the people who had contracted rabies.

There was only one failure a ten year old girl Louis Pelletier. Louis knew the dies ease was too advanced when she came, but, he tried nevertheless. The girl died in his arms, with tears in his eyes, the great scientist said to her parents.

“I did so wish I could have saved your little one.”

It was testament to the big heart of the famous scientist he took so much interest in his patients. It was testament to the big heart of the famous scientist he took so much interest in his patients. In 1888, friends and supporters funded an institute for the treatment of rabies. Louis Pasteur successfully campaigned for better research facilities for scientists. His pleas of more funding were heard by Napoleon III and Louis Pasteur argued that

“Physicists and chemists without laboratories are like soldiers without arms on the battlefield.”

Louis died in 1895 aged 73. 

Louis Pasteur had great faith in the good nature of humans. He worked tirelessly to deliver real benefits for the treatment of infectious diseases. More than any other person, Louis Pasteur helped to increase the life expectancy of man in the late nineteenth and early twentieth Century.

Achievements of Louis Pasteur

• Process of Pasteurisation making milk safe to drink
• Cure for rabies
• Cure for anthrax
• His principles were used by later scientists such as Frankland, Valley Radot, Emile Duclaux, Descours and Holmes in developing vaccines for dies eases such as typhus, diphtheria, cholera, yellow fever and different strains of plague

  

Clancy's comment: Thank you for your dedication, Louis.

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