Providentia

Viral Videos Triggers Polio Vaccine Panic in Pakistan

Police have arrested twelve people across Pakistan and charged them with releasing videos that supposedly showed that the polio vaccine being administered across Pakistan was  unsafe.    

Since Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world in which polio is endemic (Afghanistan and Nigeria are the other two), health authorities have launched a nationwide initiative to vaccinate thousands of children..  But widespread mistrust over the vaccine has led to accusations of a government concealing medical problems resulting from vaccine use.    This lingering mistrust spilled into active panic following the release of a number of videos onto social media claiming that children had been poisoned by the new vaccine.  In one of those videos, a Peshawar man, Nazar Muhammad, alleged that the vaccine was causing children to lapse into comas due to the vaccine passing its expiration date.   In another case, children at a private school began complaining of  vomiting which was attributed to the vaccination campaign.

Within hours, local mosques began using loudspeakers to spread the message that the vaccine was unsafe and more than 25,000 children were rushed to hospitals in northern Pakistan alone.  Though none of these children were showing signs of medical problems, anxious parents swamped medical facilities demanding that their children be seen.   At least one health unit was set on fire by angry protesters and the vaccination campaign was temporarily suspended in many districts to ensure the safety of vaccination workers.  Government spokesperson Babar Bin Atta said that action would be taken against the culprits.  “Panic was created to jeopardise the polio vaccination as part of a campaign and to put our children at risk of diseases. It is a criminal act and perpetrators will be held accountable,” Atta said.   

Still, despite the arrests of suspected agitators, including Nazar Muhammad, polio workers say that the panic has been a major setback in convincing people the vaccine was safe.  “More than 100 houses that I visited today refused to vaccinate their children against polio as they are gripped by the fear and panic created by the fake videos” Zia ul Islam, a young polio worker from the Mamund area of tribal district of Bajaur, told local media recently. “The videos have ruined years of dedicated efforts by polio workers.”

With more than 39 million children at risk for polio, and with eight new cases being reported so far this year, government agencies have been especially vigilant in promoting the safety of the new vaccines.   Most polio cases reported in Pakistan are from tribal areas of KP and Balochistan where health workers have to battle numerous misconceptions about oral vaccines.   Many parents are refusing the vaccine for their children due to health risk fears or the belief that it is un-Islamic.    However, recent efforts to involve tribal leaders, religious leaders, schools teachers and community workers have had a positive result to date.

The newest inoculation campaign is expected to continue with 260,000 front-line workers going door-to-door across the country.   Though providing oral drops to nearly 40 million children is a daunting challenge, health care statistics are reporting positive results.   Only twelve polio cases were reported in Pakistan last year, a sharp drop from the 306 cases reported in 2014.   

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The Science of Raising The Dead

Whatever else you might say about the early experiments with electricity, they were certainly rough on birds.

One of Benjamin Franklin's first electrical experiments involved killing birds to demonstrate the lethal power associated with electricity.  In 1749, he sent out tongue-in-cheek invitations for a "Party of Pleasure" to be held near his home in Pennsylvania.   The highlight of the evening would involve electrocuting a turkey which would then become part of the evening meal.   In fairness to Franklin, the poor bird was likely doomed anyway and electrocution would be more humane than the other butchering methods of the time.    In describing the festivities, Franklin wrote:

A Turkey is to be killed for our dinner by the Electrical Shock; and roasted by the electrical Jack, before a fire kindled by the Electrical Bottle; when the healths of all the Famous Electricians in England, France and Germany are to be drank in Electrified Bumpers, under the Discharge of Guns from the Electrical Battery

According to Alex Boese in his book Electrified Sheep,  an "electrical jack" was a crude electrical motor while "electrical Bottle" was another name for Leyden jars.   An "electrified bumper" was an electrified glass that gave the drinker a shock when drinking from it.     Whether or not he actually intended to hold this party, skeptics called his bluff and Franklin was obliged to carry out the turkey electrocution (which he had never actually done before).    After working his way up from a hen,whose cooked flesh he declared to be "uncommonly tender" afterward,  Franklin electrocuted another hen but managed to revive it afterward by "repeatedly blowing into its lungs."  While the revival attempt worked, the poor hen was apparently blinded.    Though this makes Benjamin Franklin the first to use artificial respiration to revive a victim of electrocution, history seemed to have denied him the credit up to now.  

Moving on to turkeys, Franklin found them to be more of a challenge than chickens.  On December 23, 1750, he finally held his turkey-shocking party  though it didn't work out to well for the earnest Franklin.   Whether because of being distracted by his guests or imbibing a little too much of his own wine, Franklin accidentally electrocuted himself.  He later described it as "like a universal Blow throughout my whole Body from head to foot which seemed within as well as without."    The shock left him dazed and his arms and neck being numb for days afterward.   He frankly admitted that a shock through his head might have killed him on the spot. 

Undeterred, Franklin went back to his turkey-killing experiments, but more cautiously.  Among other things, he discovered that two large Leyden jars were not enough to kill a 10-pound turkey and neede to added more jars before he finally succeeded in killing one of the birds.    The Royal Society congratulated him on his achievement which was duly noted in their proceedings (though not as famous as his legendary kite experiment). 

But Benjamin Franklin was hardly the only scientist killing birds with electricity.   Killing chickens and turkeys using electrical current was a common parlour trick throughout the 18th century though scientists began looking for more constructive uses to show electricity's value.    The still-mysterious nature of electricity  made the prospect of discovering new ways of healing seem like a tantalizing prospect.    Along with spawning  quack remedies,  serious medical researchers made new discoveries suggesting that electricity could accomplish far more than killing birds.

Peter Christian Abildgaard was part of this new wave of medical research.   Born in 1740, he trained in medicine at the University of Copenhagen before traveling to France to study veterinary diseases.   After returning to Denmark, he founded a veterinary school in Copenhagen which is now one of the oldest schools of its kind in the world.   Abildgaard conducted research into veterinary medicine and natural philosophy.   That included experiments in electricity as well.    In 1775, Peter Abildgaard announced what seemed to be his most grandiose discovery.  Not only did he kill birds using electricity, but he also succeeded in using electricity to bring them back to life!  

According to Abildgaard's description of his experimental setup, he would run an electrical current through a hen's head using a bank of Leyden jars until the hen fell over dead.   He even left the hen's body overnight to ensure there was no mistake about the hen being dead.     Trying the experiment again with another hen, Abildgaard then attempt to revive it with another electric shock to the head.   As he later described, "I tried an electric shock directly through the chest to the back and not without success."   The bird rose up and, set when loose upon the ground, "walked aboot quietly on its feet."   

To test the effectiveness of his technique, Abildgaard took the same hen and repeated his results, killing the hen and then reviving it, "rather often".   He only stopped when the hen appeared to have difficulty walking.  He saw the hen make a complete recovery after a few days (it even laid an egg).     Abildgaard's next experiment, with a rooster this time, didn't work out so well since the rooster aggressively resisted being shocked again after being revived.  While Abildgaard had apparently discovered the principle of cardiac defibrillation,  his successful experiment was attributed to the mysterious power of electricity.   Best known for his contributions to Danish science, his medical discovery would be largely forgotten until the end of the 19th century.   

Apparently independently, British physicians also began using electrical shock to revive apparently dead patients.    When the Royal Humane Society was first established in 1773,  it was known as the Royal Humane Society for the Apparently Dead and focused on developing ways to revive cases of sudden death.    One of their first experiments, described in a 1774 report, involved using electric shock to bring an apparently dead child back to life.    The success of this approach inspired eminent surgeon John Hunter to comment that "Electricity has been known to be of service and should be tried when other methods have failed.  It is probably the only method we have of directly stimulating the heart."  

The first use of a Leyden jar as a portable "defibrillator" was reported by Charles Kite in 1788 when he used his device to revive a three-year old child who had fallen out a window.   His "Essay on the Recovery of the Apparently Dead" described his research into hundreds of cases of drowning and suggested that the key to successful revival was the rapid application of resuscitation techniques as soon after death a possible.   Kite was already a prominent member of the Humane Society and had regularly used artificial respiration using a bellows to force air into the mouth or nostrils of drowning victims.    

While his success with defibrillation (the term would actually be coined much later) earned Kite a Silver Medal from the Society, there was tremendous social resistance to the idea of reviving dead corpses.   Part of that resistance stemmed from attempts by the Humane Society to change the very definition of death itself.   Kite even suggested that putrefaction was not enough to  have a corpse considered permanently dead (since it might be a sign of advanced scurvy).  Although  conventional physicians grudgingly accepted the use of artificial respiration to revive drowning victims,  using Leyden jars and other electrical devices never really caught on.

But the idea of using electricity to revive corpses was hardly forgotten .  Along with the research by Luigi Galvani and Giovanni Aldini,   Glasgow physician Allan Burns recommended the use of electrical shock for all cases of sudden death.   As part of his directive for reviving patients, he stated that "Where however the cessation of vital action is very complete and continues long, we ought to inflate the lungs, and pass electric shocks though the chest."   He also stressed that physicians should never give up until there is no hope of success.    In his 1820 Medical Guide, Richard Reece described a "reanimation chair" into which a corpse could be placed.   The chair featured a voltaic pile for electric shocks as well as a bellows to force air into the lungs.  A metallic tube inserted in the esophagus acted as an electrode in administering the electric shock.   Actual details on how effective the chair was do not seem to be available. 

The macabre potential of electricity to revive the dead may even have inspired Mary Shelley in her seminal science fiction novel Frankenstein.    First published in 1818, the novel featuring a young scientist tampering in God's domain seemed to reflect the mistrust the general public had for  altering the boundary between life and death (though Shelley didn't actually mention the use of electricity in the novel  

Whether due to natural resistance on the part of doctors or the general sinister association between electricity and "mad scientists",  reluctance over the use of more extreme measures delayed the development of portable defibrillators for decades.  Though medical researchers demonstrated  the principle of ventricular defibrillation on animals throughout the 19th century, its value in reviving medical patients would not be recognized until the 1930s when William B. Kouwenhoven developed the first portable cardiac defibrillator.    In the decades that followed, portable defibrillators moved out of hospitals and automated external defibrillators (AED) can be found in many public buildings to allow people with little or no training to provide lifesaving treatment.

So, the next time you see the familiar AED label at a train station or government building, spare a thought for the poor birds whose contribution to the cause of medical research eventually spawned a universal life-saving technique.

The Woman Who Made Soap

Rome's Museo Criminologico [Criminological Museum]  may not be to everybody's taste,  but it's definitely worth seeing.  The museum's collection features photographs and memorabilia from some of the most gruesome forensic cases in the long history of Italy.   From Renaissance murders to the Mafia, this museum has it all.  

It was there that I first learned about Leonarda Cianciulli, a.k.a. the "Soap Maker of Corregio" and her bizarre criminal career.  While almost unknown outside of Italy, Leonarda's career as a serial killer is still unparalleled in many ways, both for her unique method of concealing bodies and her rather odd motive for killing.

Born in 1894, she was raised in one of the most poverty-stricken regions of Italy.  Her mother, Emilia di Nolfi,  had become pregnant due to rape and was later forced to marry her rapist,, Mariano Cianciulli, when she realized she was pregnant.   By most accounts, Leonarda's early childhood was a grim one.   Her father died when Leonarda was young but her mother's remarriage did little to ease the situation at home.  Due to emotional abuse by her mother, Leonarda would make two suicide attempts before compounding her woes by marrying a man of whom her parents disapproved (they had a more prosperous suitor in mind).   She would later claim that her mother had placed a curse on her as a result of her 1914 marriage of Raffaele Pansardi and the tragedy she later endured seemed to bear that out.  

Along with being imprisoned for fraud and later seeing her house destroyed by an earthquake, Leonarda also lost three of her children in childbirth and another ten as children.   Of her seventeen pregnancies, only four survived to adulthood and she was especially protective of all of them as a result.  Despite these troubles, she and her husband eventually settled in the town of Corregio, near Naples, and Leonarda apparently settled into a normal life as a shopkeeper and part-time fortune teller.   A long-time believer in the supernatural, she had once consulted a Gypsy fortuneteller who, among other things, predicted that all of her children would die before her.  A different fortuneteller  told her that she faced either a future in prison or in a criminal asylum though Leonarda seemed not to take that warning seriously.    Her neighbours would later describe her as a gentle soul with a fondness for poetry.   Nobody suspected what would be coming next

For Leonarda, everything changed in 1939 when Benito Mussolini began drafting young men to prepare for Italy's entry into World War II.   Il Duce's popularity had slipped during the 1930s and the prospect of Italy entering the war on the side of Nazi Germany alarmed most Italians.    Leonarda became mentally unbalanced at the thought of her favourite son, Giuseppe, being drafted and possibly dying in combat.    The prospect of losing Giuseppe apparently led to her decision to carry out human sacrifices to preserve her son from death.  As she would later state during her testimony, killing others would keep her own children safe by providing God with other deaths in place of her own children.   Since she had four remaining children, she would need to sacrifice four others to keep them safe.

Her first victim was a 50-year-old spinster named Faustina Setti.   Recruiting Leonarda as a fortune-teller and matchmaker, Faustina paid her 30,000 lire to find a suitable husband.     Telling her that she knew of a good marriage prospect in a nearby village, Leonarda persuaded Faustina to write letters and postcards to relatives that she would later post from out of town to reassure them she was fine.    She also instructed Faustina not to tell anyone about her marriage plans.    On the day Faustina was to leave Corregio, she visited Leonarda's home for the last time.   There, Leonarda gave her drugged wine and then chopped her body into nine pieces with a hatchet.  According to the official statement she gave to police afterward,

I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick, dark mush that I poured into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank. As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together.  I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.

After pocketing the money Faustina had brought with her, Leonarda selected fellow-villager Francesca Soavi as her next victim.   After telling Francesca that she had found her a job a school in Piacenza, Leonarda persuaded her to keep the job offer secret.   She also persuaded Francesca to write a series of letters and postcards that would be mailed at a later date.   Copying the murder of Faustina Setti almost exactly, Leonarda drugged Francesca and dismembered the corpse with an ax on September 5, 1940.    She also pocketed her life savings (only 3,000 lire this time).   Once again, no suspicion attached to her and Leonarda was free to find another victim. 

It was this last victim who would prove to be her undoing.   Virginia Cacioppo was a former soprano who had sung opera professionally at La Scala in Milan.  She was also wealthier than Leonarda's other victims with more than 50,000 lire in cash and jewelry.   After Leonarda lured Virginia to her house with the promise of finding her a job with a mysterious impresario, she was killed like the other victims.   In a last, ghoulish touch, Leonarda added cologne to the soap she made from Virginia's remains to make it more appealing to friends and neighbours.  

VIrginia Cacioppo's sister-in-law became suspicious and began investigating her disappearance.   When she learned that Virginia had last been seen entering Leonarda's shop, she went to the police superintendent.  Following an investigation, Leonarda Cianculli was arrested for murder.    She was unusually open with the police and described her crimes and how she disposed of the bodies in ghoulish detail.    Since World War 2  was still underway, prosecuting her for the murders was hardly a priority.   It was not until 1946 and Italy's defeat that Leonarda finally went on trial. 

And it was quite a trial.   Though her son Giuseppe had been arrested as well as a possible accomplice, he was later freed.    Leonarda's detailed confession of the murders, complete with descriptions of what she did with the bodies afterward generated international publicity.  During her testimony, Leonarda was quick to correct the prosecutor on any details which she regarded as inaccurate.    At one point, she proudly pointed out that she "gave the copper ladle, which I used to skim the fat off the kettles, to my country, which was so badly in need of metal during the during the last days of the war. . . ."    She also described her reason for the murders, including her desire to help her son with human sacrifice.  Whether she truly believed what she had said in court or was hoping to avoid prison through an insanity plea, the graphic details of her crimes made her headline news.  No small accomplishment in a country still recovering from war.

Found guilty by the court,  Leonarda Cianculli was sentenced to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum.   While in prison, she wrote her memoirs, Le confessioni di un’anima amareggiata  (Confessions of a bitter soul).  Unrepentant to the last, Leonarda died of a cerebral apoplexy (stroke) on October 15, 1970.   As she would later insist, "I did not kill for greed" though her reason for killing three people seems as murky as ever.    Rome's Criminology Museum still contains numerous artifacts from the case, including the pot she used to boil her victims for soap.   

On Poor Sleep and Mortality

Previous studies have found a U‐shaped relationship between mortality and (weekday) sleep duration. A new study in the Journal of Sleep Research addresses the association of both weekday and weekend sleep duration with overall mortality. A cohort of 43,880 subjects was followed for 13 years through record‐linkages. Cox proportional hazards regression models with attained age as time‐scale were fitted to estimate multivariable‐adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for mortality; stratified analyses on age (< 65 years, ≥ 65 years) were conducted. Among individuals < 65 years old, short sleep (≤ 5 hr) during weekends at baseline was associated with a 52% higher mortality rate (hazard ratios 1.52; 95% confidence intervals 1.15–2.02) compared with the reference group (7 hr), while no association was observed for long (≥ 9 hr) weekend sleep. When, instead, different combinations of weekday and weekend sleep durations were analysed, we observed a detrimental association with consistently sleeping ≤ 5 hr (hazard ratios 1.65; 95% confidence intervals 1.22–2.23) or ≥ 8 hr (hazard ratios 1.25; 95% confidence intervals 1.05–1.50), compared with consistently sleeping 6–7 hr per day (reference). The mortality rate among participants with short sleep during weekdays, but long sleep during weekends, did not differ from the rate of the reference group. Among individuals ≥ 65 years old, no association between weekend sleep or weekday/weekend sleep durations and mortality was observed. In conclusion, short, but not long, weekend sleep was associated with an increased mortality in subjects < 65 years. In the same age group, short sleep (or long sleep) on both weekdays and weekend showed increased mortality. Possibly, long weekend sleep may compensate for short weekday sleep. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Does Reduced Scam Awareness Predict Dementia?

While seniors are often targeted by telemarketers and scam artists trying to defraud them, a new research study suggests that reduced awareness of being scammed may be an early sign of dementia. 

"When a con artist approaches an older person, they're looking for a social vulnerability — someone who is open to having a conversation with a complete stranger," says senior researcher Patricia A. Boyle.  A neuropsychologist with Rush University's Alzheimer's Disease Center,  she has long focused on the judgment missteps that can make many seniors vulnerable to elder fraud.   Using data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority,  Dr. scBoyle and her co-researchers identified specific behaviours that could signal scam vulnerability, e.g., answering the phone when you don't recognize the number, listening to telemarketers and finding 0t difficult to end unsolicited calls, being open to potentially risky investments, and not realizing that seniors often face financial exploitation.

Over a period of six years, 935 seniors who were already taking part in Chicago-based aging research project were asked to complete a scam awareness questionnaire and to undergo yearly brain scans.   Over the course of the six-year study, 151 were formally diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and another 255 were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).     What Boyle and her co-researchers found was that  low scam awareness was significantly linked to later development of Alzheimer's disease and that  each 1-unit increase in scam score (indicating lower scam awareness) was associated with about a 60% increase in dementia risk.  Low scam awareness was also linked to MCI, a relationship that remained significant even when adjusting for global cognitive function.

As part of the overall project, all participants who died during the course of the study underwent brain autopsies.   In examining the results of these autopsies, the researchers found a significant link between reduced scam awareness and plaque buildup in the brain, one of the major identifiers of Alzheimer's disease.   

Despite these findings, Boyle and her co-authors warn that the measure of scam awareness they used is likely not sensitive enough to be make specific predictions about individual cases.   In a related editorial by Dr. Jason Karlawish of the University of Pennsylvania, these findings, while notable, are not enough in themselves to prove a link between low scam awareness and impending decline in cognitive functioning.   Many seniors dealing with loneliness or isolation may also be vulnerable to scam artists, whether or not they have cognitive issues.  Still, Dr. Karlawish feels that this study "should be a call to action to health care systems, the financial services industry and their regulators," and that more research is needed to explore what scam awareness can mean for seniors.

In a recent media interview,Alzheimer's Association vice president Beth Kallmyer agreed that more research was needed into elder fraud.   She also pointed out that many seniors are often reluctant to admit to family members or friends that they were defrauded.   This can be due to fears of being thought incapable of living on their own or managing their finances because of dementia or other health issues.  As a result, the fraud can continue indefinitely.   

Recognizing the rise in scams aimed at seniors, family members and financial institutions are warned to provide greater protections for elderly people who may be especially vulnerable.    “As older people start making mistakes in financial, health care and other types of complex decisions, we do need to raise awareness and start asking, ‘Do they need some help?”‘ Dr. Boyle warns. “It doesn’t necessarily mean someone is going to go on to develop dementia. But we should become more aware.”

 

The Magdalene Tragedy

Long before Dan Brown and his DaVinci Code, the legend of Mary Magdalene was a strong part of early Church doctrine. Despite the lack of any scriptural basis, the tradition of Mary Magdalene as a reformed prostitute who found salvation through repentance made her the natural patron saint for convents in which "problem" women could be redeemed. The notion of the inherent sinfulness of women and their need to atone for their inappropriate behaviour through acts of penitence had the full backing of the Church with cloistered "penitentiaries" throughout most of Europe dating back to the Middle Ages. To be fair, these convents could also be places of refuge for women who needed protection from unwanted marriages or sexual harassment. Unfortunately,the women who went there for shelter were often unable to leave afterward.

Beginning as early as the eighteenth century, there was public alarm in the United Kingdom over the joint problems of illegitimate children and prostitution which rose dramatically with the Industrial Revolution. Not only were brothels and street prostitution rampant, but women in "service" (usually as maids or cooks) often faced chronic sexual abuse and the unwanted pregnancies that went with it. Prominent social reformers including Henry Fielding propose the establishment of special "homes" for the reform of prostitutes and other "fallen women". Evangelist movements such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice (founded in 1802) pushed for the closing of brothels and stronger anti-prostitution legislation. As a result of this crusade, women were taken off the street and placed in asylums which, from the very beginning, were dubbed "Magdalene" homes after Mary Magdalene. By the end of the 19th century, Magdalene asylums could be found virtually everywhere (including in North America). In the United Kingdom alone, there were more than 300 asylums caring with an estimated 6,000 inmates annually by 1900.

While Magdalene asylums were meant to be an alternative to the prisons or poorhouses that sex trade workers often endured, there was little doubt that they were prisons in their own right. Placement in the asylums was supposedly voluntary but the fact that women were locked in and police would often bring back anyone who tried to escape showed otherwise. The inmates were typically retrained for "useful work", i.e., domestic service, despite the fact that domestic workers were often targets for the sort of abuse that led to them becoming "fallen" in the first place.

While in the asylums, women were subjected to various attempts at "redemption" including shaved heads, institutional smocks, supervised visits, flogging, and poor diet. They were also put to work (typically in laundries) which provided money for the religious and social agencies that ran the asylums. In addition to the workload, the women were subjected to heavy religious indoctrination stressing the various sins to which they were susceptible. In countries where the Catholic Church was strongest, Magdalene asylums quickly came under church control.

Run by the orders such as the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland, the asylums became even more prison-like in nature with women being actively discouraged from leaving (and often staying for decades). Asylum life was harsh with women being expected to stay silent throughout the day and to address all of the sisters as "Mother", regardless of age. They also worked long hours in the laundry without compensation. Not only were the laundries the primary financial support of the asylums but "penitents" were often told that they needed to "scrub away their sins" through laundry work.

Although the original idea of the asylum was the reform of prostitutes, the admission criteria became even looser over time. Unwed mothers, girls suffering from mental illness or developmental disabilities, and even victims of abuse, were often sent to the asylums by parish priests or other community leaders. Pregnant women usually had their babies put up for adoption in other countries without their consent. Without family support, women taken into the asylum system could be forced to stay for the rest of their lives.

The Magdalene asylum system in Ireland has probably been the most well-publicized in recent years although allegations of abuse were hardly unique to that country. The devastating Potato Famine in Ireland led to a tremendous upswing in the number of children placed in orphanages and a breakdown in social order. Magdalene asylums seemed ideal for placing girls who were considered sinful and, by the time the last Magdalene asylum was closed in 1996, an estimated 30,000 women and girls had been through the system.

The controversy over Magdalene asylums erupted in 1993 when an order of nuns in Dublin sold of part of their convent to real estate developers. The discovery of 133 bodies of former inmates who had been buried in unmarked graves sparked a major scandal. Although the true number of asylum inmates quietly buried on asylum grounds may never be known, the revelations provided by former inmates who told their stories seemed shocking enough.

The former inmates described how they were sent to the nuns for being (or at least suspected of being) sexually active. Due to the power of the Church in Ireland, there was no possible appeal for their placement in the Good Shepherd Convent in Cork. Their names were changed (to provide a break with their past lives) and they were assigned to work in the laundry for long hours. Not only were they required to do laundry all day long, they were also expected to pray out loud for their sins. Inmates unclaimed by family members could never leave.

In 1998, a gripping documentary titled Sex in a Cold Climate first aired in the U.K. The expose on the Magdalene system generated a tremendous uproar (it was never shown in Ireland due to opposition from the Church). Another well-known film titled The Magdalene Sisters was released in 2002.Although many former inmates have refused to come forward due to the shame that is still associated with having been a Magdalene, hundreds of others have spoken out about their abuse.  Sadly, none them have received any form of compensation or even a formal apology.

As for Magdalene asylums in other countries (including the United Kingdom, Canada,and the United States), information about the number of women who went through the system, and when they were finally closed, is even scarcer. The legacy of abuse that surrounds the Magdalene asylum system will likely remain hidden unless more women speak out.

The Darwin Connection

The publication of Charles Darwin's seminal masterwork On The Origin Of Species in 1859 marked a turning point in the understanding of how species form and change over time. It is doubtful that Darwin himself really anticipated the storm of protest that followed the book's publication. Scientists and theologians alike became locked in a battle that lasted for decades (and still continues today).

Of all the stout churchmen reacting to Darwin's theory, perhaps no one felt outrage more keenly than Robert Fitzroy, former captain of the HMS Beagle.   Born in 1805, Fitzroy was part of one of the most illustrious families in England. After an idyllic childhood, he entered the Royal Naval College at the age of twelve and the Royal Navy a year later. His life was never the same following the suicide of his uncle, Viscount Castlereagh, in 1822. The stigma of having a suicide in the family left Fitzroy with a sense of dread over the possibility that the madness that had claimed his uncle was hereditary. This fear was made all the more real for him when he became Captain of the HMS Beagle in 1828 following the suicide of its previous captain, Pringle Stokes.

When the Beagle's second voyage was being planned in 1831, it seemed only natural that he arrange for a suitable traveling companion to help him stay sane on the proposed five-year voyage of exploration. After other candidates turned down his offer, Fitzroy settled on a 22-year old Cambridge naturalist and theologian named Charles Darwin.  Although Fitzroy was initially suspicious of Darwin due to the shape of his nose (he was a great believer in physiognomy), Darwin's credentials as a naturalist won him over.   A dedicated churchgoer, Fitzroy relished the idea of using the Beagle's voyage to gather evidence confirming the Biblical account of creation.

Over the course of the long voyage, Darwin and Fitzroy became fast friends despite Fitzroy's volatile temper leading to frequent clashes between them (often over matters of religion). The Beagle's voyage took them from South America to the Galapagos Islands.  It also gave Darwin an unprecedented opportunity to learn about (and puzzle over) the diverse range of fauna and fossils to be found.  On their return to England in 1836, both Darwin and Fitzroy published their research findings to critical and popular acclaim.

In the years that followed, the two men drifted apart as Darwin began formulating his famous theory while Fitzroy continued to champion the Biblical account of creation. Despite an illustrious naval and political career (including a disastrous five-year term as Governor of New Zealand), Fitzroy eventually retired from active service in 1851 and was then named to the Royal Society for his prominent work in meteorology (Darwin was one of his supporters).

Fitzroy's health had taken a turn for the worse by this time and the shock that he felt when Darwin finally published his treatise on evolution contributed to his decline. His sense of betrayal and guilt over the role that he had played in furthering Darwin's research led him to oppose evolution at every opportunity. When Bishop Samuel Wilberforce attacked Darwin's theory in 1860 at the famous British Association meeting with Darwin's supporters, Fitzroy was there imploring the audience to "believe in God rather than man". There was little sympathy when he spoke of the "acutest pain" that Darwin had caused him and he was shouted down.

Following Fitzroy's retirement in 1863, his depression worsened significantly. It didn't help matters that he was passed over for an important naval post and was desperately in need of money to support his family. On the morning of April 30, 1865. Fitzroy got out of bed and went to the washroom. He then used a razor to cut his throat (much as his uncle had done years before). Only after his death was it discovered that his entire fortune had been spent during the course of his long public service. His wife and daughter would have been left destitute if friends had not launched a testimonial fund on their behalf (Charles Darwin contributed one hundred pounds).  Fitzroy is buried in Brompton Cemetery in London.

Robert Fitzroy left a substantial scientific and political legacy behind him with his numerous discoveries in meteorology and geography. Still, his life would be little more than a historical footnote except for the role that he unintentionally played in furthering Charles Darwin's revolutionary theory. To what extent that contributed to the ardent churchman's death is anybody's guess.

How Well Do Older Adults Recognize Mental Illness?

Older adults tend to underutilise mental health services. Mental health literacy plays a critical role in identifying and overcoming barriers to accessing mental health care. The ability to recognise mental illness is an essential component of mental health literacy, with important implications to whether the person will seek professional help. A new study in the journal Psychogeriatrics provides a review of the literature on older adults’ abilities to recognise mental illness. Of the 421 papers that were retrieved in the comprehensive search in PubMed, 32 studies met inclusion criteria. Studies were heterogeneous in terms of target population and methodology, yet findings show that older adults are less likely to correctly recognise mental disorders. Cueing older participants with mental labels improved their recognition abilities. Recognition was particularly poor among immigrant and ethnic/racial older adults, likely due to linguistic and cultural barriers. These findings demonstrate that older adults show low levels of mental illness recognition and tend to view some illnesses as normal parts of aging. Findings emphasise the need for developing educational programs tailored by the specific phenomenology, conceptualisations and cultural meanings of mental illness among older adults, with attention to informal sources of information and social networks.

For the abstract

Still Overseas

If all goes well, I'll be in Reykjavik by the time you read this and getting ready to return home.   Hopefully, my return to Canada will be uneventful and my trip will have given me some new ideas about what to blog about.

Isaac Singer's Legacy

Isaac Merritt Singer was a giant of a man.  

Not only did his six-foot-four-inch height allow him to physically dominate any room he entered, but his seminal invention of the first home sewing machine made him an early icon for 19th century capitalism, not to mention extremely wealthy.   With plants mass-producing his machines for sale across North America and Europe, sewing machines transformed the lives of countless women.   It's hardly surprising that Mahatma Gandhi would later refer to Singer's machine as "one of the few useful things ever invented."

Despite his success though, it was Singer's private life that would eventually lead to his undoing.   A private life that would also lead to one of the most scandalous trials of the late 19th century.   

You  see, along with his considerable height, Singer was also a man with some very, er, healthy appetites.   Due to his rocky first marriage to Catherine, he often left her and the two children they had together alone while he pursued his other great love: acting.   As part of a theatrical troupe, he was frequently on the road and it was during one of his frequent tours that he met the lovely Mary Ann Sponslor.  One thing led to another and they began what would be a rather lengthy relationship. Despite never securing a divorce from Catherine, he and Mary Ann  soon settled in New York where they lived together as husband and wife.   Though Mary Ann was probably not too thrilled with this arrangement, Singer managed to reassure her that he would marry her for real once he divorced his first wife (I did mention that he was an actor, right?). 

It was also around this time that Singer's constant tinkering paid off he managed to produce the first commercially successful home sewing machine.  Even as he fought off lawsuits (from various other inventors who claimed that they deserved the patent), the launch of Singer's sewing machine company allowed him to found a business empire which soon made him one of the wealthiest men in America.   Taking advantage of this newfound wealth, Singer was able to buy a mansion for his Mary Ann on Fifth Avenue in New York .  They certainly needed the room considering that the two of would have ten children together.  And Catherine?   She and her two children were basically cut off without a cent.

Not that many people in New York knew about Catherine.   For years after founding his company , Singer continued to introduce Mary Ann to friends, business associates, and employees as "Mrs. Singer," something that Mary Ann had no problem encouraging.  Though they never joined the "Inner Circle" of New York's high society, being "Mrs.  I.M. Singer" certainly had its perks.   But there was still the troubling question of what to do about Catherine....

In 1860, just ten years after moving in with Mary Ann, Isaac Singer filed for a divorce from Catherine.   By all reports, this divorce, which was apparently based on allegations about her infidelity, caught the first Mrs. Singer completely by surprise.   She only became aware that Singer was divorcing her when she was first served with the legal papers.  Sadly, Catherine basically ignored the writ as she was convinced that it was all a mistake.   Her failure to respond allowed Singer's lawyers the legal edge they needed.   Telling the court that her lack of response meant that she admitted to adultery, the divorce was granted.   Catherine would only learn about this after the fact and, as friends would later report, was too "poor and too shrinking in disposition to recover her legal rights."   She would be left in virtual poverty for years afterward.

But life was all that blissful for Mary Ann, either.   Despite his divorce from Catherine, the long-promised wedding to Singer never materialized.   Rumours about her "husband" and his voracious sexual appetites kept getting back to her, including his habit of frequenting prostitutes when he was away on business.   But she also had her suspicions about one of his employees, Mary McGonigal, suspicions which were finally confirmed when she spotted the two of them riding in a carriage along Fifth Avenue.  This led to a major row that ended up with Singer knocking her down and leaving her bleeding in the hall of their stately home. 

On discovering that Singer already had five children together, Mary Ann decided to get her revenge.  After going to the police, Mary Ann (under the name of "Mrs. I.M. Singer") had her husband arrested for bigamy and assault.   Released on bond, Singer promptly fled to England with Mary and her children while the courts continued to make sense of his bizarre dual life.   Which soon became a triple life when a third  woman, Mary Eastwood Walters, was discovered living in lower Manhattan.   Much as with Mary Ann, she and Singer had been living together as husband and wife (under the name "Merritt") and had at least one child together.  She and her daughter would soon  join the legal battle for a share of the Singer fortune.

As for Mary Ann Sponslor, she continued with her own claim by outlining Singer's various infidelities.  Arguing that she was Singer's common-law wife, Mary Ann demanded a formal divorce, including financial support for her ten children.  Though the divorce was never granted, Singer's lawyers made a hefty financial settlement in exchange for her dropping her claim to his estate.   She later remarried and soon dropped out of our story completely.

Though Singer and Mary Ann McGonigal lived in London for a while, he quickly abandoned her and moved to Paris where he  pursued yet another relationship.  This time, the object of his affection was a Frenchwoman, Isabella Boyer, with whom he lived for a while in Paris.   Though already having a husband at the time, Isabella divorced him and married Singer in 1863.    They would go on to have six children together (and Isabella was already pregnant when the marriage took place).    In that same year, the I.M. Singer Company was dissolved, likely to allow Singer's business associates to distance themselves from all the scandal surrounding the founder.   

With his legal troubles finally settled and various wives paid off, Singer returned to the United States and started building a new estate in Yonkers.   Realizing that he had become a social pariah, Singer soon abandoned this plan and returned to Europe to live with Isabella and their growing family.   Finally settling down in the United Kingdom, he purchased property near Devon, England in 1871.  Singer then started building his own castle, Oldway Mansion, to act as his private residence but it was never completed during his lifetime.   

Singer's death in 1875 quickly triggered a new war among his children (twenty-two in all in case you weren't keeping count, most of whom had never even met) over his $14-million-dollar estate.  While his will formally recognized all of his illegitimate children,  all of his wives, with the exception of Isabella, didn't receive anything.  This included his first wife, Catherine, though he left money to her two children.  After a lengthy legal battle, the other heirs finally negotiated a $60,000 settlement which allowed Catherine to live in comfort for the rest of her life.    Having never remarried, she died in 1884 at the age of sixty-nine. 

As for Singer's company, it was reformed in 1865 as the "Singer Manufacturing Company" and continues to be a major corporation even today.   Isaac Merritt Singer's other great legacy are. naturally enough, his numerous children, some of whom had no idea that their father was a millionaire until being named in his will.  Though he has hundreds of living descendants today,  many of whom are still wealthy from the money they inherited.  Still, it's probably safe to say that they aren't big on extended family reunions.