Providentia

When a Town Goes Mad

The picturesque southern French village of Pont Saint Esprit is hardly the place you'd expect anything out of the ordinary to happen.   With a population of nearly 11,000 people, the little town takes its name from a historic bridge crossing the Rhone river and, aside from being the birthplace of the well-known Bouvier family (as in Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy) seems just like numerous other towns in the region.   

But a bizarre epidemic that struck the town in 1951 would forever change all that.   For reasons that nobody could determine at first, many people in the town began experiencing strange hallucinations and violent hysterics that proved to be life-threatening in some cases.   One of the first cases occurred on August 16 when postman Leon Armunier was suddenly struck by nausea and wild hallucinations as he was doing his rounds.   "It was terrible,"  Armunier later told reporters.  "I had the sensation of shrinking and shrinking, and the fire and the serpents coiling around my arms."  While Armunier was taken to hospital in Avignon where he needed to be forcibly restrained, other cases followed almost immediately.  In the week that followed, hundred of patients began to report the same symptoms:   nausea, stomach cramps, insomnia, and diarrhea and, in some cases,  hallucinations and violent behaviour.   

Almost immediately, reporters were on the scene to cover the strange outbreak in the town and to speculate on the possible cause.   Many of the news stories about what was happening in Pont Saint Esprit provided eyewitness accounts of the collective madness that seemed to grip the town.  One doctor even likened what was happening to the scenes from hell show in Hieronymous Bosch's painting, Night of the Apocalypse.   

As these patients flooded the hospital, reporters watched medical staff trying to keep patients from hurting themselves.But they weren't always successful.  One eleven-year-old child, Charles Granjhon, began strangling his mother and needed to be forcibly restrained while another girl began screaming that she was being chased by tigers.   A third patient, Gabriel Validire, screamed that he was dead.  He added that his "head is made of copper and I have snakes in my stomach!”.  Another man screamed that he was an aeroplane and threw himself out of a second-floor window of the hospital.  While he only got a broken leg from the experience, he still managed to get up and run another fifty metres before hospital staff caught up with him.  

By the time the strange epidemic ran its course, there were more than 300 cases reported, most of whom managed to recover after a few days.  Of these, thirty would develop more serious symptoms and five villagers died.   Though an epidemic of colic striking the village later that same year raised new fears, all of the cases were successfully treated and released.

Which still left medical experts floundering for an explanation for why so many people had been affected in the first place.   The most popular explanation was that a consignment of rye flour from Poitiers had been contaminated with a particularly nasty strain of claviceps purpurea (rye ergot fungus).  The fungus, which is most common in tropical regions, produces powerful alkaloids that can cause a medical condition known as ergotism (aka St. Anthony's fire).   Epidemics of ergotism have occurred throughout history and historians have even suggested that the Salem Witch Trials may have been caused by accusations of bewitchment linked to ergotism.  Not only had all of the affected people eaten bread made from the same consignment of flour but witnesses reported that some of the bread had been thrown into the Rhone river and killed many of the fish.    To contain the outbreak, government inspectors ordered a ban on fishing as well as issuing a warning to consumers to avoid bread and other bakery products for the duration of the emergency.

As part of a formal investigation, the French government sent Dr. Francois Olieu, an inspector general with the National Health Service to determine how contaminated wheat bypassed normal quality controls to be sold to consumers.  Dr. Olieu, along with his team managed to trace all of the contaminated loaves to a several bakeries in Pont Saint Esprit. They also managed to secure some uneaten loaves from the same shipment to determine what the ingredients were that had caused the outbreak.    But the investigation soon took on a more sinister tone as health officials began to suggest that the flour had been deliberately contaminated with unknown ingredients.   

While this was ruled out eventually, a Poitiers miller named Maurice Mailet was  charged with manslaughter after admitting that he had bought grain that he knew to be of suspicious quality and, not wanting to sell it locally, arranged for the grain to be shipped to Pont Saint Esprit.  A second man, Roland Bruere, admitted to helping him unload the grain for profit.  Though the entire tragedy was dismissed by many newspapers as a case of criminal negligence, other conspiracy theories  soon formed.   

The paranoia that soon sprang up was helped along by the fact that researchers had difficulty isolating whatever was in the bread that caused the strange outbreak.   Though ergotism remained the official cause, the entire episode was soon labelled "Le Pain Maudit"  (cursed bread),  medical experts argued that what happened seemed different from previous descriptions of ergotism outbreaks.  Instead, experts suggested, the flour had been contaminated with something else entirely.  Among the possible culprits named were mercury (which was commonly used as a food preservative at the time), nitrogen trichloride that was used as a bleaching agent, contamination from some other fungus, or even the accidental mixing of cannabis sativa into the grain used to make the bread (cannabis sativa is known to grow wild in part of Europe though this isn't as implausible as you might think).  

As the years passed, the memory of what had happened in Pont Saint Esprit soon faded.   While families of the people who had died in the outbreak still demanded an explanation, all they were ever told was that the contaminated grain was responsible somehow.  But the mystery of "Le Pain Maudit" wasn't completely forgotten. 

In 2009, writer Hank P. Albarelli Jr published a book which provided the most sinister explanation yet for the Pont Saint Esprit outbreak  In his book, Albarelli argued that "Le Pain Maudit" was linked to the CIA experiments into mind control that were taking place at around the same time.  This included obtaining declassified CIA documents that referenced the "Pont-Saint-Esprit incident” and the possibility that it had been one of the rogue operations carried out by CIA chemist and spymaster, Sidney Gottlieb, who was later found to have carried out a series of rogue LSD experiments during that same era.  

Despite there being no direct evidence linking Gottlieb to Pont Saint Esprit, Albarelli pointed out that Gottlied, with full backing from the CIA, carried out illegal experiments on a wide range of test subjects (mostly involuntarily), including Vietnamese prisoners, college students, and prostitutes.   That he may have experimented on the inhabitants of a town in France back in 1951 seemed too far-fetched for most academic researchers, almost all of whom rejected Albarelli's book as paranoid fear-mongering.  

Whatever the real cause for the strange events of the summer of 1951, repeated investigations have failed to come up with a satisfactory explanation.  Still, whether the cause of the outbreak was accidental or man-made, what happened in Pont Saint Esprit remains a sobering reminder of how vulnerable we are to contaminants in our air, food, or water.   Have any lessons really been learned from what happened?   

Flat Earther Claims NASA Lying Over Moon's Distance From Earth

Allan Nielsen has a history of making bizarre claims to support  his belief in a flat Earth.   But the conspiracy theorist seems to have outdone himself with his latest claim about the actual distance of the Moon from the Earth, something he claims to have proven using a simple handheld camera.   

In a video currently making the rounds on YouTube, Nielsen is claiming that to have used a Nikon P900 digital camera to demonstrate that the Moon is a mere two to three kilometres away from the Earth, rather than the 384488 kilometres taught in school.  After using his camera's zoom feature to display the coarse lunar surface, Nielsen then used the same maximum zoom to focus on windmills two to three kilometres away from where he was standing.   By comparing the detail between what he saw of the Moon with his viewing of terrestrial landmarks, Nielsen insists that this proves that the Moon is much closer than what is being reported by scientists.

"This is max zoom. Explain that please," said Nielsen in Sunday Express news story.  “We have been lied to. There is no way the moon sits out in deep space – it’s quite close to us.  I cannot say how close but it’s really close. Do your own research, but we have been lied to.”    In his YouTube video, Nielsen goes even further by accusing the National Aeronatics and Space Administration of orchestrating a massive conspiracy to deceive the public.

Nielsen has based his video on the recent claims of another YouTuber known only as RichieFromBoston who used a Nikon camera identical to Nielsen's to prove that the Moon was only 4.7 metres from the Earth. He also claimed to have used his camera's zoom function to see stars through the Moon and that the appearance of distance is due to the chemicals being sprayed into the atmosphere.   This relates to his other crusade:  chemtrail sprays being left by airplanes and their effects on human health.   Not surprisingly, Allan Nielsen has enthusiastically endorsed his fellow conspiracy theorist's claims about NASA's deception.

As for NASA itself, agency representatives have largely ignored these videos by pointing out the valid scientific evidence obtained using powerful laser reflectors that can measure the Moon's distance from the Earth down to the centimetre.   In one recent news statement, a spokesperson for the agency stated:   “The distance to these retroreflectors from the Earth can be and is still routinely measured to the centimetre level or better, and their relative positions are known to a similar level.   Such measurements can be used for several purposes, such as precisely determining the orientation and orbit of the Moon, testing gravitation and general relativity theories, and for establishing a highly precise latitude and longitude coordinate frame for the Moon."

While media interest over the the recent Supermoon event has been an enticing lure for crackpots making unbelievable claims about the real nature of the solar system and the Earth's place in it, any publicity they manage to generate tends to be quickly forgotten.   Until the next media event, that is.

The Science of Body Esteem

“To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.”  Simone de Beauvoir

As children make that awkward transition from adolescence to young adulthood, the sense of identity they develop often depends on how they see themselves in comparison to those around them.   According to Erik Erikson's  theory of psychosocial development, the period from age twelve to eighteen is a critical stage in developing personal identity.  Not only are adolescents learning to become more independent of parental control but they also learn how to  interact with other people their age.   Successfully navigating this stage allows for a healthy development into young adulthood and forming long-term attachments.  

But there is more than psychological development at work during these critical years.   As adolescents pass through puberty. they also need to come to terms with how their bodies are changing.   Along with this sexual maturity, their developing brains also lead to greater cognitive capabilities and the perceived need to take on adult roles as soon as possible.  This means dealing with new pressures and social standards as well.Personal grooming and a need to look as attractive as possible becomes far more important as a way of ensuring that they will be accepted by others.

As a result, adolescents may find their status with others their own age being determined by their sexual development as well as changes in body weight, physical height, and/or muscle development.   It is also during this same period that some adolescents may begin recognizing that their sexual interests don't quite correspond with what others are reporting (eg., same-sex attractions).   While they may look to parents or trusted adults for advice, they are also under pressure to make their own decisions about how to think and behave, as well as how to interact with other people their age.  All of this leads to increasing scrutiny over just about every aspect of an adolescent's life, including physical appearance and sexuality.  Which makes how young people regard their own bodies a vital part of developing healthy self-esteem.   

A new research study published in the journal Developmental Psychology explores the role of body image in the development of personal identity through adolescence and young adulthood.  Sara C. Nelson of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a team of co-researchers used data from a large Swedish longitudinal study to identify how perceptions of body image evolves between the ages of 10 and 24.   The longitudinal study began in the year 2000 with 967 Swedish children ten years of age and continued every three years until they had reached the age of 24.  Females made up 53 to 57 percent of the sample at each time point.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

The Jesus Experiment (Part 1 of 2)

For Milton Rokeach, it would be more than an experiment in treating mental illness.  In many ways, it would be one of the most remarkable studies of its kind ever undertaken and help transform the very meaning of human identity.   

Rokeach, a professor at Michigan State University was a pioneer in studying the psychology of dogmatism and the persistence of certain ideas even in the face of conflicting evidence.  His books, The Authoritarian Personality and The Open and Closed Mind are classics of political psychology and the psychometric scale he developed to measure dogmatism and the rigidity of belief is still widely used.

His most famous study, however, took place at Ypsilanti State Hospital outside of Saline, Michigan.   First opened in 1930, the hospital treated thousands of mental patients with a wide range of different treatments, many staying there for their entire lives during that pre-deinstitutionalization era.  Working closely with hospital staff, Milton Rokeach spent three years studying three particular patients who happened to share identical delusions, i.e., being Jesus Christ.    What would happen if these three patients were placed in the same ward and forced to confront one another?  

Delusions of religious grandeur are relatively common among patients with severe mental illness.  I recall dealing with quite a few of these when I worked in the forensic wing of a maximum-security prison (though never at the same time).   While the delusions can be temporary, they may also persist for a lifetime and resist all attempts at treatment.  Though advances in psychiatric treatment were helping patients control these delusions, developing effective psychotherapeutic strategies meant trying some, er, unique approaches.

As Rokeach would later describe in his now-classic 1964 book, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, the experiment he arranged was based on three basic assumptoms.   The first assumption was that not all the beliefs that a person holds are of equal importance.  The beliefs will range from central beliefs to others that are only peripheral.   The second assumption was that, the more central a belief was, the more resistant it would be to change.   He described these central beliefs as being the most primitive, i.e., at the very basis of how people perceived reality.   The third assumption was that changing a primitive belief would have repercussions far greater than changing a more peripheral belief.  

For most people, central beliefs about the world and the physical reality around them are rarely questioned and even harder to shake.   We can seen that even today considering the ongoing battle between ardent creationists and people defending scientific theories about evolution.    In the case of the three patients at the centre of the experiment Rokeach would be overseeing, all of them suffered from an extremely strong central delusion that reflected how they viewed reality itself.   What impact would being forced to change that belief have on them?  

Identity is at the core of what we believe about ourselves.   People suffering from severe amnesia causing them to forget their own names experience strong emotional distress at having lost their sense of identity.   Even for people suffering from delusions that they are someone else, disproving it can be extremely difficult since they will simply reject any external evidence.  But what happens if three people who believe themselves to be the same person are forced to confront one another?   

This has actually happened in the past, believe it or not.  In one of his commentaries, Voltaire wrote about a deranged man named Simon Morin.  Morin suffered from the delusion that he was Jesus Christ and happened to be placed in an asylum with another man who believed himelf to be God.  Morin was reportedly so struck by this strange delusion that he actually recovered for a while and became well enough to leave the asylum.   Unfortunately, he quickly relapsed and was eventually burned at the stake in 1663.   In another case described by Robert Lindner in his book, The Jet-Propelled Couch, two women admitted to the same mental hospital both claimed to be Mary, the Mother of God.  After a brief argument, one of them concluded that she was actually Mary's mother.   She was the one who eventually recovered.  

With those two examples in mind, Rokeach arranged for inquiries to be sent out to various hospitals in the Michigan area looking for two or more patients who shared the same delusion.  As he reported in his book, delusions of identity tended to be fairly rare but eventually three patients were identified, two of whom were at the Ypsilanti hospital.   After the third patient was transferred to the same hospital, they were all placed in the same ward and carefully observed over the next two years. 

Although the three men shared one delusion, they were otherwise very different.   The first of them, Clyde Benson, had been institutionalized since 1942 when he was fifty-three years old.   He had a long history of moodiness and substance abuse despite having inherited a share in his family's successful farm.  Having been married twice, he eventually left his second wife and family to go into a downward spiral of criminal behaviour that sent him to jail.  It was while he was in  his cell that he had a psychotic breakdown and insisted that he was Jesus Christ.   At the time of his commitment, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia despite having no prior history of mental illness.    By the time of the Three Christs experiment, he had been hospitalized for seventeen years.

The second man, Joseph Cassel, was born in Quebec as part of a French-Canadian family.  Interestingly enough, his birth name had been Josephine though he had changed it to Joseph at the earliest opportunity (Freudians take note).   Joseph eventually immigrated to Detroit and had hopes of being a writer.   Despite marrying and having three children, he was unhappy over being unable to stay home and write.   He eventually quit his job in 1938 and refused to get another one so that he could write while his wife worked.    After moving in with his father in Quebec along with his wife and family, Joseph was committed to a Canadian mental hospital and later "deported" to the Ypsilanti hospital where he would remain.   Along with a history of impulsive attacks on other patients, Joseph was also prone to paranoid delusions of staff and patients conspiring against him.  Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Joseph developed the delusion that he was God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost which became fixated over time.    On being told of this delusion, his older daughter commented that "“He always wanted to be important, better than other people, but he just wasn’t aggressive enough.”

As for the third patient, Leon Gabor, his childhood was marked by several traumas including his mother's religious fanaticism (she claimed to hear voices) and his father's abandonment.  Forced to attend seminary school by his mother, he was expelled at the age of seventeen though the reason for his expulsion is not recorded.  He enlisted in the military during World War II and was honourably discharged in 1945.  After returning to his old job as an electrician, he later tried to attend university but dropped out after one year.  Leon drifted from job to job and was largely supported by his mother's old-age pension until being committed to hospital in 1954.   About a year before being committed, he reported hearing voices (much like his mother did) although these voices told him he was Jesus.  He eventually went on a rampage and smashed all the religious icons in the house.  When his mother tried to stop him, he threatened to strangle her.  After telling her that she needed to worship him directly since he was Jesus,  she called police and he was sent to hospital under guard.  Much like the other two patients, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

So, would the three patients react to seeing other people with the same delusion?  

Continue to Part 2

The Johannes Kepler Defense

Of all the opponents that the legendary astronomer Johannes Kepler ever faced during his eventful life, the one  he could never quite beat had to have been his own mother.

Born in 1546 in what is now Stuttgart, Germany, Katharina Guldenmann was, by all descriptions, an extremely headstrong woman who eventually alienated all of her family members with her harsh tongue.  At least one historian described her as an "evil-tempered virago" who had never learned to read or write (higher education for women was unheard of in those days).  That she was also the niece of a woman who had been burned at the stake for witchcraft may well have contributed to her ill-temper.

Much of Katharina's anger likely came from her disappointing marriage to Heinrich Kepler who, despite being the son of a prominent merchant and burgomaster, never lived up to her expectations.  Whether his drinking started before or after he married Katharina, Heinrich seemed incapable of holding on to his share of the family fortune.  When Johannes was born on December 21, 1571, Heinrich was a petty officer in the service of the Duke of Wurtemburg.   Despite her son being a sickly child, Catharina apparently had no qualms about leaving him in his grandfather's care in 1576 when she followed Heinrich to the Netherlands after he took up a new post.   Johannes barely survived an early attack of smallpox and had only just started school when his father and mother finally returned to their home in Wurtenberg.   Unfortunately, a financial disaster occurring when Johannes was only five year old cost Heinrich what little was left of his family money.  Leaving the army soon afterward, Heinrich bought a small tavern in Elmendiggen where Johannes and his two younger brothers were put to work as pot boys. 

Despite their relative poverty, Heinrich recognized his son's intelligence and arranged to continue his education.  On November 26,  1586, Johannes Kepler enrolled in a school in Maulbronn and became one of the Duke of Wurtemberg's pet students.   He passed through that school and the University of Tubingen with distinction and graduated Master of Arts before he was twenty.   Despite ongoing health problems, it was news from home that likely caused Johannes the most distress.  Not only did his father's tavern fail, but Heinrich then abandoned his wife and enlisted in the Austrian army to take part in the war against the Turks.  As for Katharina, she eventually managed to drive away the rest of her family with her harsh temper and Johannes made it a point to stay as far from her as he could.  

For all that he lived in an era where there was little distinction between astronomy and astrology, Johannes Kepler went on to become one of the key figures in 17th century science.   Along with Tycho Brahe and Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler became one of the fathers of the scientific revolution and his works, including Mysterium cosmographicum, Astronomia nova, and Harmonice Mundi are still revered as classics in the history of science.   Whatever his fame as an astronomer, he was still highly sought-after for his astrological advice, which eventually got him into trouble with the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II.   He was also denounced by Church authorities for dethroning Earth as the center of the universe (much as they had with Galileo).  Along with various family woes, such as the death of his first wife and several of his children, Johannes Kepler was continually being challenged over his scientific teachings and his final astrological calendar was publicly burned in Graz.

And his problems with his mother rarely went away.    Ill-tempered as always, Katharina Kepler continued to upset her entire family and managed to develop a sinister reputation due to her supporting herself by dispensing potions to willing customers.  Considering the state of medicine at the time (and the fact that the best doctors were completely unaffordable by most peasants), local "wise women" able to provide herbal remedies for various ailments were common enough across Europe.   Despite her aunt's execution for witchcraft, Katharina reacted angrily when a woman in her town accused her of attempted poisoning.   Hiring a lawyer, she launched a slander case against her accuser.   For reasons of his own, the lawyer that Katharina hired used various delaying tactics to stretch the case out for more than five years.    Unfortunately, these delaying tactics led to the case being passed on to a new judge who had his own experiences with Katharina's sharp tongue.    Knowing that the judge was prejudiced against Katharina, the defendant in the case filed a charge of witchcraft against her.   Since this was a capital offense in Germany (and many other parts of Europe at the time),  Katharina Kepler was imprisoned in July, 1620.  

Under the laws then in place,  a charge of witchcraft meant that Katharina was considered guilty until proven innocent.   Refusing to confess also meant that the authorities were free to carry out "interrogations" (torture) until she confessed to her crime.    Her family history, including an aunt being executed for witchcraft, must have seemed damning enough but the fact that her own son was a scientist who had been condemned by the Church for his teachings must have factored into the case against her as well.   Hearing about his mother's sentence, Johannes Kepler came home from Linz to defend her.   With the help of his university and his old friend, Christopher Besoldus,  Johannes was able to prove that there was no real evidence against his mother (only the ill-will brought on by her caustic temper).   Katharina was released in 1621 and immediately brought  a new lawsuit against the woman who had accused her to cover the costs of her imprisonment as well as damages.    Johannes Kepler had returned to Linz by this time,  exhausted as ever from his dealings with his mother.  Katharina continued the lawsuit until her death in 1622, defiant to the end.  

As for Johannes Kepler, he only outlived Katharina by a few years.    Although he still supported himself and his family by writing horoscopes and serving as a court advisor to the Emperor's court, he also distinguished himself with his astronomical works, including a major star catalogue, the Rudolphine Tables (published in 1627 at his own expense).   Lingering problems with the Catholic Church and agents of the Catholic Counter Reformation placed him and his family in danger on more than one occasion (being the son of an accused witch may not have helped either).  Although the Jesuits were unable to arrest him due to the Emperor's influence, they did succeed in having most of his library sealed.   By the time of his death in 1630, he must have been exhausted by his lifelong battles.  He was buried in Regensburg in Bavaria although his gravesite was later destroyed in the numerous religious wars of that era.  The only memorial of his burial that remains is his own self-written epitaph:

Mensus eram coelos, nunc terrae metior umbras

Mens coelestis erat, corporis umbra iacet.

I measured the skies, now the shadows I measure

Skybound was the mind, earthbound the body rests

Johannes Kepler died nearly broke due to his inability to collect the royalties owed him.  His wife and children would have been left completely penniless if not for the help of family members who published many of his manuscripts to provide them with income.   

Ironically, Kepler's influence was fairly muted during his lifetime and  some prominent scientists  ignored his work completely.   It was only after his  death that textbooks based on Kepler's cosmology became widely available across Europe.    His laws of planetary motion, now a standard feature in every introductory astronomy class, only became accepted when better empirical measurements proved their accuracy and Newton later included Kepler's work in his own Principia Mathematica.

 Now universally recognized today as one of the greatest scientists who ever lived,  Johannes Kepler's fame is as much a testimonial to his iron determination during his lifetime as it is to his scientific achievements.   Did he inherit that fierce will from his outspoken mother?   If so, the obstinate Katharina Guldenmann may well have had a far greater impact on the world than most people realize. 

 

 

 

 

The Resurrection of Matthew Clydesdale

Can electricity be used to raise the dead? 

The opening decades of the 19th century was an exciting era for scientists exploring the  things that could be done with electricity. Inspired by the groundbreaking work of  Benjamin Franklin, Alesandro Volta, and William Gilbert, inventors on both sides of the Atlantic began experimenting with Leyden jars, lightning rods, and crude batteries to see what could be learned about this mysterious new force.  But it was Luigi Galvani's discovery of bioelectromagnetics in 1791 which first suggested that electricity could be the key to the mystery of life itself.   Through a series of riveting demonstrations,  Galvani showed that electrical stimulation could cause twitching in the muscles of dead frogs.   Based on his findings, Galvani argued that electricity played a fundamental role in nerve and muscle functioning. 

The concept of biological electricity (rechristened galvanism in his honour) quickly gained prominence, largely helped along by some very public demonstrations by Galvani's nephew, Giovanni Aldini.  It was Aldini who first showed what galvanism could accomplish when he experimented on the body of an executed criminal, George Forster, in 1803.  According to one description of what happened:  "On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion."  Aldini's experiment inspired numerous other medical doctors to try their own luck applying electric current to dead bodies.  Since capital punishment continued to be used for a wide range of offenses, gaining access to dead bodies wasn't difficult (though the families of the condemned prisoners weren't too happy about it).   

Which brings us to a somewhat memorable episode in the history of science that occurred on November 4, 1818 in Glasgow, Scotland.   The anatomists ready to perform the experiment were Dr. Andrew Ure, senior lecturer at the newly-founded Andrew's Institution (now part of the University of Glasgow) and Professor James Jeffray who taught anatomy, botany, and midwifery at the University of Glasgow.   Both men were eager to try reproducing Aldini's experiment and, quite possibly, moving into completely new territory.    Instead of simply stimulating a few muscles, what if it were possible to bring a dead body back to life completely?  

Andrew Ure seemed particularly eager to give it a try.   As he later wrote about his experiments:  "This event, however little desirable with a murderer, and perhaps contrary to the law, would yet have been pardonable in one instance, as it would have been highly honourable and useful to science."    To make their experiment work, they had all the equipment they needed, including a state-of-the-art galvanic battery to provide the needed current.   All that remained was to obtain a body.

Which brings us to Matthew Clydesdale...

A weaver who had been born and raised in the town of Airdrie, the middle-aged Clydesdale had been convicted of murder on September 1, 1818.  There doesn't seem to be any question that he was guilty of killing a 70-year-old man in a drunken rage and he was condemned to death following a quick trial.   Given that the sentence called for his body to be anatomized after his death, that made him an ideal subject for the experiment being planned by the two doctors.  

The execution took place on October 3 and thousands of people turned out for the occasion.   As the first public execution to be held in Glasgow in ten years, the double execution of Clydesdale and a second man, Simon Ross ensured a good turnout.   Not much needs to be said about Ross who was sentenced to be hanged for the much less memorable charge of theft.  Also, unlike his more murderous colleague, no directive had been given to anatomize his body.   Given the massive turnout, soldiers had to guard a nearby footbridge to keep it from collapsing as members of the crowd pushed closer.  Even though the gallows had been erected in the public square in front of the new courthouse, people kept trying to get a better look at the proceedings.   This was well before the implementation of the "Marwood drop" so onlookers could look forward to the prospect of seeing a hanged prisoner strangling to death at the end of a rope.  They were probably disappointed since Clydesdale died quickly though Simon Ross did a lot of twitching before dying.  His body was then taken down to be buried the next day.  

As for Matthew  Clydesdale, his body was taken down after he was declared dead and carted to the University of Glasgow as quickly as possible.  Considering what Ure and Jeffray were planning, it was essential that they get the body before decomposition could set in.   The operating theatre where the experiment was to be held was filled to capacity given the number of people who had already heard about Aldini's experiments and hoping to see for themselves what would happen.   Andrew Ure was in fine form as he publicly tested his galvanic equipment while waiting for the body.  This basically meant making sure the battery was fully charged and the electrodes were ready to be applied.  Once the body was wheeled in, both anatomists went to work performing partial dissections to prepare for the experiment.  As the audience could see, the lack of any bleeding meant that Clydesdale was definitely dead.

By all accounts, the experiments went extremely well.  Current applied to Clydesdale's spinal cord and heel caused one of the knees to contract violently. When current was applied to the left phrenic nerve and the diaphragm, the body actually appeared to be breathing.  As Ure described:  "‘The success of it was truly wonderfull. Full, nay, laborious breathing instantly commenced. The chest heaved and fell; The belly was protruded and again collapsed, with the retiring and collapsing diaphragm’.

But when current was applied to the supraorbital branch of the frontal nerve, things really became unnerving.  Since the frontal nerve controls facial muscles, audience members were unsettled by the sight of Clydesdale making gruesome facial expressions.   As Ure later described:  "Rage, horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly smiles united their hideous expression in the murderer’s face’…At this period several spectators were forced to leave the arena from terror or sickness, and one Gentleman fainted."    To top this off, Ure and Jeffray also applied current to the body's forefinger and made it seem as if Clydesdale was deliberately pointing his finger at members of the audience.   Aside from these highlights, nothing else extraordinary took place.   Matthew Clydesdale's body was returned to storage and was dissected on the following day, again by Ure and Jeffray. 

Though nobody outside the medical community really took note of  the experiments, and Clydesdale subsequent dissection, a strange tale about what supposedly happened with the body came to light many years later.   In a book published in 1865 titled Reminiscences of Glasgow and West of Scotland,  local writer Peter Mackenzie would claim that he had been present to watch Ure and Jeffray's experiments and the later dissection.    He also claimed that the researchers had actually succeeded in reanimating Matthew Clydesdale but Jeffray, who was likely afraid of what would happen next, killed him again by cutting his throat with a scalpel.   While this seems to be a pure invention by Mackenzie (nobody else reported on this despite the experiment being covered by a local newspaper),  Mackenze was quick to point out that "this was the last case of dissection, under the sentence of the Lords of Judiciary, that took place in the University of Glasgow."   True or not, it  made for a good story.   

Ironically,during the 1980s,  anatomist Fred Pattison would rediscover Ure's notes on the original 1818 experiment and had the final word on what the two scientists had tried to achieve.  As Pattison pointed out, Ure and Jeffray had come tantalizingly close to the truth in their efforts to revive a dead body when he wrote:  “Although Ure concluded in his discussion that direct stimulation of the phrenic nerve was the most promising procedure for restoring life to a dead individual, he did suggest in a prophetic aside that two moistened brass knobs, connected to the battery and firmly placed on the skin over the phrenic nerve and the diaphragm, might also be effective. Unwittingly, he had come close to describing the electric defibrillator which, a century later, has saved so many lives."

In another strange coincidence, 1818 was also the year when Mary Shelley first came out with her book, Frankenstein, or A Modern Prometheus, about a scientist who succeeded in bringing an undead creature to life.   While Shelley's book never mentioned the use of electricity, she had certainly been present during one of Giovanni Aldini's public demonstrations and what she saw firsthand helped inspire her writing.   And so, along with providing new insights into the role that electricity could play in reviving dead bodies, experiments like the one carried out on Matthew Clydesdale's body also provided the world with one of its most famous stories about what happens when science goes wrong.

Such is life.

 

 

 

 

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Are We Really Ready for Automated Driving?

Driver assist technologies have reached the tipping point and are poised to take control of most, if not all, aspects of the driving task. Proponents of automated driving (AD) are enthusiastic about its promise to transform mobility and realize impressive societal benefits. But a new paper published in the journal Safety Science carefully examines the potential of AD to realize safety benefits, to challenge widely-held assumptions and to delve more deeply into the barriers that are hitherto largely overlooked. As automated vehicle (AV) technologies advance and emerge within a ubiquitous cyber-physical world they raise additional issues that have not yet been adequately defined, let alone researched. Issues around automation, sociotechnical complexity and systems resilience are well known in the context of aviation and space. There are important lessons that could be drawn from these applications to help inform the development of automated driving. This paper argues that for the foreseeable future, regardless of the level of automation, a driver will continue to have a role. It seems clear that the benefits of automated driving, safety and otherwise, will accrue only if these technologies are designed in accordance with sound cybernetics principles, promote effective human-systems integration and gain the trust by operators and the public. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

That X-ray Vision

When Wilhelm Roentgen presented his now-classic paper "On a New Kind of Rays" to the Wurzburg Physico-Medical Society in 1895,  few people outside the scientific community appreciated the medical revolution that his discovery would soon launch.   Although Roentgen would be showered with honours for his work on x-rays (including the first-ever Nobel prize in Physics in 1901), Thomas Edison was the one who first demonstrated the widescale benefits of x-ray technology.   In time, he and his staff would also demonstrate its dangers as well.

Always open to finding new ways to make life better (and to make a profit), Edison began work on a more practical method of harnessing x-rays immediately after Roentgen's initial announcement.   While the elaborate Crookes tube system that Roentgen used made for impressive laboratory demonstrations,  hospitals and medical clinics would need something more compact and energy-efficient.    Much like Marie Curie and her discovery of Radium, Roentgen refused to patent his discovery and placed it in the public domain since he wanted humanity "to benefit from practical applications of the same".    That meant that Edison was free to experiment with x-rays and to develop the first working fluroscope using tungstate of calcium as opposed to Roentgen's barium platinocyanide apparatus.  By 1896,  Thomas Edison announced that the Edison X-ray tube was ready for market.

With his usual showmanship, Thomas Edison conducted a public exhibition of his new invention at the 1896 Electrical Exhibition in New York's Grand Central Palace.   In a classic case of Murphy's law in action, Edison and his assistants personally installed the equipment for the initial showing only to find that some of the big inductance coils had been damaged in shipping.   To have the fluoroscope ready in time for the grand opening on Monday,  Edison and his staff worked all weekend to repair the equipment.    As one assistant would admit later, "We worked continuously all through that Saturday night and all day Sunday until evening, when we finished the job. I don't remember ever being conscious of more muscles in my life. I guess Edison was tired also, but he took it very philosophically."

Despite the last-minute problems, the first public demonstration of the new Edison fluoroscope to the American people was an overwhelming success.  Thousands of spectators lined up for a chance to see their own bones and one ecstatic patient even arranged for a medical x-ray on the operating table the day of Edison's exhibition.   When one attendant dared to complain publicly that the fluoroscent screen was just a sheet of ground glass, Edison responded by hauling him on stage where he was forced to place his wrist in the fluoroscope to see his bones for himself.   Edison's demonstration received enthusiastic media reviews including an article in the May 1896 issue of Century Magazine. 

That same article also demonstrated a darker side to Edison's new technology, however.   One of his assistants, glassmaker Clarence Madison Dally, suffered adverse effects from radiation exposure.   As Edison noted in the article:

When the X-ray came up, I made the first fluoroscope, using tungstate of calcium. I also found that this tungstate could be put into a vacuum chamber of glass and fused to the inner walls of the chamber; and if the X-ray electrodes were let into the glass chamber and a proper vacuum was attained, you could get a fluorescent lamp of several candle-power. I started in to make a number of these lamps, but I soon found that the X-ray had affected poisonously my assistant, Mr. Dally, so that his hair came out and his flesh commenced to ulcerate. I then concluded it would not do, and that it would not be a very popular kind of light; so I dropped it

Unfortunately for Clarence Dally, the consequences of his radiation exposure didn't improve with time.  By 1900, the radiation damage to his hands and face was bad enough for him to request more time off from work.   The strange burns to his left hand also failed to heal properly.  Since there were no previous cases of radiation exposure on record, the medical treatment that he received was largely experimental.   Edison kept Dally on the payroll since the long hours spent working on the new fluroscope appeared directly responsible for his health problems.  Despite radical skin grafts and the amputation of his left hand in 1902 to halt carcinoma, Dally's condition worsened.  His death from mediastinal carcinoma in 1904 gave him the dubious honour of being the first American to die of radiation poisoning. 

Shaken by Clarence Dally's death, Thomas Edison stopped all work on his fluoroscope.   While other workers suffered from radiation effects (including Edison himself whose vision was affected),  Dally was the only fatality.   As Edison would later announce:

"Don't talk to me about X-rays," he said. "I am afraid of them. I stopped experimenting with them two years ago, when I came near to losing my eyesight and Dally, my assistant practically lost the use of both of his arms. I am afraid of radium and polonium too, and I don't want to monkey with them."

Despite Edison's public warnings about the dangers of indiscriminate x-ray use,  the fluoroscope's value in medicine and industry quickly overcame any misgivings.   The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) was founded in 1915 to provide proper safeguards and prevent further tragedies.  Still, that didn't stop more enterprising companies from searching for  new ways to profit from fluroscope technology. 

After Boston doctor Jacob Lowe first patented his fluoroscope for x-raying feet in 1919 for diagnosing patients' foot injuries, x-ray shoe-fitting machines quickly became a standard feature in many shoe stores on both sides of the Atlantic.   The RSNA quickly protested the use of x-rays in shoe stores arguing that it "lowers the profession of radiology" but the "Foot-O-Scope" (patented as the Pedoscope in the U.K.) became enormously popular.  The two largest manufacturers of shoe-fitting fluroscopes, the X-Ray Shoe Fitter Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Pedoscope Company in Great Britain sold thousands of units across the U.S., Canada and the U.K.  

Just about every prominent shoe store had a unit and customers were often invited to use the viewfinder to watch their toes wiggle while the fluorscope was operating.  Length of x-ray exposure varied according to a timer on the machine (typically twenty seconds but the timer allowed up to forty-five seconds).    The x-ray intensity ranged according to the size of the foot and the only protection that customers and staff received was a thin aluminum filter.   Not only were there no warnings about possible health issues relating to x-ray exposure but the devices were often marketed to parents as a way of ensuring proper foot care for their children (one advertising slogan was "They'll need their feet all through life").    The X-Ray Shoe Fitter Corporation had an aggressive advertising campaign stressing the ease and safety of their machines, including a Seal of Commendation from Parents' Magazine to highlight the benefits of x-ray technology in foot care.   X-rays became downright glamourous during that early era so it was probably not surprising that Superman's creators endowed him with "X-ray vision" (along with every other power they could imagine). 

More than twenty years would pass before medical researchers began taking a closer look at the potential hazards of shoe-fitting fluoroscopes.  By the end of World War II and the beginning of the Atomic Age,  cases of radiation exposure seen in survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki were reported in the medical literature and new concerns were raised about indiscriminate use of x-rays in non-medical settings.  In one widely-cited 1950 article, researchers Leon Lewis and Paul E. Caplan concluded that "the shoe-fitting fluroscope is not an instrument with obvious hazardous potentialities.  It has long been used and no direct clinical evidence of harm has yet been established" and x-ray machines continued to be a common sight in shoe stores.  Still,  with growing anecdotal evidence of shoe-store assistants developing skin problems from overexposure to x-rays, U.S. agencies began imposing stricter guidelines concerning safe exposure levels.  Companies selling fluroscopes took the new regulations in stride and even boasted about their compliance in advertisements which suggested (incorrectly) that their machines were government approved.   

While no obvious cases like Clarence Dally ever emerged over misuse of shoe-fitting fluroscopes (despite some incidents of basal cell foot carcinoma linked to x-ray use),  the backlash had definitely set in by the 1960s.  More than thirty-three states had banned the device by 1970 and other states insisted that only a qualified physician could operate x-ray machines for shoe-fitting.   Having medical doctors run machines that had been previously seen as harmless was enough to discourage most parents from allowing their use on their children (or themselves).    Companies selling the machines fought back vigorously, both in the U.S. and the U.K. with advertising campaigns intended to overcome suspected health risks but the tide had definitely turned.   By the end of the 1970s, shoe-fitting fluoroscopes were gone from virtually every store (one was reported in Virginia as late as 1981).  

As medical fads go, the x-ray craze was relatively benign despite more than a century passing since Wilhelm Roentgen's initial discovery (not counting Clarence Dally's tragic death).  Although fluoroscopes are used by radiologists, in dental offices, and in industrial settings, modern safeguards help prevent health problems despite ongoing controversy over safe exposure levels.   More unconventional x-ray applications such as the shoe-fitting fluoroscope have long since been phased out.  Still, full-body x-ray scanners remain a common feature in airports and security checkpoints arond the world despite limited research on safe exposure levels.   Whether the rationale for their use will prove to be as  mythical as the "benefits" of the shoe-fitting fluoroscope will be for future generations to discover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can Anti-Diabetes Drugs Reverse Memory Loss in Alzheimer's Disease?

A new research study looking at the effects of a drug originally developed to treat Type 2 diabetes has yielded promising results into the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.  The study, which was recently published in the journal Brain Research, was carried out by a team of researchers led by Christian Holscher of Lancaster University in the U.K.   

Since diabetes mellitis is a potential risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, the researchers tested the new drug, a GLP-1/GIP/glucagon receptor agonist, in mice.   The mice carry human transgenes linked to an inherited for of Alzheimer's disease.   As a result, they develop behavioural and cognitive features resembling human Alzheimer's disease making them widely used in dementia research.   The GLP-1/GIP/glucagon receptor agonist acts in three different ways to protect brains from the degenerative effects of Alzheimer's disease and previous studies have already shown positive benefits in treating mouse dementia.

Results showed that that drug "significantly reversed memory loss" in mice and enabled them to complete complex memory tasks more effectively than control mice.  Total amount of amyloid plaque, a common feature in Alzheimer's disease, has also been found to be significantly reduced.   Other effects include significantly reduced nerve cell loss and enhanced levels of a brain growth factor that protects nerve cells.

In a recent media interview, Professor Holscher stated that: "These very promising outcomes demonstrate the efficacy of these novel multiple receptor drugs that originally were developed to treat type 2 diabetes but have shown consistent neuro- protective effects in several studies.  Clinical studies with an older version of this drug type already showed very promising results in people with Alzheimer’s disease or with mood disorders. Here we show that a novel triple receptor drug shows promise as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s but further dose-response tests and direct comparisons with other drugs have to be conducted in order to evaluate if this new drugs is superior to previous ones."   

While much more research is needed before human trials can be considered, these results may represent a radical new approach in the treatment of a disease that already affects millions of people around the world.  With the incidence of Alzheimer's disease and related conditions expected to rise dramatically over the next few decades, the need for better treatment options is becoming desperate.

 

For more information 

 

 

Stanford Prison Experiment: 40 Years Later

In what was definitely one of the highlights of the 119th Annual APA Convention held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. in 2011 , the room was packed for a symposium titled Stanford Prison Experiment- Enduring Lessons 40 Years Later.  Chaired by eminent social psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo of Stanford University, the panel of speakers also featured Christina Maslach of the University of Berkeley, Craig Haney of the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Scott Plous of Wesleyan University.   Opening the symposium, Dr. Zimbardo provided an overview of the classic Stanford Prison Experiment which began on August 17, 1971 and ended an eventful six days later.   Presenting shots of the classic slide show based on the experiment (which I vividly recalled from my own undergraduate days) as well as the famous video Quiet Rage,  Dr. Zimbardo provided commentary of his experiences in planning and running the experiment.

Beginning with a newspaper ad for university students to participate in a study on social roles, the students were recruited for what they were told would be a mock simulation of a prison to be conducted in the basement of one of the buildings on Stanford's campus.  Of the 70 applicants who initially applied, an  intense battery of psychological testing winnowed the number down to 24 recruits who were then randomly assigned to be either guards or prisoners in the study.   Whatever those students who were chosen to be prisoners thought would happen, they certainly never expected to be taken directly from their homes in a police car that simulated the experience of being arrested, strip-searched, and processed at the police station with unnerving detail.   Over the course of the next six days, the mock prison descended into what Dr. Zimbardo would later describe as a  "Pirandellian experience", in which the experiment, originally intended as a demonstration of the role that situational factors play in behaviour, had crossed the boundary between illusion and reality.   Despite abusive behaviour by guards,  emotional distress on the part of inmates, and even an actual hunger strike, Dr. Zimbardo (who played the role of the prison warden)  continued the experiment.  Only the intervention of his then-girlfriend (and later wife) Christina Maslach convinced him that the experiment had gone too far.  While the experiment had initially been planned to run for two weeks, they ended it after six days and the Stanford Prison Experiment became part of history.

In describing how running the experiment shaped his subsequent career, Dr. Zimbardo also discussed his later work in social roles, his more recent book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, and the deja-vu surrounding later prison scandals such as at Abu-Ghraib which reflect many of the lessons learned from that long-ago experiment.  He also discussed his more recent work on social roles, including questions surrounding heroism,  everyday acts of courage, and , more recently, what he terms the "time paradox effect". 

The next speaker was Dr. Craig Haney who described his own experiences with the experiment (he was one of the research assistants who had presided over the running of the mock prison) and how it influenced his later work with prisoners.   He rendered down his own experiences with the prison experiment into three basic lessons:  1. Context matters, 2. Prisoners are people,  and 3. Mistreatment has consequences.  To demonstrate the vital relevance of these three points in modern prisons, he provided a gripping presentation describing the massive rise in U.S. incarceration in the years following the Stanford Prison Experiment. 

While relatively stable during the decades prior to 1980, the number of prisoners suddenly soared enormously over the past 20 years.  With an estimated two million Americans currently incarcerated and an additional five million involved in the criminal justice system (whether on remand, parole, or probation), the prison system has become overwhelmed by the surge of convictions.   Along with a prison system swamped with double and triple-bunked inmates, there is also the role that deinstitutionalization has played.  As psychiatric hospitals closed and community placement programs designed to handle released mentally ill patients failed to materialize, where else could they go but into the prison system?  With prisons increasingly unable to handle mentally ill prisoners, use of solitary confinement represents the only real option (and not just in the U.S. prison system as I can personally attest from my own  experience working in Canadian prisons).  

Despite repeated court decisions condemning barbaric treatment in U.S. prisons (many of which were overturned on appeal), worsening prison conditions are typically dealt with through increased security, i.e., more guards with guns to protect the prison staff while inmate suicide and homicide worsen dramatically.  With the highest incarceration rate in the world, the U.S. prison system seems unable to reverse the grim situation in which it has found itself.  Whatever lessons have been learned from the Stanford Prison Experiment seem to have been largely forgetten.

Those of us who attended the symposium also heard from  Christina Maslach as she talked about her experience as a relative outsider looked at the Stanford Prison Experiment and how it inspired her own research into staff burnout.  Finally, we heard from Scott Plous who acts as the archivist for the popular site prisonexp.org as well as the Social Psychology Network and understandingprejudice.org.   Through the use of social networking and these popular websites, the vital lessons of the Stanford Prison Experiment have been made available to generations of students and educators. 

To order the award-winning DVD "Quiet Rage" on the Stanford Prison Experiment.