The Tell-Tale Hand: Gothic Narratives and the Brain

The opening story in Winesburg, Ohio (1919) by Sherwood Anderson is called simply “Hands.” It is about a teacher’s remarkable hands that sometimes seem to move independently of his will. This essay explores some of the relevant contexts and potential links, beginning with other representations of teachers’ hands, such as Caravaggio’s St. Matthew and the Angel, early efforts to establish a sign-language for the deaf, and including the Montessori method of teaching children to read and write by tracing the shape of letters with their hands on rough emery paper. The essay then explores filmic hands that betray or work independently of conscious intentions, from Dr Strangelove, Mad Love, to The Beast With Five Fingers. Discussion of the medical literature about the “double” of our hands in the brain, including “phantom hands,” leads on to a series of images that register Rodin’s lifelong fascination with sculpting separate hands

Paradise Lost and the origin of "evil”: Classical or Judeo-Christian?

Milton'sParadise Lost is an epic opem about the origin of evil, mixing classical and Christian forms and sources. This essay first explores whether "evil” is primarily a classical or Judeo-Christian concept, and shows that it is a product of the religious syncretism of the Hellenistic period. Yet among the poets, we meet this new sense of malignance chiefly in Virgil, especially in such a figure as Allecto. The essay then shows how Milton's language carefully discriminates among these origins, so that the imagery of Hell comes from Virgil, while the conception of evil remains principally Christian, both in the narrative and in philosophical reflection. But in the final section of the essay, we see that the being whose identity is the answer to the poem's initiating epic question (‘Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt?'), and whose actions drive the poem into motion and inaugurate its story—Stan—, is, like his daughter Sin, a complex and seductive blend of both—and this helps to explain some of the tension we feel in his presence. He is a much more complex answer than those required by the initiating questions in Homer or Virgil, and indeed it takes the whole poem to understand that answe

The Presbyterian interpretation of Scottish history, 1800-1914

The nineteenth century saw the revival and widespread propagation in Scotland of a view of Scottish history that put Presbyterianism at the heart of the nation's identity, and told the story of Scotland's history largely in terms of the church's struggle for religious and constitutional liberty. Key to this development was the Anti-Burgher minister Thomas M'Crie, who, spurred by attacks on Presbyterianism found in eighteenth-century and contemporary historical literature, between the years 1811 and 1819 wrote biographies of John Knox and Andrew Melville and a vindication of the Covenanters. M'Crie generally followed the very hard line found in the Whig- Presbyterian polemical literature that emerged from the struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth century; he was particularly emphatic in support of the independence of the church from the state within its own sphere. His defence of his subjects embodied a Scottish Whig interpretation of British history, in which British constitutional liberties were prefigured in Scotland and in a considerable part won for the British people by the struggles of Presbyterian Scots during the seventeenth century. M'Crie's work won a huge following among the Scottish reading public, and spawned a revival in Presbyterian historiography which lasted through the century. His influence was considerably enhanced through the affinity felt for his work by the Anti- Intrusionists in the Church of Scotland and their successors in the Free Church (1843- 1900), who were particularly attracted by his uncompromising defence of the spiritual independence of the church. The steady stream of historical works from Free Church ministers and laymen during the lifetime of the church corresponded with a very weak output of academic history, and in consequence the Free Church interpretation was probably the strongest single influence in forming the Scots' picture of their history in the late nineteenth century. Much of this interpretation, - particularly the belief in the particularly Presbyterian nature of the Scottish character and of the British constitution, was accepted by historians of the other main branches of the Presbyterian community, while the most determined opposition to the thesis was found in the work of historians of the Episcopal Church. Although the hold of the Presbyterian interpretation was weakened at the end of the century by factors including the merger of most of the Free Church in 1900 and the increasing appearance from 1900 of secular and sometimes anti-Presbyterian Scottish history, elements of it continued to influence the Scottish national self-image well into the twentieth century

Milton et la Tradition Classique

On a l’habitude d’inscrire Milton dans la tradition des grands écrivains littéraires de l’Antiquité. Et c’est lui, bien sûr, qui nous dirige vers Homère, Virgile, Ovide, auteurs de grandes épopées qu’il cite souvent, parfois de façon explicite, dans Le paradis perdu, ou encore vers Eschyle, Sophocle, et Euripide qui sont ses modèles pour Samson Agonistes. Mais il y a aussi une autre tradition classique qui est d’une importance capitale pour ce grand révolutionnaire : la littérature « républicaine », de Platon et Cicéron à Lucain, une tradition qui arrivait directement à Milton par ses études, mais qui passait aussi par des auteurs comme Machiavel, et qui faisait partie intégrale des discours de la révolution anglaise du XVIIe siècle. Il y a une tension évidente entre ces deux aspects de sa relation à l’Antiquité, surtout en ce qui concerne la représentation de Satan

An Investigation into the environmental impact of off-licensed premises on residential neighbourhoods

In recent times there has been a great deal of concern about levels of anti-social behaviour across the UK. Several reports have investigated the role of alcohol as a potentially important contributor to this problem. Most research has concentrated on public houses and nightclubs. This is in contrast to the view that the off-trade sector is indicated as the source of the current rise in alcohol consumption across the UK over the past 20 years. This research focusing on licensed convenience stores (grocers / newsagents) operating in residential areas and these often provide a broad range of services for the wider community, not just drinkers or the over-18s. The impact of such premises on residents is likely to be continuous and long-lasting, affecting the whole community

The efficacy of core stability assessment as a determiner of performance in dynamic balance and agility tests

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate if tests used to assess core stability could be used to determine success in physiological tests applied to assess dynamic balance and agility for a young active population. Methods: Pearson's r correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between the core stability tests and the dynamic balance and agility tests. Evaluation of the tests was established using Cronbach's coefficient of variance as part of intra-rater reliability tests. An analysis of 18 active college aged students was conducted (males: n= 13, females: n= 5). The mean ± SD age for males was 19.2 years ± 3.22 years and for females was 19.4 years ± 1.14 years. Conclusion: The results indicate that there is no significant relationship between tests that assess core stability and tests conducted to assess dynamic balance in active young adults. With the exception of the abdominal flexion test, no significant relationship exists between the remaining core stability tests and agility T-Test. Core stability is not a determinant of balance and agility

Complement factor I deficiency: a potentially treatable cause of fulminant cerebral inflammation

Objective To raise awareness of complement factor I (CFI) deficiency as a potentially treatable cause of severe cerebral inflammation. Methods Case report with neuroradiology, neuropathology, and functional data describing the mutation with review of literature. Results We present a case of acute, fulminant, destructive cerebral edema in a previously well 11-year-old, demonstrating massive activation of complement pathways on neuropathology and compound heterozygote status for 2 pathogenic mutations in CFI which result in normal levels but completely abrogate function. Conclusions Our case adds to a very small number of extant reports of this phenomenon associated with a spectrum of inflammatory histopathologies including hemorrhagic leukoencephalopathy and clinical presentations resembling severe acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. CFI deficiency can result in uncontrolled activation of the complement pathways in the brain resulting in devastating cerebral inflammation. The deficit is latent, but the catastrophic dysregulation of the complement system may be the result of a C3 acute phase response. Diagnoses to date have been retrospective. Diagnosis requires a high index of suspicion and clinician awareness of the limitations of first-line clinical tests of complement activity and activation. Simple measurement of circulating CFI levels, as here, may fail to diagnose functional deficiency with absent CFI activity. These diagnostic challenges may mean that the CFI deficiency is being systematically under-recognized as a cause of fulminant cerebral inflammation. Complement inhibitory therapies (such as eculizumab) offer new potential treatment, underlining the importance of prompt recognition, and real-time whole exome sequencing may play an important future role