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This paper aims to present new meteorological data from West Africa during the 18th century. The data sources used are colonial reports, medical treatises on the health conditions in the region, and accounts of exploratory expeditions. The data correspond to five locations in West Africa: Saint‐Louis and Gorée (Senegal), Bulama (Guinea‐Bissau), Freetown (Sierra Leone), and Accra (Ghana). Based on daily and monthly resolutions, approximately 4,400 new meteorological recorded observations were recorded (temperature, precipitation, wind direction, qualitative information on atmospheric conditions). The database obtained is a set of scattered meteorological series with short observation periods and without homogeneous characteristics. However, these data allow us to obtain an overview of the climatic conditions in this area during the study period and information on specific phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the results of the analysis of a gunflints sample from two Colonial archaeological sites located in Patagonia (Argentina). The questions that guided the investigation were related primarily to determination of their origin and the context of their use, as well as the possibility of recycling and reclamation after they were discarded. We perform techno-morphological, raw materials and use-wear analyses. The results indicate that, given their form, the raw materials, an important amount of edge scarring and evidence of contact with metal, all of the pieces were used as gunflints and are of European origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper we focus on the notes of botanist and meteorologist Gottfried Reyger on the weather conditions in Gdańsk, Poland. In our estimation, this chronicle, covering the period from December 1721 to June 1786 (the longest weather chronicle recorded by a single person), is a reliable source of information with the potential to contribute to the understanding of climate variability in 18th‐century Gdańsk, the significant old Hanseatic city in northern Poland. The temperature and precipitation series for the period 1721–1786 were indexed against contemporary conditions using the calculated percentages of cold, normal and warm decades. The climate in the 18th century in Gdańsk was colder than nowadays; the springs were much cooler, as were the winters, while the summers were warmer. A few relatively cold periods and several warm periods were identified. The first half of the analysed period was very humid, whereas the second was quite dry. The reconstructed indexed data series were compared to annual and seasonal mean values of air temperature and precipitation derived from regular instrumental observations made in Gdańsk since 1739. The linear regression method was applied to calibrate the reconstructed index series against anomalies from the 1961–1990 average. The correlation coefficient, standard error of estimate and the root‐mean‐square error statistics were used to diagnose the quality of calibration and verification. The highest correlation between the temperature indices and the observational series was found for winter. The reconstructed series for precipitation has a smaller variability than in reality. The reconstructed values for the years prior to 1739 indicate cold years for 1725–1732 and a wet period in the 1730s. The chronicle of botanist and meteorologist Gottfried Reyger, covering the period 1721–1786, characterizes the thermal and precipitational conditions in Gdańsk, Poland. The series were indexed against contemporary conditions, compared with instrumental data and reconstructed for early non‐instrumental period. The 18th‐century Gdańsk was colder than nowadays, particularly on case of springs, while the summers were warmer. The first decades of the period were very humid, whereas the latter ones quite dry. In the figure, annual air temperature (left panel) and precipitation (right panel) reconstruction for Gdańsk for the period 1722–1785 presented in the context of observational series, 1739–1785 for air temperature and 1739–1772 for precipitation. Solid line shows observational data; dotted line shows reconstructed series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical background The history of medical education in Scotland is quite well known. It is largely told as a story of universities, of high standards and of an education mainly available to men from ordinary backgrounds who became general practitioners and servants of the British Empire. This paper asks whether there was anything peculiarly Scottish about the medical education to be had north of the border. Discussion The answer to this is yes. The paper shows there was a commitment among Scottish teachers to present medicine as a practical art based on general principles that brought the subject together in all its aspects, notably uniting internal medicine and surgery. Conclusion Modern academic medicine has ironed out these differences and medical education in Scotland today is much the same as western medical education in excellent universities anywhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Quixotism" is a term pivotal to the histories critics tell about literature. Despite a scholarly consensus regarding the significance of quixotism to eighteenth‐century transatlantic writing, there remain vast discrepancies in critical formulations of what quixotism actually is, to the point where trying to find common ground in different scholars' definitions of quixotism might appear, at first glance, a quixotic endeavour. Yet scholarship on quixotism persistently returns to dichotomies: romance versus the novel; the exceptional versus the typical; the original versus the copy; reason versus imagination. Quixotism remains both vexing question and floating signifier, caught between character and genre, system and allusion as it traverses and transforms eighteenth‐century literature and culture. In this article I will both reflect on the state of quixotic studies in eighteenth‐century studies and offer an account of Don Quixote's place in the history of literary criticism and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 18th‐century Europe and North America, portraiture satisfied multiple purposes: the creation of individual and/or familial identity, verisimilitude, and the decoration of a home. Self‐portraiture, a likeness of an artist created by the artist, often served as an artist's statement that articulated professional goals. Textile self‐portraits, however, unlike the more popular sculpted and painted versions, have been neglected by scholars of the early modern period. Three examples were made by English embroiderers Mary Linwood (1755–1845), Mary Knowles (1733–1807), and Marie Thérèsa Lasselle (1735–1819), a New World settler whose family traded with Native American peoples on behalf of the British. Because the lives of these women are poorly documented, their embroidered self‐portraits were more than just a likeness, for they served an important autobiographical function. The iconography and materiality of these portraits conveys information about late 18th‐century beliefs about femininity, self‐expression, and individual agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives of the mid‐18th‐century state as drifting towards oligarchy and closure have long been superseded by accounts stressing its responsiveness to outside interests and opinion. Participatory election rituals, crowd activity and the expansion of print media demonstrate that political activism was not limited to a narrow circle of elites, even after the passage of the 1716 Septennial Act. Additionally, as an institution after 1688 the Westminster parliament rendered itself useful to propertied society through its passage of greater amounts of legislation. However, while the strength of party and trajectory of electoral participation is well mapped, as are addresses to the crown, the petitioning of interest groups has had few systematic quantitative surveys. This article first sets out the chronology of petitioning to both houses of parliament from 1660 to 1788, demonstrating that petitioning was at its height before 1722, rather than rising to its greatest levels with the reform movements in the 1780s. Second, the article demonstrates the role of petitioning in expanding the political nation beyond the boundaries of parliamentary boroughs, and why, on occasion, petitioning involved women and illiterate men. Third, in order to emphasize the continuity in petitioning and its contribution to the formation of public opinion, the article compares the different roles that concurrent subscription practices envisaged for the public. Finally, the article argues that despite the rising tendency to cite numerical strength to arbitrate political divisions, petitioners continued to legitimise their voices on the basis of representing collections of reasons and interests rather than opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This investigation encompasses the first presentation of the log-board, which was the primary source used to compile logbooks on board Royal Navy vessels in the 18th century. All wind force and weather descriptions during the day were entered on the log-board before they were transcribed to the logbook, which is why the logbook should be approached as a secondary source. This study shows that although Royal Navy logbooks represent valuable compilations of what was written on the log-board, it cannot be ascertained exactly how the logbooks were compiled. Seven logbooks from the Cumberland for August 1782 were evaluated by comparing them to the log-board from the same vessel, and the purpose was to determine the validity of logbook wind and weather entries. The results show that wind direction was most consistently transcribed according to the log-board and, furthermore, that a majority of the wind force entries derived from the 1 p.m. entry on the log-board. The kappa statistic shows that both wind force and weather conditions were most consistently copied from the 1 p.m. entry on the log-board. The study concludes that the first wind force and weather entries in the logbooks were not made at noon when the vessel was positioned. While the positioning of the vessel was made at the end of the nautical day, the first wind force and weather entries most likely describe the conditions 23 h earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around 100 porcelain objects of the 18th century Rossetti, Vische and Vinovo manufactures (Piedmont, Italy) from the Palazzo Madama Museum collection were analysed by means of an X-ray fluorescence portable detector. The present study represents the first chemical characterization of these early (1737-1825) European porcelains. Chemical composition data were submitted to multivariate clustering techniques that underscored a complete classification of the three manufactures and the presence of three subgroups for the Vinovo production. These resulting subgroups did not mirror the classification expected on the basis of the historiographic literature. The overall data pointed to technological continuity not only through all the Vinovo phases but even continuing from the earlier Vische manufacture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hallux valgus is defined as the lateral deviation of the great toe. It is considered a disease mainly related to the use of boots or shoes that constrict the foot. This process usually ensues along many years and is accompanied by changes at the metatarsophalangeal joint, which serve to make the diagnosis on bare bones. Diagnostic criteria include lateral deviation of the metatarsophalangeal joint (1), lateral subluxation of the first phalanx, degenerative changes of the sesamoid articular facets, and exostosis or remodelling of the medial tuberosity. Following other authors, we have defined hallux valgus as the presence of (1) and any of the other three criteria. In a series of the 18th century burials from the church La Concepción, in Tenerife, Canary Islands, we found 35 cases of hallux valgus out of the 117 cases for which necessary data for the diagnosis could be recorded (29.91%). A significant association was found between changes in the left toe and burial site near the altar, where priests and other people of the high social status were interred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legislative activity of the 18th-century Irish parliament has become clearer in recent decades. So, too, has the regulatory impulse and how this impacted upon markets and the economy in Britain and Ireland. Recent research on the regulation of Britain's economy between 1650 and 1850 has identified four areas in which the legislature and executive intervened: import/export trade; manufacturing production; labour markets and the domestic/internal market. This article aims to explore what such a regulatory impulse meant in the 18th-century Irish parliament. The article focuses on the 18th-century Irish coal trade as a case study, one which shows the influences of the belief in the possibilities for the economic improvement of Ireland, the concerns about high prices in a necessity of life for the urban poor and the residual anglophobia that such subjects could raise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical investigations of fragmented Meissen porcelains well dated to between 1725 and 1763 have been carried out using SEM-EDS. The aim of the analysis was to characterize elements in bodies, glazes and overglaze enamels in order to create a baseline data set of materials used in the manufacture of porcelain at the Meissen factory, Saxony, during the 18th century. Analyses indicate body and glaze compositions to be consistent with a post c.1720-30 date, when a change from a lime-rich flux to a potassium-rich flux is documented to have occurred. Overglaze enamel compositions are shown to be consistent with contemporary accounts of enamel preparations at Meissen. Overglaze enamel compositions show that mixtures of pigments, in addition to documented enamel 18th-century preparations, were in use at Meissen between c. 1725 and 1763. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Anatomy teaching has perhaps the longest history of any component of formalised medical education. In this article we briefly consider the history of dissection, but also review the neglected topic of the history of the use of living anatomy. Current debates The current debates about the advantages and disadvantages of cadavers, prosection versus dissection, and the use of living anatomy and radiology instead of cadavers are discussed. The future Future prospects are considered, along with some of the factors that might inhibit change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventy-one oriented specimens from the pre-industrial reverberatory melting furnace of the Derrière Sairoche glassworks (Swiss Jura) were analysed. During its period of activity (1699–1714), this glassworks produced wood-ash glass of liquidus temperatures up to 1400°C. Textural and mineralogical features point to temperatures around 1500°C in the melting chamber. The inner structure of the furnace shows chemical contamination due to ash, molten glass and furnace gases. These results reveal the pyrotechnological know-how of the glassmakers and prove that the thermal performance of this kind of furnace has been under-evaluated in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]