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In the 1820s and 1830s, many Americans were fascinated by Napoleon. After his death in 1821, biographies of the French emperor circulated widely in the United States and Jacques-Louis David’s painting of his coronation attracted visitors throughout the country. Conduct books lauded the emperor’s character, and travelers to France enthusiastically recounted viewing the fallen hero’s robes. Against the backdrop of an age that saw both the much-lauded rise of the common man and endeavors to culturally disentangle the United States from Europe, this fascination with a foreign emperor is intriguing. Telling the story of Napoleon as a success story of self-making, however, allowed Americans across party lines to ease tensions between the ongoing appeal of courtly glamour and republican ideals. Acknowledging that this emperor was a self-made man seemed to legitimize the enthrallment with imperial pomp. At the same time, in the context of American westward expansion, the rise of an entertainment culture, and the emerging culture of self-fashioning, the French emperor became a lens through which to view contemporary questions of revolution and empire, glamour and spectacle, upward mobility, and the structure of the young nation’s social fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new historiography of the courtroom locates it not just as a place of top-down power, but a space to negotiate social order that included men and women of different ranks. Using evidence from the Irish petty sessions reported in the local press in the 1820s, this article argues that an ideal of 'impartiality', common to the law and to elite masculinity alike, provided an opportunity for Protestants and Catholics to discuss and contest the relative power of different social groups within Irish society in a context where political speech was constrained. The courtroom became a space both within and outside of society, allowing a broader range of political debate and expression that was typically allowed. When reported in the press, such discussion could have political import. Moreover, due to the pressure on magistrates to appear impartial, lower order Irish men and women could use the desire to appear impartial as an opportunity to contest traditional power structures and to use the courts to their advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which offers information on two Australian societies of the 1820s. These societies were: the Philosophical Society of Australasia, 1821-22, and the Useful Book Society, around 1828 to 1831. According to the author, both societies were an example of the relative scarcity of books directing human behaviour.

Scaphoid fractures are a common injury in late teens and mid twenties with a peak period in skeletally immature children at about 15 years of age, although considered to be rare in first decade of life, its exact incidence in early teen age remains to be a subject of debate. We report an unusual case of anatomical variation of scaphoid bone at the level of waist which could potentially cause diagnostic confusion. A 14-years-old boy presented in the fracture clinic 2 weeks after injury to his Right wrist which was managed in a scaphoid cast. X-ray examinations, both at the time of injury and later on in the fracture clinic revealed features suspicious of a fracture at the level of waist of the scaphoid bone, however the clinical examination did not correlate with imaging, in view of that radiological imaging of the unaffected side was performed for comparison, which revealed it to be an anatomical variant of scaphoid at this age. To our knowledge there are very few cases of such variation reported in literature in this age group of patients. This case highlights the importance of anatomical variants in scaphoid bone in this age group, which might pose a diagnostic challenge and the need for appropriate management plan and reassurance to avoid unnecessary anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]