William T. G. Morton's English Patent for Etherization: Patently Pointless?

The Blister Club: The Extraordinary Story of the Downed American Airmen Who Escaped to Safety in World War II

The National Archives: Historical Manuscripts Commission (NA:HMC), in its annual Accessions to Repositories exercise, collects information from over two hundred record repositories throughout the British Isles about manuscript accessions received in the previous twelve months. The information is then edited and used to produce a number of thematic digests which are distributed for publication in a number of learned journals and newsletters, as well as being made available in full on the Commission's website (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk). The information is also added to the indexes of the National Register of Archives (NRA), the central point for collecting and disseminating information about the location of manuscript sources relating to British history outside the public records. The NRA, which currently contains over 44,000 lists and catalogues of archives, can be consulted at the National Archives, Kew, Richmond TW9 4DU, United Kingdom. Alternatively, searchers may access the indexes to the NRA and certain linked online catalogues via the website. Limited and specific enquiries can be dealt with by post, or email (nra@nationalarchives.gov.uk). Readers should note that dates for records in this digest are given when known, but that these are covering dates which do not necessarily indicate the presence of records for all intervening years. Records have been included in the digest regardless of whether the deposit has yet been fully catalogued, and readers are advised to check with the relevant repository as to whether this, or any other factors, may prohibit access to the documents.

Parturients Expect Safe and Clean Regional Anesthesia

While there is a developing international discussion on the topic of community archives in different parts of the world, there has not been any sustained attempt to study community-based archives within a comparative framework. The aim of the article is to initiate a more systematic and comparative discussion of the different realities of community archives internationally (measured against and perhaps critiquing the descriptions and definitions offered by the dominant Anglophone literature on the topic). This article draws upon the authors’ presentation at the ICA’s Rome 2022 Conference of their comparative analysis of the contexts, form, and operation of community archives in five different countries (Brazil, China, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom). The authors also put forward an initial set of six criteria they believe are useful for future international comparative approaches to understanding community archives: terminology and definitions; typologies and characteristics of the archives; recent history and social structure of the country/region; relationships with external entities; funding and support; law and national archival and heritage systems.

Many archives, including the National Archives of Korea, use online finding aids. However, in many aspects, they need improvement. In this study, with focus on the National Archives of Korea, the online finding aids of the National Archives of Australia (NAA), The National Archives (TNA) of United Kingdom, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) of the United States were analyzed. Focus group interview was administered to users of the archives, identifying the pros and cons of online finding aids of NAA, TNA, and NARA. Based on the results, various improvement and development directions are suggested, including aspects on overall functions and hierarchical search, search options and subject search, representing search results, and archival contents services.

‘A Little Marshall Plan’: Britain and the formation of the European Payments Union, 1948–50

years later, April 4, 1949, the day on which twelve powers met in Washington to sign the North Atlantic Treaty, can still be ranked as the most significant date in the development of Canada's postwar foreign policy. For through that brief ceremony Canada was for the first time in her peacetime history committed to a precise and formal military alliance. It is, of course, true that the treaty linked Canada with her traditional associates; that, as the Economist pointed out at the time, a treaty of which the United Kingdom and the United States constituted the core satisfied the basic condition of Canada's foreign policy.1 Yet this preservation of continuity could hardly minimize the importance of the step which was to provide the main clue to the orientation of Canadian foreign and defence policies for the next decade. If the precise and binding nature of the commitments under the North Atlantic Treaty constitute a landmark in the history of Canada's foreign policy, the same can be said of the manner in which the treaty itself was evolved. It is not easy to determine the exact origins of the North Atlantic Treaty. The full story must obviously await the opening of national foreign office archives. Yet the available evidence, limited though it is, is sufficient to permit at least a tentative statement. And this evidence suggests that the evolution of the North Atlantic Treaty

Reviewed by: The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910–1911: The Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease by William C. Summers Carol A. Benedict William C. Summers. The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910–1911: The Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2012. xiii + 202 pp. Ill. $40.00 (978-0-300-18319-1). In this slim volume, William C. Summers aims to provide a comprehensive and detailed history of the plague outbreaks in northeastern China that caused possibly as many as sixty thousand deaths between 1910 and 1911. Historians of China have previously examined the great Manchurian plague from many angles: as a grave threat to the Qing dynasty’s already shaky sovereignty, as a watershed event in the establishment of Chinese public health institutions, as the beginning of China’s participation in scientific internationalism, and as the critical moment when the new concept of chuanranbing—notifiable infectious diseases recognized and controlled by the state—began to take hold in China. Given that the outbreak occurred in a region of international competition and diplomatic intrigue, Russian and Japanese historians have also focused attention on this exceedingly well-documented epidemic. While Summers seeks to expand upon this earlier scholarship, in the end his account closely parallels what is already known about this historic outbreak of pneumonic plague. As suggested by the book’s subtitle, Summers concentrates primarily on the interplay between geopolitics and the plague. In six brief chapters and an epilogue, he surveys the political, medical, and cultural aspects of the epidemic in order to understand its differential impact on three cities in the northeast (Harbin, Shenyang, and Dalian) and the diverse responses of the Russian, Japanese, and Chinese officials in charge of plague control in their respective areas of administrative authority. He argues that beyond its influence on public health, the crisis provided three major foreign powers (Japan, Russia, and the United States) with new opportunities to test and refine their evolving geopolitical strategies [End Page 701] in northeastern Asia during a time when the Qing dynasty was teetering on the verge of collapse. Likening the plague outbreak to a “bomb detonator” (p. 27), Summers contends that the plague and its aftermath played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the Japanese takeover of Manchuria in 1931 and ultimately to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Summers touches briefly upon ongoing debates over the nature of Japanese colonial medicine in Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria, aligning with those who view Japan’s appropriation of “Western” medicine as a critical “tool of empire.” He argues that the Southern Manchurian Railway authorities, working in conjunction with the Japanese Army, pursued policies that harnessed medical science and public health to Japan’s imperial ambitions. Yet, he also notes that the situation in Manchuria was complicated not only by the involvement of other foreign powers in the region but also by the fact that in 1910–11 the Qing dynasty retained authority over much of its northeastern territory. Management of the crisis required international cooperation and collaboration (as evidenced by the International Plague Conference held in Shenyang in April 1911), a reality that may have slowed Japanese imperial expansion somewhat but could not derail what Summers sees as Japan’s “inevitable” invasion of Manchuria (p. 143). Despite his ambition to build upon the work of earlier scholars (p. 12), Summers does little to revise our current understanding of the Manchurian plague. To be sure, he utilizes an abundance of new source material from the U.S. National Archives and the Public Records Office of the Foreign Office of the United Kingdom. However, his heavy reliance on English-language materials can take him only so far. It is difficult to provide a fresh take on this well-studied event without reference to the Russian, Japanese, and Chinese sources that other historians have recently tapped to excellent effect. The book nonetheless provides a succinct overview of the Manchurian plague, its epidemiological and ecological history, the varied political and social responses to it by different national governments, and its geopolitical impact within the complicated diplomatic context of northeastern Asia. Written for those unfamiliar with the history of modern China...

Using the cases of Malaysia and Singapore, this chapter explores the role of the national archive in relation to state-sponsored history through the course of the decolonization process. Archival concepts and principles such as appraisal, selection, and access form the basis for the study. Particular attention is paid to the case of the so-called “Migrated Archives” that were hidden by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom. Further focus is on Singapore’s use of its national archives to create a master national historical narrative that suits the goals of the post-colonial independent state. The chapter concludes with a look towards using the same archives as a means of writing counter-narratives based on how one interacts with and “reads” an archive.

Gene therapy for colon cancer by adeno-associated viral vector-mediated transfer of survivin Cys84Ala mutant

Although antimicrobial prophylaxis for infective endocarditis (IE) is common practice for many dental procedures, there is little information on whether it represents value for money. A study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of prophylaxis for all at risk patients in routine dental practice with published data from the United Kingdom. The risk of contracting infective endocarditis was calculated from published data to find (for high risk patients) both the annual number of deaths attributable to infective endocarditis and the number of high risk dental procedures performed without prophylaxis. Costs are estimated by examining the notes of 63 patients with proved IE during the decade 1980-90. Such prophylaxis is highly cost effective before dental extractions, but its value for other invasive dental procedures is unproved. It was calculated that, for every 10,000 extractions in at risk patients, appropriate prophylaxis will prevent 5.7 deaths and a further 22.85 cases of non-fatal IE. This represents a saving in the costs of hospital care of 289,600 pounds for 10,000 extractions. Prophylaxis to prevent IE in at risk patients undergoing dental extraction is highly cost effective. Net savings each year throughout the United Kingdom, that might be achieved by improving the existing proportion of such patients given antibiotics from its present level of about 50% would amount to 2.5 million pounds and would prevent over 50 deaths.

In earlier work,3 we made an initial assessment of the implications for competitiveness of environmental taxes, including those that had been implemented as part of an environmental tax reform (ETR), which we define as an increase in environmental taxes which is accompanied by a corresponding reduction in other taxes, such that the overall tax change is broadly revenue neutral. It was clear in that work that the major environmental tax base in most ETRs is energy use. This chapter updates and extends that work, focusing only on energy (or carbon dioxide) taxes. First, section B discusses how the concept of competitiveness may be defined and understood in the context of ETRs and more generally. Section C then considers the evolution of the ETRs that were included in the earlier chapter and describes the ETRs which have been introduced since the earlier work, especially in the United Kingdom and Germany. This then leads in section D to a detailed presentation of the energy tax rates that have developed over the period 1990 to 2006 in the six European countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) that introduced major ETRs before 2005, including the component of the rates that was contributed by the ETR. The treatment distinguishes between households and businesses, with a full specification of the rebates and exemptions that have been introduced in different countries for different sectors, especially for energyintensive sectors.

This author travelogue through modern anesthesia describes the arduous training of anesthesiologists and some momentous events in the development of the specialty, both of which have led to the sophistication of current practices and promises of an even safer future. The book contains historic vignettes, biopic stories, and science commentaries. Reading it is educational and entertaining.The author is an accomplished anesthesiologist, who trained in both South Africa and the United Kingdom and who currently serves as the Anesthesiology Department Chairman at Pennsylvania State University. His observations on the specialty and his personal reflections provide an international perspective that will particularly interest U.S. anesthesiologists. Passages on anesthesia care in the 1980s at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, and a lengthy report on the first heart transplant by Christian Barnard there in 1967 will fascinate most readers. Dr. Mets moves back and forth between anesthesia and anaesthesia, resident and registrar, operating rooms and theaters, and other parallels of the U.S. and international healthcare systems that he intimately understands.Themes of this book include the steady progression of anesthesia safety over two centuries, the personality quirks of many surgery and anesthesia innovators, and important lessons that clinicians can learn from anesthesia mishaps. Numerous case descriptions prove interesting and elucidating. Practicing anesthesiologists will recognize similar occurrences in their own careers.Dr. Mets summarizes his philosophy as, “Inherently dangerous, anesthesia has matured into an essentially safe practice. It was not always so. Nor in every instance—things can still go terribly wrong.” His stories explain and support this view.Anesthesiologists will applaud many dramatic and positive statements: “The balance between life and death . . . is the practicing anesthesiologist’s daily concern.” “Anesthesiologists are the only true clinical pharmacologists in medical practice.” “We call delivering an anesthetic: flying the anesthesia machine.” The book portrays a dynamic specialty with skilled clinicians who protect patients during surgical operations.A chapter on the history of anesthesia is easier to read than most introductory textbooks. A wide-ranging chapter on drugs, equipment, and monitors is linked together by the concepts of balanced anesthesia and the need for patient safety. The final chapters on a day in a large academic surgical suite and future directions for anesthesiology are positive and in sync with the practices and thoughts of most specialty leaders. The author concludes: “The future of anesthesia lies in the developing field of perioperative medicine,” and “Expect a much safer surgical experience in the future.”Overworked in this book, as in anesthesia literature generally, are the similarities of anesthesia administration and flying an airplane, and anesthesia safety and parachutes. Nonanesthesiologist readers may find them novel and helpful, while many anesthesiologists will roll their eyes and wish for fresher metaphors.This book is a quick and recommended read for anesthesiologists. Many will jump among sections as they spot items of interest. Nonanesthesiologist readers with science backgrounds may prefer to read it from beginning to end, because chapters logically follow previous ones. Numerous footnotes and some technical terms may annoy readers without science backgrounds, the large group whom the author hopes to attract. These readers may skip pages, or put the book down entirely, when they read, “a packet of acetylcholine mediators is released into the synaptic cleft, and moves across to bind to a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor on the skeletal muscle fiber.” Although lay readers have choices among publications with either a history focus or anesthesiologist tales, this one stands out as broader and more entertaining.The writing style is generally quick, unadorned, and easy to read. Sometimes it excites: “My training progressed by leaps and bounds, trial and error, complications occurring regularly.” A few subject–verb mismatches interrupt the flow, and errors catch the eye. For instance, the American Board of Anesthesiology defines “OSCE” as Objective Structured Clinical Examination, not Observed Standardized Clinical Evaluation as the book reports.Readers who know the author will particularly enjoy the clever book cover, an adaptation of the painting “Ether Day 1846” hanging in the Ether Dome at the Massachusetts General Hospital, site of the first public demonstration of anesthesia. Those who do not know him can guess which person depicted represents the author. This cover art showing observers of an anesthesia milestone captures the essence of the book.Waking Up Safer? An Anesthesiologist’s Record meets the authors desire to do “the rich history of anesthesia justice” and to “wake you up to the magic and mystery of anesthesia and its consequences.” The notation that it was “specifically written for the lay person to explain the much misunderstood practice of anesthesiology” will await marketplace judgment.

Georges Pompidou and Edward Heath marked a milestone in the centuries-old relationship between France and the United Kingdom, one shaped by rivalries and mutual stereotypes but also strategic convergence, especially in times of crisis. They formed a ‘Franco-British couple’ at a time when the French president was assessing the transformation of the global economic and monetary system, and when the British Prime Minister was successfully convincing both Parliament and public opinion of the opportunity offered by the EEC for Britain to anchor itself within Europe. The fiftieth anniversary of Georges Pompidou’s death and Edward Heath’s departure from Downing Street, and the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale (2024), naturally invite us to reflect on this historical turning point and its long-term consequences, particularly in light of archival materials recently made available at the French National Archives and the Weston Library in Oxford, which open up broad avenues for research. This volume brings together several articles by French and British specialists covering the various dimensions of the Franco-British relationship in Europe—from strategic cooperation to culture—while highlighting the evolution of the United Kingdom’s political and economic situation.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the greatest libraries in the world. It is also most emphatically a library for the world. Its collections can be said to contain both ‘the memory of the nation’ and also ‘the DNA of civilization’. Indeed the Library uses the positioning statement: ‘Advancing the world's knowledge’. The Library engages in international activity in a wide variety of ways and at all levels through the organization. However, prior to 2007 the Library had not had a systematic corporate-level focus for its international engagement activity. This paper addresses the British Library's International Engagement Strategy and sets out the contextual background that led to its development and adoption in 2007. It goes on to describe, by using a number of case studies, the range of international activity taken forward by the Library under this strategy in the past two years. These include the Library's support for the reconstruction of the Iraq National Library and Archive and its contribution to the World Collections Programme initiative.