Sir Joseph Barcroft, Cambridge placental and fetal research (1933-1966) and inter-generational Science

The nature of Cambridge (UK) placental and fetal research in the middle third of the twentieth century is reviewed on the basis of published literature and personal recollection. Joseph Barcroft is a central figure who came to fetal research late in an extremely productive career which is briefly sketched. Contemporaneous Cambridge academics in the field included J.D. Boyd (the authors father), J. Hammond, F.H.A. Marshall, R.A. McCance, J. Needham, A.S. Parkes and Elsie Widdowson. The then current Cambridge academic geography is explained and features of its scientific life such as funding, institutional structure and ethos, teaching and clinical duties, domestic and gender roles, and political context, including war and empire, are briefly considered. The testing of research findings against general principles and use of quantitative thinking are identified as important features. Intergenerational connections, often within individual families, are identified as a striking feature. The long-term impact of Cambridge work of this period; locally, in current trophoblast and feto-placental genetic research, in Oxford in probably influencing G.S. Dawes research leadership, and internationally, especially through D.H. Barron, and through him to the Denver School, is considered. That human placental and embryological specimens collected by J.D. Boyd have received a new lease of life as the "Boyd Collection", including use by Allen Enders is noted. Mechanisms for the maintenance of scientific quality and productivity during the period, mainly through the scientist himself relying on an internalised sense of "obligation", are contrasted with those current in the UK and more widely; formal peer-review at frequent intervals, with subsequent allocation of short-term funding. The strengths and weaknesses of each are considered.

A perspective on the development of Genetics in Spain during the XX Century

At the beginning of the XXI Century, Spanish Biology lives a period of unprecedented growth and development. This situation owes much to the stability of the last few years and breaks a pattern in which Science was the activity of a few self-taught individuals working within an indifferent environment. The development of Genetics is a good example of these factors. A long isolated period dating back to the 1500s was broken at the beginning of the XX Century through the creation of a number of institutions and, in particular the Junta de Ampliacion de Estudios, which created a seed for scientific development and had a significant effect in the area of Genetics. However, the Spanish civil war destroyed this seed and forced a new beginning. Throughout the second half of the century, steady progress, largely driven by individuals formed abroad and returning to Spain with knowledge and methods, has been the basis for the establishment of a scientific ingrastructure from which Spain is making important contributions to modern biology. The person of Antonio Garcia-Bellido has emerged over the last 40 years as a reference for modern genetics and also as the root of an important, perhaps the only, real school in this area of work.

Dancing with Plutarch: dance and dance theory in Plutarch’s Table Talk

The aim of this paper is to analyze Plutarch’s discussion of the different kinds of ancient dance and their meaning in the Table Talk. Besides a large section from Book 9 (question 15), all of it concerning the parts of dance and their relation to poetry, we focus on those other moments where different rhythms of dance are discussed. Looking beyond the Plutarchan material, we search for the implications of this subject in terms of philanthropia and moderation, concepts extremely important in all nine books of the Table Talk. The ancient symposium was a strictly staged social event at which members of the male elite drank, talked and enjoyed themselves, in a variety of ways. As for this last element, the convivial one, the various semiotic sources that have been preserved – mostly literature and painting1 – are clear on the importance given to many other elements besides eating and drinking. Music and poetry, inseparable arts, were a constant presence in ancient banquets, and the same should apply to dance. As far as literature is concerned, there are many fragments from poems composed to be performed at banquets, at least from the middle of the seventh century BC onwards2. It is in the Odyssey (8. 72-95) that we find what is probably the oldest western description of an aristocratic symposium, given by Alcinoos to Odysseus upon the latter’s arrival3. In this passage we are presented with an aoidos singing the very beginnings of the Trojan War, which moves Odysseus to tears. But it is perhaps Herodotus (6. 129.6-19) who gives us the first proof that banqueters not only enjoyed the dancer’s art but also danced themselves, inspired by the wine and the artists’ constant encouragement. προϊούσης δὲ τῆς πόσιος κατέχων πολλὸν τοὺς ἄλλους ὁ Ἱπποκλείδης ἐκέλευσέν οἱ τὸν αὐλητὴν αὐλῆσαι ἐμμελείαν· πειθομένου δὲ τοῦ αὐλητέω ὀρχήσατο. καί κως ἑωυτῷ μὲν ἀρεστῶς ὀρχέετο, ὁ Κλεισθένης δὲ ὁρέων ὅλον τὸ πρῆγμα ὑπόπτευε. μετὰ δὲ ἐπισχὼν ὁ Ἱπποκλείδης χρόνον ἐκέλευσέ τινα τράπεζαν ἐσενεῖκαι, ἐσελθούσης δὲ τῆς τραπέζης πρῶτα μὲν ἐπ’ αὐτῆς ὀρχήσατο Λακωνικὰ σχημάτια, μετὰ δὲ ἄλλα Ἀττικά, τὸ τρίτον δὲ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐρείσας ἐπὶ τὴν τράπεζαν τοῖσι σκέλεσιν ἐχειρονόμησε. Κλεισθένης δὲ τὰ μὲν πρῶτα καὶ τὰ δεύτερα ὀρχεομένου ἀποστυγέων γαμβρὸν ἄν οἱ ἔτι 1 W. J. Henderson, 2000, p. 6 defines and analyzes three different groups of testimony about the Greek symposium: sympotic poetry, vase-painting and archaeological remains from the banquet rooms themselves. 2 On sympotic lyric, see W. J. Henderson, 1997. E. L. Bowie, 1986, p. 34 views the symposium as a privileged space for elegiac recitation, taking it as the beginning of the festive event itself. 3 Nevertheless, the word used for banquet in this text is δαίς, not συμπόσιον. Versão integral disponível em digitalis.uc.pt

El Nuevo Depositario y Nueva Depositaria de José Joaquín de Larriva contra Gaspar Rico, más literatura que periodismo

This article is about the forgotten Peruvian author Jose Joaquin de Larriva y Ruiz (Lima, 1780-1832) who was a renown satiric writer. His witty cleverness is clearly seen in the newspapers El Nuevo Depositario and La Nueva Depositaria, written during the war of Independence to refute the royalist newspaper the Depositario by don Gaspar Rico y Angulo (La Rioja, - Lima, 1825). In the newspapers by Larriva, the literary quality overshadows the informative function as stated in the title of the article.

Perfil dos homens formados na Escola de Enfermagem da Universidade de São Paulo (1950-1990)

Several authors point out that the male presence in nursing has been significant at certain times and historical contexts, or they were driven by religious piety and charity, or were taken by military obedience to superior orders or requirements of war. Because of this, we highlight the importance of studies on gender in nursing, how to identify and analyze what men were graduates of the School of Nursing at USP, in the period 1950 to 1990. As material and method, it is notable that the data was collected after obtaining the opinion of the Ethics in Research of EEUSP, being used for this purpose, an instrument previously developed and information was obtained through the formulary of graduated students at the Service of Graduation of EEUSP, enabling thus raising socio-demographic data on the target population of the study, with respect to nationality, ethnicity, religion, marital status, considering also proportionality between men and women graduated from that school. The parents of graduated students were identified with data on educational level and profession. The study provided a better understanding of the profile of the population and revealed a great disproportion in the gender issue in nursing, because the majority of the graduates of this school are women, which is part of the phenomenon of the feminization of nursing, from the consolidation the paradigm of modern nursing.

La caída de la inversión extranjera al final de la Segunda República

With the help of sources held at the Archive of the Bank of England and at the Foreign Office, this article seeks to document the painful decline of the economy of the Spanish Second Republic. The available evidence, which includes both published and unpublished documents, confirms the marked decrease in foreign trade according to the official figures and the subsequent fall in foreign investment, especially in direct investment. During the Civil War, there was a clear drop in foreign trade in the Republican zone, whereas the opposite trend obtained in the Francoist zone. The policy of “non-intervention” officially sanctioned the fiction that would seriously obstruct the Republicans in their quest to obtain armaments. We first deal with the panorama of foreign trade before going on to examine foreign investment, paying particular attention to the establishment and evolution of direct North American investment.

Legislación y comercio exterior en la España republicana, 1936-1938

La Guerra Civil en Castilla y León: ensayo general para la dictadura franquista

El Liberal, de Sevilla (1901-1936): un diario independiente en la Andalucía anterior a la Guerra Civil

Founded in 1901 by the celebrated press trust headed by Miguel Moya, El Liberal of Seville became the main independent newspaper published in Andalusia prior to the Civil War. Managed by Jose Laguillo from 1909, and belonging to the publishing company owned by the Busquets brothers from the 1920s, El Liberal reached a daily circulation of approximately 50,000 copies. This article examines the history of this publication during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and during the Second Republic, the composition of its editorial staff and the vicissitudes of this great newspaper, part of whose archives are currently stored at the Centro Documental de la Memoria Historica in Salamanca.

La sociedad española de la década de los sesenta en el teatro de Alfonso Paso

Alfonso Paso was, without doubt, the most prolific of the post-war Spanish playwrights. His numerous theatrical productions, of which there are more than a hundred comedies, led the playwright to a popularity which in turn permitted him to rise within the theatrical hegemony of the time, filling the Spanish stage with an unending series of plays with clear commercial nuances in which the main element is humour. This humour was conceived for the humoristic sensibility of the growing middle class at the end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties, whose tastes and interests were ideal material for Paso. The unquestionable sociological nuance in Paso’s plays is therefore particularly important since it allows us make a literary study of what Franco’s regime was like, or rather what the society of this regime was like between 1950 and 1971. This article is written with this in mind, and various aspects present in the works of Alfonso Paso are analysed, such as the middle class, the role of women, social changes, and the influence of tourism and immigration in the Spain of that period.