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Home remedy books in Britain: medicine and the female reader, 1800-1867

Description

In the preface to his 1852 Dictionary of Domestic Medicine and Household Surgery, Spencer Thompson wrote: "But health will fail, either in old or young, and accidents will happen, in spite of the most careful precaution." With this concise statement, Thompson summarized the universal human desire to combat illness, injury, and hurt with action and knowledge. The more efficient ability to spread ideas and technology in nineteenth-century Britain led to increased production and use of home remedy books. Although women traditionally represented the agents of remedy and care within the domestic sphere (centuries prior to the nineteenth century), a struggle between the supposed inherent nurturing capabilities of womanhood and the professional medical realm occurred within the rhetoric of the home remedy genre during this period. Cultural mores allowed and pushed women to take up duties of nursing in the home, regardless of advice given by male physicians like Thomas John Graham, W.B. Kesteven, and Ralph Gooding. Despite remedy book physician-authors' attempts to dictate appropriate medical care in the home through the writing of home remedy books, British women read, interpreted, and used home remedy books in ways that undermined medical control.

ContributorsJacobson, Emily (Author) / Green, Monica (Thesis advisor) / Szuter, Christine (Thesis advisor) / Warren-Findley, Jannelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2011

Music and Intimacy in Jane Austen's Novels

Description

Jane Austen’s depictions of musical performers and listeners in her novels suggest her belief that musical performances should strengthen intimacy between people, both between listeners and performers as well as among listeners. Austen commends music for its power to increase intimacy through honest expressions of taste, which more often arise in private performances, but she warns against its power to decrease intimacy through pretentious displays of taste, which more often arise in public performances. Austen’s belief that music allows for this healthy intimacy indicates that music has great significance in society. Austen suggests that music has a greater importance to everyday life than many may originally suppose, as it is a universal connection between people. Ultimately, Jane Austen’s perspective of music’s great power both to expose pretentiousness and to cultivate intimacy should lead all of her readers to recognize and respect music’s true power and to consider seriously the importance and role of music in their own lives.

ContributorsColliat, Chelsea Elyse (Author) / Tait, Dana (Thesis director) / Schildkret, David (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor) / School of Music, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)

Created2021-05

Going to God: Death and Dying in the 19th Century

Description

The study of death and dying brings greater understanding of a society and its values and customs, as well as what it means to be human. Western death culture in the modern age bears little resemblance to the world which came before it, when death was frequent, and people were forced to reckon with its immediacy. This paper seeks to analyze the ways in which a society responds to death by using the example of the Western world during the 19th century, mostly focusing on Victorian England and the United States before the start of World War I. Discussions of the periods which preceded and followed the 19th century will place it in its proper context, demonstrating how death culture changes over time in response to socioeconomic trends and shifts. The conclusion will provide an analysis of the significance of this period of western history to the drastic changes of the 20th century and the attitudes and practices surrounding death and dying today.

ContributorsDunlop, Emily (Author) / Knudson, Kelly (Thesis director) / Bolhofner, Katelyn (Committee member) / Marsteller, Sara (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)

Created2022-05