Search

Physiotherapists interested in the profession's future have turned in recent years to historical evidence to understand how the physical therapies were practiced before the advent of modern healthcare. However, studies to date suggest that their practice was largely confined to social elites, and those from working-class or poor populations rarely, if ever, experienced them. To test this theory further, this study focuses on British sailors during the Napoleonic wars (1803-1815). Utilizing historical and semi-fictional accounts, this study shows that healthcare on board naval fighting ships concentrated almost entirely on the prevention of disease, and the medical and surgical management of acute trauma. Even though sailors experienced shocking levels of traumatic injury, none appear to have experienced any form of physical therapy. This study supports the argument that prior to the 20 th century, the physical therapies were luxuries available primarily to those with surplus time and money, and that widespread access to physiotherapy has relied on state-sponsored universal health coverage. It follows, then, that the decline of universalized healthcare may have profound implications for many marginal groups in society, as well as the physiotherapy profession itself.

The authors examine the evolution of the role of resident doctors on cruise ships dating back to the Roman and Byzantine empires, then in the Middle ages. In the past surgery was rarely performed by doctors, but by barber-surgeons, who, with their razor skills, did everything from haircuts to amputations. More recently, as in the last century, the first royal decrees were issued, pillar by pillar, forming the regulatory basis governing health care on board Italian or foreign ships travelling to and from national ports.

In large-scale naval battles during World War II, sailors sometimes sustained serious lower limb injuries when explosion blast of sea mines was transmitted from underneath through the metal deck of the ships. Some of these sailors were thrown in the air due to the blast and sustained axial trauma of the spine when they landed on the hard deck, which was thus called a deck slap by Captain Joseph Barr in 1946, among others. Nowadays, this peculiar mechanism has shifted to the civilian setting. Tourists unaware of the danger may sustain spine compression fractures when they sit at the bow of speed boats while underway on a calm sea. When the craft unexpectedly crosses the wake of another ship, tourists are thrown a few feet in the air before suffering a hard landing on their buttocks. This historical vignette is presented as a preventive message to help to reduce this poorly known yet avoidable "summer wave of vertebral fractures.", (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This case study demonstrates how an analysis grounded in sound studies, rather than visual studies, reveals a different technological outcome in the development of coastal navigation systems. In the late nineteenth century, engineers at Scotland's Northern Lighthouse Board developed and managed a growing network of sound-based fog signals, primarily using steam-powered sirens. Despite the prevailing perception that sound signaling was more unreliable and risky than lighthouses for coastal navigation, engineers focused on maximizing the loudness of these devices to address the uncertainty of sound transmission. By prioritizing the siren and narrowing the system's goals to warning sailors about imminent danger, the engineers created a system with fundamentally different aims, implementation methods, and design priorities than those of visually-based lighthouse technology. This sound-based analysis uncovers how sensory hierarchies shaped technological decisions, leading to a unique and distinct approach to coastal navigation.

During the late Qing Dynasty, Tianjin Customs gradually established the seaport quarantine system to prevent the spread of epidemics from Japan, Hong Kong, and the Northeast. The major infectious diseases inspected by the quarantine institution of Tianjin Port include cholera, plague, smallpox, typhus and yellow fever, of which cholera is the most frequent and influential infectious disease in modern Tianjin, followed by plague and smallpox, and no large-scale epidemics of typhus and yellow fever have been found.In the process of preventing the spreading of foreign infectious diseases, the quarantine institution of Tianjin Port has gradually developing. A set of business system has been established, which is based on ship inspection and takes preventive injection, rat flea research and disease diagnosis and treatment as the core.In conclusion,the seaport quarantine institutions in Tianjin played an active role in the prevention, detection, and response to major infectious diseases ,opened up a precedent for Chinese people to independently handle border health quarantine.Its historical practice and quarantine mode are a window for understanding the development history of quarantine infectious diseases in modern China, which has very important reference value.

Eighteenth-century naval ships were impressive infrastructures, but subjected to extraordinary strain. To assist with their "voyage repairs," the Royal Navy gradually established numerous overseas bases, displaying the power, reach, and ruthless logistical efficiency of the British state. This article, however, is concerned with what happened where no such bases (yet) existed, in parts of the world falling in between areas of direct British administration, control, or influence. The specific restrictions imposed by technology and infrastructures have been studied by historians interested in naval strategy, but they can also help to reframe national narratives of power or observe the transnational interactions surrounding access to knowledge and resources. This paper discusses the material, cultural, and diplomatic constraints that could appear when vessels, and especially "discovery ships," sailed in strange waters or sought technical assistance in allied ports. I argue that the "mortification" of some commanders at their vessels' unfitness for service was an important - and often neglected - element on the palette of emotions undergone by voyagers, capturing their strong sense of ultimate material powerlessness. Such frustration even became embedded in imperial cartography, as shown by the case study of Matthew Flinders. This perspective highlights the limits of naval technology, complicating imperialistic "success stories" and better reintegrating the navy into the history of maritime travel and transportation, from which it is often singled out.

Ocean-going ships were key to rising maritime economies of the Early Modern period, and understanding how they were built is critical to grasp the challenges faced by shipwrights and merchant seafarers. Shipwreck timbers hold material evidence of the dynamic interplay of wood supplies, craftmanship, and evolving ship designs that helped shape the Early Modern world. Here we present the results of dendroarchaeological research carried out on Batavia's wreck timbers, currently on display at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum in Fremantle. Built in Amsterdam in 1628 CE and wrecked on its maiden voyage in June 1629 CE in Western Australian waters, Batavia epitomises Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) shipbuilding. In the 17th century, the VOC grew to become the first multinational trading enterprise, prompting the rise of the stock market and modern capitalism. Oak (Quercus sp.) was the preferred material for shipbuilding in northern and western Europe, and maritime nations struggled to ensure sufficient supplies to meet their needs and sustain their ever-growing mercantile fleets and networks. Our research illustrates the compatibility of dendrochronological studies with musealisation of shipwreck assemblages, and the results demonstrate that the VOC successfully coped with timber shortages in the early 17th century through diversification of timber sources (mainly Baltic region, Lübeck hinterland in northern Germany, and Lower Saxony in northwest Germany), allocation of sourcing regions to specific timber products (hull planks from the Baltic and Lübeck, framing elements from Lower Saxony), and skillful woodworking craftmanship (sapwood was removed from all timber elements). These strategies, combined with an innovative hull design and the use of wind-powered sawmills, allowed the Dutch to produce unprecedented numbers of ocean-going ships for long-distance voyaging and interregional trade in Asia, proving key to their success in 17th-century world trade., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Public health historians have repeatedly shown that the theory, policy, and practice of group prophylactics far predate their alleged birth in industrial modernity, and regularly draw on Galenic principles. While the revision overall has been successful, its main focus on European cities entails a major risk, since city dwellers were a minority even in Europe's most urbanised regions. At the same time, cities continue to be perceived and presented as typically European, which stymies transregional and comparative studies based at least in part on non- or extra-urban groups. Thus, any plan to both offer an accurate picture of public health's deeper past and fundamentally challenge a narrative of civilizational progress wedded to Euro-American modernity ("stagism") would benefit from looking beyond cities and their unique health challenges. The present article begins to do so by focusing on two ubiquitous groups, often operating outside cities and facing specific risks: miners and shipmates. Evidence for these communities' preventative interventions and the extent to which they drew on humoral theory is rich yet uneven for Europe between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Methodological questions raised by this unevenness can be addressed by connecting different scales of evidence, as this article demonstrates. Furthermore, neither mining nor maritime trade was typically European, thus building a broader base for transregional studies and comparisons., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press.)

The Red Sea was witness to important events during human history, including the first long steps in a trade network (the spice route) that would drive maritime technology and shape geopolitical fortunes for thousands of years. Punt was a pivotal early node in the rise of this enterprise, serving as an important emporium for luxury goods, including sacred baboons ( Papio hamadryas ), but its location is disputed. Here, we use geospatial variation in the oxygen and strontium isotope ratios of 155 baboons from 77 locations to estimate the geoprovenance of mummified baboons recovered from ancient Egyptian temples and tombs. Five Ptolemaic specimens of P. anubis (404-40 BC) showed evidence of long-term residency in Egypt prior to mummification, consistent with a captive breeding program. Two New Kingdom specimens of P. hamadryas were sourced to a region that encompasses much of present-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti, and portions of Somalia and Yemen. This result is a testament to the tremendous reach of Egyptian seafaring during the 2nd millennium BC. It also corroborates the balance of scholarly conjecture on the location of Punt., Competing Interests: ND, SI, GM, PW, JC, JC, PK No competing interests declared

The flagship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the Batavia, was wrecked on the morning of the 4th of June 1629 on an isolated reef of the Houtman Abrolhos islands off the coast of Western Australia. The majority of crew and passengers (180-250, including 30 women and children) were able to reach an island which they called Batavia's Graveyard (now known as Beacon Island). After the commander, Francisco Pelsaert, sailed to Batavia for help, Jeronimus Cornelisz took control. Over the next several months his men raped and murdered at least 125 captive shipwrecked passengers and crew. Upon Pelsaert's return Cornelisz and the ringleaders were tried, had their hands severed, and were executed by hanging. Recent archeological excavations have revealed the nature of the attacks and provided scientific validation of some of the alleged incidents. The Batavia mutiny represents a particularly heinous mass murder in the annals of Australia's maritime history.

The corvette Vital de Oliveira was the first Brazilian Navy vessel to circumnavigate the world, from 1879 to 1881. One of the items that concerned its captain, Júlio de Noronha, in his trip report was the food supply, which was further reinforced in the medical report for the expedition written by the head surgeon, Galdino Magalhães. This concern was notable due to the high numbers of sailors who sickened and died during the trip, which according to both reports may have been caused by shortages of certain foods. This article discusses the relationship between food and health in the crew, as well as the relationship between this journey and the implementation of a new ration table that took effect in 1886.

This research explores the case of the 1903 smallpox outbreak on the SS Korea , a transpacific carrier making runs between Southeast Asia, East Asia, Hawaii, and the United States. These regions were connected to a degree that no one had ever imagined through the SS Korea . Honolulu, Hawaii, was one of the most important territories in US maritime history and served as a waypoint between Asia and San Francisco on the mainland. As increasing numbers of people traveled by sea, various microbes were communicated across the Pacific Ocean. International tourists traveling across the ocean to Hawaii and the United States were alerted to infectious diseases, smallpox being one of the most significant of such diseases. The story of the SS Korea serves as an important lens through which to explore the early twentieth century transpacific world connected through Honolulu. Focusing on the spread of smallpox via international travelers, this research studies aspects of the public health system that were developed to contain smallpox infection on international ships and the application of smallpox vaccination as a method for infectious disease control. More importantly, in bringing attention to the uncertainty surrounding the diagnosis of smallpox, this research argues for the necessity of historians to build a more comprehensive medical historical context for disease control systems that includes the limits of medical science in making diagnoses of infectious diseases, the uncertainties arising from a lack of this component, and the implementation of health policies and preventative medical technologies.

In 1995, the historical shipwreck of La Belle was discovered off the coast of Texas. One partial human skeleton was recovered from alongside cargo in the rear portion of the ship; a second (complete) skeleton was found atop coiled anchor rope in the bow. In late 2015, comprehensive forensic genetic testing began on multiple samplings from each set of remains. For the partial skeleton recovered from the ship's rear cargo area, results were obtained for 26/27 Y-STRs using traditional CE; with MPS technology, results were obtained for 18/24 Y-STRs, 56/56 ancestry-informative SNPs (aiSNPs), 22/22 phenotype-informative SNPs (piSNPs), 22/27 autosomal STRs, 4/7 X-STRs, and 94/94 identity-informative SNPs (iiSNPs). For the complete skeleton of the second individual, results were obtained for 7/17 Y-STRs using traditional CE; with MPS technology, results were obtained for 5/24 Y-STRs, 49/56 aiSNPs, 18/22 piSNPs, 15/27 autosomal STRs, 1/7 X-STRs, and 66/94 iiSNPs. Biogeographic ancestry for each set of skeletal remains was predicted using the ancestry feature and metapopulation tool of the Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database (YHRD), Haplogroup Predictor, and the Forensic Research/Reference on Genetics knowledge base (FROG-kb). Phenotype prediction was performed using piSNP data and the HIrisplex eye color and hair color DNA phenotyping webtool. mtDNA whole genome sequencing also was performed successfully. This study highlights the sensitivity of current forensic laboratory methods in recovering DNA from historical and archaeological human remains. Using advanced sequencing technology provided by MiSeq™ FGx (Verogen) and Ion S5™ (Thermo Fisher Scientific) instrumentation, degraded skeletal remains can be characterized using a panel of diverse and highly informative markers, producing data which can be useful in both forensic and genealogical investigations., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

At the end of the nineteenth century, the northern port of Liverpool had become the second largest in the United Kingdom. Fast transatlantic steamers to Boston and other American ports exploited this route, increasing the risk of maritime disease epidemics. The 1901-3 epidemic in Liverpool was the last serious smallpox outbreak in Liverpool and was probably seeded from these maritime contacts, which introduced a milder form of the disease that was more difficult to trace because of its long incubation period and occurrence of undiagnosed cases. The characteristics of these epidemics in Boston and Liverpool are described and compared with outbreaks in New York, Glasgow and London between 1900 and 1903. Public health control strategies, notably medical inspection, quarantine and vaccination, differed between the two countries and in both settings were inconsistently applied, often for commercial reasons or due to public unpopularity. As a result, smaller smallpox epidemics spread out from Liverpool until 1905. This paper analyses factors that contributed to this last serious epidemic using the historical epidemiological data available at that time. Though imperfect, these early public health strategies paved the way for better prevention of imported maritime diseases., (© The Author 2019.)

The growth rates and ages of many benthic marine organisms are poorly understood, complicating our understanding of ecosystem change. This is particularly true for sponges, which are morphologically diverse and lack indicators of annual growth. In this study, we used emerging technologies to measure volume, surface area, and approximate age of 16 sponge species on the Tibbetts shipwreck off Cayman Brac, Caribbean Sea. Photogrammetry was used to determine the volume of individual sponges on the wreck surface, and a time series of YouTube videos was amassed in order to approximate the greatest possible age of the sponges as 8.74 y. Applying the volume measurements to an existing growth equation for the Caribbean sponge Aiolochroia crassa yielded age estimates of 5.2-10.4 y for the largest individuals of the 16 species. Specific growth rates were then calculated for 7 species from the Tibbetts and 8 species from a second shipwreck (Spiegel Grove, Key Largo, FL). Subsequent growth forecasts from these 15 species corroborate a resource trade-off between growth and the production of chemical defenses. Shipwrecks and other anthropogenic structures can be an important source of demographic information for benthic organisms, provided that certain assumptions about their provenance and history can be met.

This article considers the social function of contagious disease as moderator of class relationships in England during the first half of the eighteenth century and takes into account the ways in which the 'communicability' of the plague, great pox (syphilis) and smallpox (variola) was used by authors to crystallise social interaction and tension along class lines. The essay begins by examining the representation of the plague, syphilis and smallpox in the medical tradition, before shifting its attention to the practice of maritime quarantine, as laid out by Richard Mead in his Short Discourse Concerning Pestilential Contagion (1720). By foregrounding medical writing on contagion through skin contact, I suggest that pornographic texts such as John Cleland's The Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure ( Fanny Hill ) (1748) had an interventionist function. Cleland is often charged with sanitising the true horrors of sex work in this period. This article proposes that if we take the time to appreciate the way infectious cutaneous diseases were believed to operate and spread we can recognise the moments in which he not only alludes to disease but invokes it for structural and thematic purposes. In proposing this, I am challenging the dominant interpretation that the problematic realities of eighteenth-century prostitution, especially disease, are subordinated to the narrative's greater interest in erotic pleasure., (© The Author 2019.)

Previous reconstructions of marine fishing fleets have aggregated data without regard to the artisanal and industrial sectors. Engine power has often been estimated from subsets of the developed world, leading to inflated results. We disaggregated data into three sectors, artisanal (unpowered/powered) and industrial, and reconstructed the evolution of the fleet and its fishing effort. We found that the global fishing fleet doubled between 1950 and 2015-from 1.7 to 3.7 million vessels. This has been driven by substantial expansion of the motorized fleet, particularly, of the powered-artisanal fleet. By 2015, 68% of the global fishing fleet was motorized. Although the global fleet is dominated by small powered vessels under 50 kW, they contribute only 27% of the global engine power, which has increased from 25 to 145 GW (combined powered-artisanal and industrial fleets). Alongside an expansion of the fleets, the effective catch per unit of effort (CPUE) has consistently decreased since 1950, showing the increasing pressure of fisheries on ocean resources. The effective CPUE of most countries in 2015 was a fifth of its 1950s value, which was compared with a global decline in abundance. There are signs, however, of stabilization and more effective management in recent years, with a reduction in fleet sizes in developed countries. Based on historical patterns and allowing for the slowing rate of expansion, 1 million more motorized vessels could join the global fleet by midcentury as developing countries continue to transition away from subsistence fisheries, challenging sustainable use of fisheries' resources., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

INTRODUCTION: In February 1970, halfway through a Polaris submarine war patrol in SSBN-02 HMS Renown (port crew), a Petty Officer presented to the sick bay in excruciating pain with a broken upper left molar tooth. The zinc oxide/clove oil mixture would not stick on to the vertical face of the fracture. In preparation for such events, Royal Navy (RN) submarine medical officers are taught excellent fundamental dental skills. In this case, it seemed a very difficult job to extract the remains of the tooth. The author reports the first known use of glass fiber/resin in the RN to crown and treat a fractured molar, cover the root, and save the tooth, and to recommend that all military and civilian medical staff working anywhere in isolation with no dental facility locally be given similar training to that which RN submarine medical officers receive before being sent on extended dives. Brooks CJ. Fractured tooth stabilized with auto body repair resin on a 1970 Royal Navy Polaris submarine patrol . Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2019; 90(2):135-138.

Royal Naval ships' companies, isolated by hundreds of miles of sea with contacts to the outside world tightly regulated, provided perfect environments to study the epidemiology of disease. In 1747, James Lind organised one of the earliest clinical trials, demonstrating that scurvy could be treated by lemon juice. A century later, Alexander Bryson proved the value of careful epidemiological data collection and observation of infectious diseases encountered on the West Africa station. In the 20th century, Royal Navy physicians were at the cutting edge of vaccine research and antibiotic production. Nuclear submarines placed naval physicians at the forefront of nuclear medicine and environmental safety. The development of new aircraft carriers has driven a renewed interest in aviation medicine. This article reviews the contributions that Royal Navy physicians have made to medicine over the centuries, detailing some of the better known as well as some almost forgotten, but still remarkable, achievements., (© Royal College of Physicians 2019. All rights reserved.)

Much that is constructive can be achieved from analysis of death investigations that have failed to achieve desirable outcomes in terms of learning lessons about risks to health and safety and in terms of gaining an understanding as to how further tragedies can be avoided. This article reviews an "inquest" into the sinking in 1628 of the pride of the Swedish Navy, the Vasa, and the factors that led to the inquest failing to come to grips with the various design, building, oversight, subcontracting, communication, and co-ordination flaws that contributed to the vessel being foreseeably unstable and thus unseaworthy. It argues that Reason's Swiss cheese analysis of systemic contributions to risk and modern principles of Anglo-Australasian-Canadian death investigation shed light on how a better investigation of the tragedy that cost 30 lives and a disastrous loss of a vessel of unparalleled cost to the Kingdom of Sweden could have led to more useful insights into the multifactorial causes of the sinking of the Vasa than were yielded by the inquest., Competing Interests: None.

Competing Interests: Provenance: internally peer-reviewed

The human-mediated introduction of marine non-indigenous species is a centuries- if not millennia-old phenomenon, but was only recently acknowledged as a potent driver of change in the sea. We provide a synopsis of key historical milestones for marine bioinvasions, including timelines of (a) discovery and understanding of the invasion process, focusing on transfer mechanisms and outcomes, (b) methodologies used for detection and monitoring, (c) approaches to ecological impacts research, and (d) management and policy responses. Early (until the mid-1900s) marine bioinvasions were given little attention, and in a number of cases actively and routinely facilitated. Beginning in the second half of the 20th century, several conspicuous non-indigenous species outbreaks with strong environmental, economic, and public health impacts raised widespread concerns and initiated shifts in public and scientific perceptions. These high-profile invasions led to policy documents and strategies to reduce the introduction and spread of non-indigenous species, although with significant time lags and limited success and focused on only a subset of transfer mechanisms. Integrated, multi-vector management within an ecosystem-based marine management context is urgently needed to address the complex interactions of natural and human pressures that drive invasions in marine ecosystems., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Although there are several well preserved Viking boat burials from Norway, until recently palaeoecological research on their context has often been limited. Research on fossil insect remains in particular can provide valuable forensic information even in the absence of an actual body. Here we present archaeoentomological information from a boat burial at Øksnes in Vesterålen, northeast Norway, an area where Norse and Sami traditions overlap. Excavated in 1934, organic preservation from the burial was limited to parts of the boat and a clump of bird feathers which were preserved in the Tromsø University Museum, and from which fossil insects were recovered. The insect assemblage from Øksnes includes the blowfly, Protophormia terraenovae (Rob.-Des.), which indicates exposure of the body and the probable timing of the burial. The high numbers of the human flea, Pulex irritans L. from among the feathers, suggests that these, probably from a pillow under the corpse, originated from within a domestic context. Deposition of flowers as part of the burial is discussed on the basis of the insect fauna. The absence of a body and any associated post burial decay fauna implies its exhumation and disposal elsewhere and this is discussed in the context of other exhumed medieval burials and Saga and other sources., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Summary: Events after the sinking of the hospital ship Llandovery Castle on June 27, 1918, by the German submarine U-86 outraged Canadians. Survivors aboard a single life raft gave evidence that many of the 234 souls lost had made it to lifeboats but were rammed and shot by the submarine. Many of those who died were nurses. Three German officers were charged with war crimes after the war. The submarine's captain evaded capture. The remaining two officers' defence that they were following the captain's orders failed and they were convicted. This ruling was used as a precedent to dismiss similar claims at the war crime trials after the Second World War. It is also the basis of the order given to members of modern militaries, including the Canadian Armed Forces, that it is illegal to carry out an illegal order.

A brief historical account of the Halifax Explosion, one of North America's greatest mass urban trauma casualty events of the 20th century. This disaster, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the result of the cataclysmic explosion of a fully loaded World War I munitions ship on the densely waterfront of that city, resulting in nearly 2000 fatalities and 9000 injured. It remains a case study in response to disasters which overwhelm local medical capabilities., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Introduction: Other contributors to this collection have evoked the disparate worlds inhabited by Sir William Wilde., Aims: To provide an overall assessment of his career., Materials and Methods: Looking at the historical conditions that made possible such a career spanning such disparate worlds. Deploying methodologies developed by historians of medicine and sociologists of science, the article brings together Wilde the nineteenth century clinician and Dublin man of science, the Wilde of the Census and of the west of Ireland, William Wilde Victorian medical man and Wilde the Irish medical man-the historian of Irish medical traditions and the biographer of Irish medical men, and William Wilde as an Irish Victorian., Conclusions: A variety of close British Isles parallels can be drawn between Wilde and his cohort in the medical elite of Dublin and their clinical peers in Edinburgh and London both in terms of clinical practice and self-presentation and in terms of the social and political challenges facing their respective ancient regime hegemonies in an age of democratic radicalisation. The shared ideological interests of Wilde and his cohort, however, were also challenged by the socio-political particularities and complexities of Ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century culminating in the catastrophe of the Great Famine. William Wilde saw the practice of scientific medicine as offering a means of deliverance from historical catastrophe for Irish society and invoked a specifically Irish scientific and medical tradition going back to the engagement with the condition of Ireland by enlightened medical men in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th numerous asbestos industries began operations in various parts of the world. At the time of the First World War there is ample evidence of the use of this mineral in shipbuilding, the aircraft industry and in the construction industry. In the years 1912-17 the writer Franz Kafka was co-proprietor of a small asbestos factory in Prague. Some of the writer's novels and journal pages were inspired by this experience. In this way asbestos entered into the history of 20th century European literature. In 1917 asbestos extraction was started at the quarry in Balangero, near Turin, Italy. Risks related to the use of asbestos were known at the beginning of the 20th century and legislation aimed at preventing the harmful effects of the mineral were approved in Italy.

Sanitary and hygienic state of the Baltic navy ships in the 18th century was considered as unsatisfactory due to inappropriate habitation conditions answering hygienic requirements. The reason for the low ship habitation of that time was limited technological possibilities of the sail shipbuilding, lack of appropriate labour, and life and rest conditions for navy servicemen. In fact, wooden ships were not suitable for life activity of the navy crew, but contributed to disease increase. Because of the rapid development of the' navy hygiene and improvement of shipbuilding technologies, sanitary and hygienic state of local navy ships had became improving. With a glance on recommendations, developed by physicians D.P.Sinopeus and A.G.Bakherakht, were made following improvements: were implemented ventilators on ships, daily fumigation of ships rooms, monitoring of personal hygiene.

The authors analysed the history of the Saint-Petersburg naval hospital, founded in October, 1715 by Peter the Great, defined its role in the key historical events during organisation of medical, aid delivery to wounded and patients, discussed current tasks, concerning development of hospital art when forming modern image of the navy of the Russian Federation.

In the nineteenth century travelling by ship became faster due to the introduction of the steam engine. Population growth, economic crises and food shortages forced millions of Italians to consider migration towards the Americas as a real opportunity. Travel conditions on ships and steamers were particularly difficult. People were crammed into dormitories where ventilation was poor, food was insufficient, hygiene was appalling and promiscuity was rife. Under such conditions, epidemics of cholera, typhus and measles were all too likely to develop, but mycobacterium tuberculosis also proliferated. The health authorities attempted to block the spread of epidemics by means of either health licenses - papers certifying good health of the crew and passengers, which had to be exhibited on arrival - or quarantine, involving the ship and all its contents, if infectious diseases were detected or suspicious deaths occurred during the ship's voyage. In this article the particularly unfortunate stories of Italian immigrants, who boarded ships and steamers, are reported. In the second half of the nineteenth century, but also in the first decades of the twentieth, millions of Italians whose aim was to reach the Americas paid a very high price. Italy did not provide acceptable living conditions for millions of farmers and town-dwellers, and migration in search of work was in many cases the only solution. Although many during their sea voyages became ill or died of starvation or infectious diseases, migration, supported by hope, continued.

Rescue excavations recovered a skeleton that resurrect the contemporary dramatic history of Austria in the 17th century as troops besieged Vienna in the second Osmanic-Habsburg war. Unique for Central Europe is the evidence of a completely preserved camel skeleton uncovered in a large refuse pit. The male individual of slender stature indicates a few but characteristic pathological changes revealing not a beast of burden but probably a valuable riding animal. Anatomical and morphometrical analyses suggest a hybrid confirmed by the ancient DNA analyses resulting in the presence of a dromedary in the maternal and a Bactrian camel in the paternal line.

Two bottles of beer from an about 170-year-old shipwreck (M1 Fö 403.3) near the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea were analyzed. Hop components and their degradation compounds showed that the bottles contained two different beers, one more strongly hopped than the other. The hops used contained higher levels of β-acids than modern varieties and were added before the worts were boiled, converting α-acids to iso-α-acids and β-acids to hulupones. High levels of organic acids, carbonyl compounds, and glucose indicated extensive bacterial and enzyme activity during aging. However, concentrations of yeast-derived flavor compounds were similar to those of modern beers, except that 3-methylbutyl acetate was unusually low in both beers and 2-phenylethanol and possibly 2-phenylethyl acetate were unusually high in one beer. Concentrations of phenolic compounds were similar to those in modern lagers and ales.

The maritime historian working as litigation support and expert witness faces many challenges, including identifying and analyzing case law associated with admiralty subjects, cultural resource management law, and general historical topics. The importance of the unique knowledge of the historian in the maritime context is demonstrated by a case study of attempts to salvage the shipwreck Atlantic, the remains of a merchant vessel built and enrolled in the United States and lost in the Canadian waters of Lake Erie in 1852.

Son, grandson, great grandson, grandnephew of a medical doctor on both sides, Louis Vincelet dreamt of becoming a white clown, and ultimately his medical uniform in the merchant navy was not so different, during his long career with the Transatlantic General Company up to the age of 55. The sea has been his great source of inspiration, even when he had settled in Paris, taking care of the "forts des halles" and of artists in the main Parisian circuses.