Eleanor Kuhns's Blog, page 6
May 4, 2020
Epidemics - Tuberculosis
In my Will Rees mysteries, he meets people who are ill with tuberculosis several times. The frequency of deaths from this disease in my fiction in not an accident. It was an epidemic and still has not been eradicated. In 2017, there were more than 10 million cases of active TB which resulted in 1.6 million deaths; it is therefore the number one cause of death from an infectious disease. Most of these deaths, and most of the new infections, occur in the developing world.
I was mostly familiar with TB as ‘consumption’, a disease that afflicted Victorian poets. Although TB was common in both the poets, the upper classes and the slum-dwellers, it was not a new disease during Victorian times. It has been around for millennia. Bison remains from 17,000 years ago display the effects of the disease. (No one is sure if TB jumped to humans from the bovine like smallpox or whether it developed independently.) TB scars have been found on Neolithic skeletons and on the spines of Egyptian mummies.
So, it has been around a very long time. Despite that, it was not identified as a single disease until 1820 and the bacillus that caused it was not discovered until 1882 (by Robert Koch. He received the Nobel prize but failed to recognize that one of the transmissions of TB was via infected milk.)
Before the advent of antibiotics, and even with the best care in the sanatoriums set up for this purpose, 50% of the patients died within five years. In 1815, one in four died of the illness in England.
Antibiotics beat back the disease, but new drug resistant strains raise the possibility of a new epidemic. Even now, in modern times, about one quarter of the world’s population is infected with TB.
I was mostly familiar with TB as ‘consumption’, a disease that afflicted Victorian poets. Although TB was common in both the poets, the upper classes and the slum-dwellers, it was not a new disease during Victorian times. It has been around for millennia. Bison remains from 17,000 years ago display the effects of the disease. (No one is sure if TB jumped to humans from the bovine like smallpox or whether it developed independently.) TB scars have been found on Neolithic skeletons and on the spines of Egyptian mummies.
So, it has been around a very long time. Despite that, it was not identified as a single disease until 1820 and the bacillus that caused it was not discovered until 1882 (by Robert Koch. He received the Nobel prize but failed to recognize that one of the transmissions of TB was via infected milk.)
Before the advent of antibiotics, and even with the best care in the sanatoriums set up for this purpose, 50% of the patients died within five years. In 1815, one in four died of the illness in England.
Antibiotics beat back the disease, but new drug resistant strains raise the possibility of a new epidemic. Even now, in modern times, about one quarter of the world’s population is infected with TB.
April 20, 2020
Epidemics - Yellow Fever
ellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease spread by an infected female mosquito. It began in Africa and was transported to the New World via the slave trade. Because it was so prevalent in Africa, many Africans had some immunity to it. But so many white men died in what is now Nigeria, it was called ‘white man’s grave.’
In most cases, symptoms include the usual: fever, chills, loss of appetite, muscle pains particularly in the back, and headaches, exactly like other diseases such as the flu. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In about 15% of people, within a day of improving the fever comes back, abdominal pain occurs, and liver damage causes jaundice. Because of this, yellow fever has been nicknamed Yellow Jack and Bronze John. Death occurs in up to half of those who get severe disease. A vaccine exists for yellow fever and some countries require it before travel.
Although yellow fever is most prevalent in tropical-like climates, major epidemics have occurred in Africa, Europe and the Americas. New York City had an outbreak in 1668 and other cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore had outbreaks in 1669. All three saw other occurrences in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1793, Philadelphia, which was then the capital of the country saw an epidemic. Several thousand people died. (The government at that time fled the city.) Dr. Benjamin Rush gained fame during this disaster. A great book to read about this episode in Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793.
Since the disease traveled along steamboat routes, New Orleans suffered many major epidemics during the 19th centuries, causing 100,000 – 150,000 deaths in total. It was greatly feared and the wealthy abandoned the city to summer homes to escape the disease. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January series refers to Yellow fever throughout.
Yellow fever is a viral disease spread by an infected female mosquito. It began in Africa and was transported to the New World via the slave trade. Because it was so prevalent in Africa, many Africans had some immunity to it. But so many white men died in what is now Nigeria, it was called ‘white man’s grave.’
In most cases, symptoms include the usual: fever, chills, loss of appetite, muscle pains particularly in the back, and headaches, exactly like other diseases such as the flu. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In about 15% of people, within a day of improving the fever comes back, abdominal pain occurs, and liver damage causes jaundice. Because of this, yellow fever has been nicknamed Yellow Jack and Bronze John. Death occurs in up to half of those who get severe disease. A vaccine exists for yellow fever and some countries require it before travel.
Although yellow fever is most prevalent in tropical-like climates, major epidemics have occurred in Africa, Europe and the Americas. New York City had an outbreak in 1668 and other cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore had outbreaks in 1669. All three saw other occurrences in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1793, Philadelphia, which was then the capital of the country saw an epidemic. Several thousand people died. (The government at that time fled the city.) Dr. Benjamin Rush gained fame during this disaster. A great book to read about this episode in Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793.
Since the disease traveled along steamboat routes, New Orleans suffered many major epidemics during the 19th centuries, causing 100,000 – 150,000 deaths in total. It was greatly feared and the wealthy abandoned the city to summer homes to escape the disease. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January series refers to Yellow fever throughout.
April 14, 2020
Epidemics - The Black Death
Humans are in a constant battle with infectious agents. (We are fighting COVID -19 even now.) Some are new, or mutated . Others have been with us a long long time. As archaeologists excavate, they find long ago remains bearing the scars of such diseases as tuberculosis and smallpox.
lthough the Bubonic Plague was known prior to the outbreak in the Middle Ages, literature and art fully illustrates the effects of the global epidemic that hit Europe in 1347. The primary host for Yserina Pestis is rats. Climate change on the steppes sent the rats into populated area with the infected fleas. Even then, when travel was difficult, people traded with one another. The disease went westward along the Silk Road and onto the ships of the Italian merchants. From there, the disease traveled to Genoa, Italy and Europe at large.
In the epidemic of the fourteenth century, it is estimated 100 million people died. The population did not rebound to previous levels for 200 years. Entire villages disappeared as every single inhabitant perished. Waves of infection continued until the 1800s.
There were three forms of the disease. The type that created the swollen lymph nodes (buboes) and the pneumonic had a fatality rate of about 90 to 95%. The septicemia form was always fatal.
here were a number of consequences of the dramatic drop in population. Rapid reforestation led to a change in the climate with some historians tying the Little Ice Age to it. Another was the change in the society. With so few laborers, the survivors were able to fight for, and receive, higher wages. (The primary sources are almost funny as the nobles complain about the exorbitant wages being demanded. And this new class (the beginning of the middle class of tradesman and craft workers, actually had the temerity to wear gold and fur and 'ape their betters.'
The plague is still around and every now and then a case pops up in the Desert Southwest. Antibiotics has changed the world, however. A bacterial disease, it falls to our new medicine. I shudder to imagine what might happen should Yserina Pestis become resistant.
A really good fiction book to read is The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. It really captures the desperation as one after another dies. Because it involves time travel, it is classed as Science Fiction.
lthough the Bubonic Plague was known prior to the outbreak in the Middle Ages, literature and art fully illustrates the effects of the global epidemic that hit Europe in 1347. The primary host for Yserina Pestis is rats. Climate change on the steppes sent the rats into populated area with the infected fleas. Even then, when travel was difficult, people traded with one another. The disease went westward along the Silk Road and onto the ships of the Italian merchants. From there, the disease traveled to Genoa, Italy and Europe at large.
In the epidemic of the fourteenth century, it is estimated 100 million people died. The population did not rebound to previous levels for 200 years. Entire villages disappeared as every single inhabitant perished. Waves of infection continued until the 1800s.
There were three forms of the disease. The type that created the swollen lymph nodes (buboes) and the pneumonic had a fatality rate of about 90 to 95%. The septicemia form was always fatal.
here were a number of consequences of the dramatic drop in population. Rapid reforestation led to a change in the climate with some historians tying the Little Ice Age to it. Another was the change in the society. With so few laborers, the survivors were able to fight for, and receive, higher wages. (The primary sources are almost funny as the nobles complain about the exorbitant wages being demanded. And this new class (the beginning of the middle class of tradesman and craft workers, actually had the temerity to wear gold and fur and 'ape their betters.'
The plague is still around and every now and then a case pops up in the Desert Southwest. Antibiotics has changed the world, however. A bacterial disease, it falls to our new medicine. I shudder to imagine what might happen should Yserina Pestis become resistant.
A really good fiction book to read is The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. It really captures the desperation as one after another dies. Because it involves time travel, it is classed as Science Fiction.
March 28, 2020
Will Rees and the Tarot
Why did I include the Tarot in A Circle of Dead Girls? The short answer is I wanted to be able to comment on the action and on Rees's investigation in an oblique way. Although Bambola is the character who believes in the cards, she also does not listen to what they are saying to her. And Rees, although he is skeptical of anything that is not concrete, is surprised by the accuracy of some of the readings.
Do I believe? Well, I have friends who do. The readings they have done for me have sometimes been surprisingly accurate. So how does one align something that purports to foretell the future with the practicalities of the here and now?
I believe that some people are unusually intuitive. We all use non-verbal clues to understand another person's distress, anger or joy. Some of us are amazingly good at that. I suspect that the cards allow this intuitive reader to focus and, in doing so, really hone in on the person sitting on the other side of the table and understand far more about them than they might consciously.
One further note about the tarot my mystery. Bambola associates justice with Rees. I would postulate that most of the protagonists in mystery novels have that passion. They don't give up even when threatened with death. And a good thing for those of us who love reading mystery novels.
Do I believe? Well, I have friends who do. The readings they have done for me have sometimes been surprisingly accurate. So how does one align something that purports to foretell the future with the practicalities of the here and now?
I believe that some people are unusually intuitive. We all use non-verbal clues to understand another person's distress, anger or joy. Some of us are amazingly good at that. I suspect that the cards allow this intuitive reader to focus and, in doing so, really hone in on the person sitting on the other side of the table and understand far more about them than they might consciously.
One further note about the tarot my mystery. Bambola associates justice with Rees. I would postulate that most of the protagonists in mystery novels have that passion. They don't give up even when threatened with death. And a good thing for those of us who love reading mystery novels.
December 15, 2019
Giveaway for the Shaker Murders
With the upcoming release of the eighth Will Rees Murder Mysteries (A Circle of Dead Girls), I will be offering a series of giveaways. First up, The Shaker Murders.
Fresh from allegations of witchcraft and accusations of murder. Rees and his family flee to Zion, the nearby Shaker community. But Will is there barely half a day when a body is found floating in the washtub. A cursory examination reveals the death was murder.
Other murders and a kidnapping occur and Will is tasked with identifying the murderer.
Is it someone from outside?
Or is it one of the Shakers?
Will is on the case.
Fresh from allegations of witchcraft and accusations of murder. Rees and his family flee to Zion, the nearby Shaker community. But Will is there barely half a day when a body is found floating in the washtub. A cursory examination reveals the death was murder.
Other murders and a kidnapping occur and Will is tasked with identifying the murderer.
Is it someone from outside?
Or is it one of the Shakers?
Will is on the case.
December 2, 2019
Pub Day for A Circle of Dead Girls
But the publication day last Friday was in Great Britain. Publication of the new Will Rees in the United States does not occur until the beginning of March.
The circus is coming to town. Although primitive by our standards - the circus would not even have had a canvas big top - in 1800 where entertainment options were few, the circus would have been huge. No trapeze artists, but there would be a high wire act, a clown, maybe a magician and also animal acts. Not lions or even elephants, but the more common animals such as horses, dogs, and pigs.
Who could blame the children from being excited - even the children living with the Shakers. Sadly, only the boys would be allowed inside, and the men, as women were not permitted to view such frivolity.
Circuses also provided a haven for refugees. This was only 7 years after the French Revolution and Napoleon was marching across Europe with his armies.
The circus is coming to town. Although primitive by our standards - the circus would not even have had a canvas big top - in 1800 where entertainment options were few, the circus would have been huge. No trapeze artists, but there would be a high wire act, a clown, maybe a magician and also animal acts. Not lions or even elephants, but the more common animals such as horses, dogs, and pigs.
Who could blame the children from being excited - even the children living with the Shakers. Sadly, only the boys would be allowed inside, and the men, as women were not permitted to view such frivolity.
Circuses also provided a haven for refugees. This was only 7 years after the French Revolution and Napoleon was marching across Europe with his armies.
November 14, 2019
Tightrope walkers
One of the main characters in A Circle of Dead Girls is a tightrope walker, Called rope dancers, the tightrope walkers have been a feature of the circuses for centuries. The Romans called them funambulists.
My rope dancer is nicknamed Bambola, a name that I borrowed from a famous Italian tightrope walker. These aerialists have always been popular acts. I imagine the excitement in a small farming community at seeing this act would have been high.
Many of the rope dancers were women but not all. In fact, as the circuses traveled around, dynasties that were known for aerial acts formed and became famous in their own right.
Will Rees and others in the audience of that time would not have seen an act that became arguably the most popular of all: the trapeze artists. The trapeze was developed from the tightrope; more accurately from a slack rope that the artist then hung from. The first tricks were done from a static trapeze; a rope that hung without moving. The flying trapeze was not invented until the mid-1800s by a young aerialist: Jules Leotard. He invented it by practicing over his father's swimming pool.
For many decades, the flying trapeze was one of these most popular acts ever.
My rope dancer is nicknamed Bambola, a name that I borrowed from a famous Italian tightrope walker. These aerialists have always been popular acts. I imagine the excitement in a small farming community at seeing this act would have been high.
Many of the rope dancers were women but not all. In fact, as the circuses traveled around, dynasties that were known for aerial acts formed and became famous in their own right.
Will Rees and others in the audience of that time would not have seen an act that became arguably the most popular of all: the trapeze artists. The trapeze was developed from the tightrope; more accurately from a slack rope that the artist then hung from. The first tricks were done from a static trapeze; a rope that hung without moving. The flying trapeze was not invented until the mid-1800s by a young aerialist: Jules Leotard. He invented it by practicing over his father's swimming pool.
For many decades, the flying trapeze was one of these most popular acts ever.
November 5, 2019
Acrobats
Acrobats are another piece of the circus story that has a long history. The first known depictions of acrobats jugglers appeared about 5000 years ago, in Egypt, in the early dynastic period (3000 B.C.). The Egyptians developed a strong tradition of these arts and later taught them to the Greeks. They in turn taught the arts to the Romans.
The Romans spread them throughout their Empire via itinerant troupes of performers.
Acrobatics rose independently in China.
Although the earliest performances had religious overtones, the entertainers soon realized the audiences enjoyed the performances as entertainment. This created tension with the religious powers, culminating in the Middle Ages who accused the performers of being in league with the devil. During the Reformation in England during the 1660s, all such forms of frivolity was forbidden.
The Romans spread them throughout their Empire via itinerant troupes of performers.
Acrobatics rose independently in China.
Although the earliest performances had religious overtones, the entertainers soon realized the audiences enjoyed the performances as entertainment. This created tension with the religious powers, culminating in the Middle Ages who accused the performers of being in league with the devil. During the Reformation in England during the 1660s, all such forms of frivolity was forbidden.
October 29, 2019
Clowns
When Philip Astley set up his equestrian show in England, he hired clowns to amuse the audiences between equestrian acts. Although those clown owed their history to Italy's Commedia del' Arte from the 16th century, with a little bit of court jester thrown in, the trickster character has a long long history. Folktales from around the world showcase the tricksters, sometimes amusingly and sometimes scarily.
Although the more modern clowns are figures of fun, they did not start that way. (I think Stephen King really put his finger on an atavistic fear of clowns in IT. I wonder if it is part of the same psychology that makes zombies and vampires scary; something that is looks human, or once was human, but isn't.) Even some of the characters who were supposed to be funny were also monsters. Think of Punch (from Punch and Judy) who beat his wife and murdered his children. I remember visiting the Taos reservation during a celebration. The clowns were punishers, running through the crowd and throwing people who had disobeyed customs or cultural norms into a pond of water. I was merely an onlooker and I was terrified.
Clown from the Commedia was a buffoon, a foil to the sly Harlequin, but the two characters have been rolled together. According to Wikipedia, the word clown was first recorded in 1560 meaning boor, peasant. It took on the meaning of fool. Clowns have evolved from the fool to other characters. Think Emmett Kelly's weary Willie, Charlie Chaplin's tramp. Funny and Sad both.
In any event, when Astley set up his circus, the first modern clown, Joseph Grimaldi, was so popular he became a star in his own right.
Although the more modern clowns are figures of fun, they did not start that way. (I think Stephen King really put his finger on an atavistic fear of clowns in IT. I wonder if it is part of the same psychology that makes zombies and vampires scary; something that is looks human, or once was human, but isn't.) Even some of the characters who were supposed to be funny were also monsters. Think of Punch (from Punch and Judy) who beat his wife and murdered his children. I remember visiting the Taos reservation during a celebration. The clowns were punishers, running through the crowd and throwing people who had disobeyed customs or cultural norms into a pond of water. I was merely an onlooker and I was terrified.
Clown from the Commedia was a buffoon, a foil to the sly Harlequin, but the two characters have been rolled together. According to Wikipedia, the word clown was first recorded in 1560 meaning boor, peasant. It took on the meaning of fool. Clowns have evolved from the fool to other characters. Think Emmett Kelly's weary Willie, Charlie Chaplin's tramp. Funny and Sad both.
In any event, when Astley set up his circus, the first modern clown, Joseph Grimaldi, was so popular he became a star in his own right.
October 8, 2019
A Circle of Dead Girls
A Circle of Dead Girls is set against the beginnings of the circus in the new U.S.
The circus itself, of course, is very old. Acrobatics began with the Ancient Egyptians and, independently, in China. By the Middle Ages, traveling troupes went all through Europe and England, performing at fairs and other events. But when the Puritans came to power in England, such frivolity as the circus was forbidden. The circus did not begin again until 1768 when a retired military instructor, Sergeant-Major Philip Astley, decided to display his equestrian prowess. It proved surprisingly popular and a few years later he decided to add jugglers, acrobats and other performers, ending each show with a pantomime.
A student of Astley, John Bill Ricketts, was the man who brought the circus to the United States. He'd planned to open a riding school/circus in France but with the increasing hostilities between England and France chose to go to the United States instead. Following the lead of Astley, Ricketts opened a riding school in Philadelphia first in 1792. Philadelphia was the capital of the United States at that time. When that was established and his reputation made, he built an arena for his circus in 1793.
By 1900 the circus was the most popular form of entertainment in the country.
In A Circle of Dead Girls, I posit the beginnings of the traveling circus that makes a stop in Maine. And from there lies a tale . . .
The circus itself, of course, is very old. Acrobatics began with the Ancient Egyptians and, independently, in China. By the Middle Ages, traveling troupes went all through Europe and England, performing at fairs and other events. But when the Puritans came to power in England, such frivolity as the circus was forbidden. The circus did not begin again until 1768 when a retired military instructor, Sergeant-Major Philip Astley, decided to display his equestrian prowess. It proved surprisingly popular and a few years later he decided to add jugglers, acrobats and other performers, ending each show with a pantomime.
A student of Astley, John Bill Ricketts, was the man who brought the circus to the United States. He'd planned to open a riding school/circus in France but with the increasing hostilities between England and France chose to go to the United States instead. Following the lead of Astley, Ricketts opened a riding school in Philadelphia first in 1792. Philadelphia was the capital of the United States at that time. When that was established and his reputation made, he built an arena for his circus in 1793.
By 1900 the circus was the most popular form of entertainment in the country.
In A Circle of Dead Girls, I posit the beginnings of the traveling circus that makes a stop in Maine. And from there lies a tale . . .
