http://mylondonyourlondon.com/?p=171 A cultural guide Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:45:13 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://mylondonyourlondon.com/?p=171&cpage=1#comment-102459 Michael Brooks Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:09:58 +0000 http://mylondonyourlondon.com/?p=171#comment-102459 My wife has a puppet (Chinese) that was mounted on the gateway at the 1923 Ideal Home Exhibition in London. I do know that the gateway was constructed for viewing by the Royal family at the time and was then destryoed except for a few pieces, which we have one of. Do you have any other information or media covering the Ideal Home Exhibition of 1923? My wife has a puppet (Chinese) that was mounted on the gateway at the 1923 Ideal Home Exhibition in London. I do know that the gateway was constructed for viewing by the Royal family at the time and was then destryoed except for a few pieces, which we have one of.
Do you have any other information or media covering the Ideal Home Exhibition of 1923?

]]> http://mylondonyourlondon.com/?p=171&cpage=1#comment-48045 Chameleon Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:54:58 +0000 http://mylondonyourlondon.com/?p=171#comment-48045 Of all the shudder-inducing treatments dreamed up by doctors, the tobacco enema has to be right up there. According to Jan Bondeson’s morbidly fascinating Buried Alive (New York, W.W. Norton, New York, 2002): “Antoine Louis [a surgeon at the Salpêtrière hospital in 18th century Paris] had also proposed another method of testing life, or at least stimulating the vital spark in the apparently dead person: with a powerful bellows, he administered an enema of tobacco smoke. One of the pipes of this remarkable apparatus was thrust into the anus of the apparently dead person; the other was connected, by way of a powerful bellows, to a large furnace full of tobacco. Such enemas of tobacco smoke were thought to be very beneficial and were used to try to revive not only people presumed dead but also drowned or unconscious individuals. In 1784, the Belgian physician P.J.B. Previnaire was given a prize by the Academy of Sciences in Brussels for a book on apparent death, which described and depicted an improved bellows for enemas of tobacco smoke, which he called Der Doppelbläser. These enemas were used well into the nineteenth century, particularly in Holland; modern science has discerned no physiological rationale to their use, except that the pain and indignity of having a blunt instrument violently thrust up one’s rear passage must have had some restorative effect” (pp138-40). Sadly, the author does not delve into the inspiration for the idea…Did the exhibition include an illustration of the procedure (Bondeson's book helpfully does)? Thank you for an entertaining and curiosity-whetting review - it makes me want to catch the next Eurostar across to view the exhibition! Of all the shudder-inducing treatments dreamed up by doctors, the tobacco enema has to be right up there.
According to Jan Bondeson’s morbidly fascinating Buried Alive (New York, W.W. Norton, New York, 2002): “Antoine Louis [a surgeon at the Salpêtrière hospital in 18th century Paris] had also proposed another method of testing life, or at least stimulating the vital spark in the apparently dead person: with a powerful bellows, he administered an enema of tobacco smoke. One of the pipes of this remarkable apparatus was thrust into the anus of the apparently dead person; the other was connected, by way of a powerful bellows, to a large furnace full of tobacco. Such enemas of tobacco smoke were thought to be very beneficial and were used to try to revive not only people presumed dead but also drowned or unconscious individuals. In 1784, the Belgian physician P.J.B. Previnaire was given a prize by the Academy of Sciences in Brussels for a book on apparent death, which described and depicted an improved bellows for enemas of tobacco smoke, which he called Der Doppelbläser. These enemas were used well into the nineteenth century, particularly in Holland; modern science has discerned no physiological rationale to their use, except that the pain and indignity of having a blunt instrument violently thrust up one’s rear passage must have had some restorative effect” (pp138-40). Sadly, the author does not delve into the inspiration for the idea…Did the exhibition include an illustration of the procedure (Bondeson’s book helpfully does)?
Thank you for an entertaining and curiosity-whetting review – it makes me want to catch the next Eurostar across to view the exhibition!

]]> http://mylondonyourlondon.com/?p=171&cpage=1#comment-47948 Britblog roundup #151 « Amused Cynicism Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:43:00 +0000 http://mylondonyourlondon.com/?p=171#comment-47948 [...] Bennett writes about the Sleeping and Dreaming exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London. Did you know that some of the first resuscitation devices [...] [...] Bennett writes about the Sleeping and Dreaming exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London. Did you know that some of the first resuscitation devices [...]

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