I've been thinking this week about the Ghana 'Family Values' draft Bill and its clause 23 which would "assist" (their word) parents in securing surgery for a child with variation in sex characteristics. Considering the amount of evidence out there on the danger of such surgery on children - the story of David Reimer is… Continue reading The moving clitoris
Tag: history
Not-so-Great Courses
One of the Google alerts I have to notify me of anything new in my various fields of interest is on the word "Hippocrates". On 5 March 2021 it came up with a link to a page called 'The Foundations of Modern Medicine', which appears to be a short summary of a section of a… Continue reading Not-so-Great Courses
Quote/unquote: basic errors in using the internet for doing history
Just occasionally, even I am shocked at how people don't bother to look at the basics when usingĀ a web page as evidence for their arguments: who wrote this? when did they write it? what's their evidence? are they using that evidence properly? This happened today. I was engaging in one of those chats on Twitter… Continue reading Quote/unquote: basic errors in using the internet for doing history
Being a historian: when the personal is historical
On the theme of my favourite history blogs, as introduced here: another blog I enjoy very much is Nursing Clio. It took me a while to 'get' the title; I used to think it was a nursing history blog, but it's far more than that. The USP, among medical history blogs, is the point that… Continue reading Being a historian: when the personal is historical
Agnodice: reading the story
Agnodice, 'the first midwife'? Why this is a myth, and a powerful one at that.
Mistaking histories 