Question, about this part of the letter: "I have four day nurses and five night nurses (female) a ward-master, and four orderlies".
Does anyone know why it was important to point out they were female? Were army nurses typically male?
Anyways, I'm reading about the 1918 flu a lot lately and came upon parts of this text multiple times. I'm still not sure if it's making me more or less paranoid about Covid-19, but it's definitely fascinating.
I've googled around a bit and when Florence Nightingale did her thing, it was mostly male nurses in the military. By early 1900s, this had changed, at least in the US, and most nurses were female.
I'm sure if we start a Twitter storm about it, we can get him cancelled. /s
Personally I think it was just observational, perhaps they were the only women in the place, so they were the exception. From what I know, historically nurses have been mostly female - but would be interested to find out if this was different.
> It is salutary to remember that we do not really understand why the devastating pandemic of 1918-19 was so severe, and that we cannot therefore be confident that our modern medical measures would succeed against a similar future challenge.
Could it be that very dangerous viruses emerge more often, but only when they fall on "(very) fertile ground", that they then spread? The WW1-circumstances (a lot of men together on small space and harsh conditions) have contributed a lot, that the "spanish flu" spread, while others did not spread and so never became known to us ?
I found a newspaper message from the 19th century that described a flu that gave pneumonia and undertakers hadn’t seen anything like it since the Cholera epidemics, this article was from Spain around 1840’s.
This would be quite hard to discover bar someone having access to army records of that time or having a family connection, I think. Not only has more than a century passed, there's also the issue of the letter simply being signed "(Sgd) Roy". Roy isn't that uncommon of a first or last name.
If, indeed, the Burt that the letter is addressed to has the surname Bouell or worked with someone named Bouell, that could help narrow things down substantially. If Burt is found, the Roy in question could be found as well.
Since "Bouell" isn't a word, but it is a name, and "Bouells" is a plausible misspelling of "bowels", it could be a pun connecting the two. (medical bowel care and a person named Bouell)
Unless it's something specific between them, perhaps it means to keep the heart open, to stay in kindness and compassion. Which would be a traditional, positive thing to say to a dear friend at the end of a letter. Or a physician joke between them, alternatively.
So, going beyond the depressing, I think one good thing that will come out of all this since this situation isn't experienced in any of our lifetimes (including our elders) we have to reach back to history to find comparisons. Maybe this will spark a curiosity in history!
There's a number of really great history channels on YouTube; I particularly like "The Armchair Historian".
An historian on Twitter suggested people should keep journals of how COVID-19 affects their everyday lives.
I've been doing it as a method of self-reflection, and found it really valuable. I end up not just enumerating the changes to my life, but exploring how I am responding to them, trying to describe how they're affecting me emotionally, etc.
It's just for me, so I don't worry about missing days or being dramatic, or writing in an organized manner. But it's been really interesting, and not at all the chore I expected.
> There's a number of really great history channels on YouTube
I really rate Drunk History (I generally don’t like Hollywood humour, nor American history, but somehow it is done brilliantly and is super informative).
I find the language very beautiful. How come we don’t write like this anymore? Where does one learn to speak like that? We don’t see beautiful language on emails.
I wonder if, like with the 1918 pandemic, we'll find later that the first cases were somewhere other than China, but that place was better at keeping it under wraps.
Your meaning is presumably the opposite of what you say: that since the 1918 influenza was and is commonly called "the Spanish flu", it's unreasonable to complain at certain politicians calling the current pandemic something like "the Chinese virus".
I agree with the analogy, but I think it goes the other way.
The "Spanish flu" was, so far as anyone can tell, not originally from Spain, nor was it especially bad there. It got called "the Spanish flu" because Spain was more honest than other countries about how much of it they had (there was a lot of deception going around on account of there being a war). And a hundred years later it's still being called "the Spanish flu" as if Spain were somehow to blame for it.
That's a really bad outcome.
(Obviously, its badness pales in comparison with the badness of the thing itself and the suffering and death it caused. But, as merely terminological things go, it's really bad.)
It would be much better if everyone didn't call the 1918 influenza "the Spanish flu", but obviously it's too late for that now. And it would be much better if we didn't spend the next century calling today's pandemic "the Chinese virus". The Chinese have handled it better than a lot of other countries, after all.
(It's slightly less unreasonable to call this one "the Chinese virus" than to call the 1918 one "the Spanish flu", because it does seem as if it did in fact originate in China, and an initial bad response by the Chinese authorities may be one reason why it wasn't better contained. I still don't think it's a name China should be saddled with for the next hundred years.)
It was called the Spanish flu because they were a neutral country and hence the reporters were allowed to report on the flu. It doesn't have much more than that in common with Spain.
[+] [-] Insanity|6 years ago|reply
Does anyone know why it was important to point out they were female? Were army nurses typically male?
Anyways, I'm reading about the 1918 flu a lot lately and came upon parts of this text multiple times. I'm still not sure if it's making me more or less paranoid about Covid-19, but it's definitely fascinating.
[+] [-] DoreenMichele|6 years ago|reply
https://history.amedd.army.mil/ANCWebsite/articles/malenurse...
I've googled around a bit and when Florence Nightingale did her thing, it was mostly male nurses in the military. By early 1900s, this had changed, at least in the US, and most nurses were female.
[+] [-] bArray|6 years ago|reply
Personally I think it was just observational, perhaps they were the only women in the place, so they were the exception. From what I know, historically nurses have been mostly female - but would be interested to find out if this was different.
[+] [-] jiveturkey|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Merrill|6 years ago|reply
From the introduction to the letter in the British Medical Journal published 1979. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1599810/pdf/brm...
This still seems to be the case for Covid-19.
[+] [-] i_am_new_here|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikorym|6 years ago|reply
This is what essentially causes the "W" curve as opposed to Covid-19's "J" curve.
Edit: Also as opposed to normal flu's "V" curve.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_release_syndrome
[+] [-] prox|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekianjo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnJamesRambo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WilTimSon|6 years ago|reply
One fact that could help the search is in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22703434
If, indeed, the Burt that the letter is addressed to has the surname Bouell or worked with someone named Bouell, that could help narrow things down substantially. If Burt is found, the Roy in question could be found as well.
[+] [-] daotoad|6 years ago|reply
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%27til
[+] [-] axaxs|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevula|6 years ago|reply
https://www.etymonline.com/word/until
[+] [-] david_draco|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emmelaich|6 years ago|reply
"Keep Your Bowels Open"
Whether Bouells is a typo or pun I don't know.
[+] [-] rob74|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gowld|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adventured|6 years ago|reply
https://www.etymonline.com/word/bowel
[+] [-] lnyng|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yingw787|6 years ago|reply
There's a number of really great history channels on YouTube; I particularly like "The Armchair Historian".
[+] [-] favorited|6 years ago|reply
I've been doing it as a method of self-reflection, and found it really valuable. I end up not just enumerating the changes to my life, but exploring how I am responding to them, trying to describe how they're affecting me emotionally, etc.
It's just for me, so I don't worry about missing days or being dramatic, or writing in an organized manner. But it's been really interesting, and not at all the chore I expected.
[+] [-] robocat|6 years ago|reply
I really rate Drunk History (I generally don’t like Hollywood humour, nor American history, but somehow it is done brilliantly and is super informative).
Typhoid Mary episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12wh0lfHb2U
PS: Typhoid is a bacterial infection, so only somewhat relevant.
[+] [-] LeoTinnitus|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnL4|6 years ago|reply
Polio was feared in the 1950s, and pools and movie theaters closed and physical distancing was recommended.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/10/16/1626708...
(The covid-19 numbers FAR outstrip the polio numbers.)
[+] [-] tomjuggler|6 years ago|reply
The book is free to read on project Gutenberg.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/376/376-h/376-h.htm
[+] [-] hi41|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0x8BADF00D|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] saati|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] purplezooey|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dahoon|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] s_y_n_t_a_x|6 years ago|reply
There was a respiratory disease outbreak in China in 1917 that had symptoms identical to the Spanish Flu.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140123-spanis...
[+] [-] TheHypnotist|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kye|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] draw_down|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] gjm11|6 years ago|reply
I agree with the analogy, but I think it goes the other way.
The "Spanish flu" was, so far as anyone can tell, not originally from Spain, nor was it especially bad there. It got called "the Spanish flu" because Spain was more honest than other countries about how much of it they had (there was a lot of deception going around on account of there being a war). And a hundred years later it's still being called "the Spanish flu" as if Spain were somehow to blame for it.
That's a really bad outcome.
(Obviously, its badness pales in comparison with the badness of the thing itself and the suffering and death it caused. But, as merely terminological things go, it's really bad.)
It would be much better if everyone didn't call the 1918 influenza "the Spanish flu", but obviously it's too late for that now. And it would be much better if we didn't spend the next century calling today's pandemic "the Chinese virus". The Chinese have handled it better than a lot of other countries, after all.
(It's slightly less unreasonable to call this one "the Chinese virus" than to call the 1918 one "the Spanish flu", because it does seem as if it did in fact originate in China, and an initial bad response by the Chinese authorities may be one reason why it wasn't better contained. I still don't think it's a name China should be saddled with for the next hundred years.)
[+] [-] mikorym|6 years ago|reply