John Napier, born at Merchiston in 1550, published The Whole Revelation of St. John in 1594; and he appears to have regarded that theological polemic as his most important achievement. Napier's invention of logarithms (with greatly advanced spherical trigonometry) was published in 1614 as Descriptio Canonis Logarithmorum; whereupon the mathematicians of Europe instantly acclaimed Napier as the greatest of them all. In 1617 he published Rabdologiae, which explained several devices for aiding calculation: (1) numbering rods to aid multiplication (known as 'Napier's bones'); (2) other rods to aid evaluation of square and cube roots; (3) the first publication of binary arithmetic, as far as square root extraction; and (4) the Promptuary for multiplication of numbers (up to 10 digits each), which has a strong claim to be regarded as the first calculating machine. Napier's explanation of the construction of his logarithms was published posthumously in 1619 as Constructio Canonis Logarithmorum, in which he developed much of the differential calculus in order to define his logarithms as the solution of a differential equation and then constructed strict upper and lower bounds for the solution. His incomplete manuscript on arithmetic and algebra (written in the early 1590s) was published in 1839 as De Arte Logistica. This thesis provides the first English translations of De Arte Logistica and of Rabdologiae, and it reprints Edward Wright's English translation (1616) of the Descriptio and W. R. Macdonald's English translation (1889) of the Constructio. Extensive commentaries are given on Napier's work on arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry and logarithms. The history of trigonometry is traced from ancient Babylonia and Greece through mediaeval Islam to Renaissance Europe. Napier's logarithms (and spherical trigonometry) resulted in an explosion of logarithms over most of the world, with European ships using logarithms for navigation as far as Japan by 1640. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2006. / (UMI)AAI3243691. Adviser: William C. Summers. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-12, Section: A, page: 4675.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4205. Adviser: Steven Wagner. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-139) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

John Napier, born at Merchiston in 1550, published The Whole Revelation of St. John in 1594; and he appears to have regarded that theological polemic as his most important achievement. Napier's invention of logarithms (with greatly advanced spherical trigonometry) was published in 1614 as Descriptio Canonis Logarithmorum; whereupon the mathematicians of Europe instantly acclaimed Napier as the greatest of them all. In 1617 he published Rabdologiae, which explained several devices for aiding calculation: (1) numbering rods to aid multiplication (known as 'Napier's bones'); (2) other rods to aid evaluation of square and cube roots; (3) the first publication of binary arithmetic, as far as square root extraction; and (4) the Promptuary for multiplication of numbers (up to 10 digits each), which has a strong claim to be regarded as the first calculating machine. Napier's explanation of the construction of his logarithms was published posthumously in 1619 as Constructio Canonis Logarithmorum, in which he developed much of the differential calculus in order to define his logarithms as the solution of a differential equation and then constructed strict upper and lower bounds for the solution. His incomplete manuscript on arithmetic and algebra (written in the early 1590s) was published in 1839 as De Arte Logistica. This thesis provides the first English translations of De Arte Logistica and of Rabdologiae, and it reprints Edward Wright's English translation (1616) of the Descriptio and W. R. Macdonald's English translation (1889) of the Constructio. Extensive commentaries are given on Napier's work on arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry and logarithms. The history of trigonometry is traced from ancient Babylonia and Greece through mediaeval Islam to Renaissance Europe. Napier's logarithms (and spherical trigonometry) resulted in an explosion of logarithms over most of the world, with European ships using logarithms for navigation as far as Japan by 1640. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

abstract: The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the official guidebook to psychiatric diagnosis in America, currently exempts the recently bereaved from being diagnosed with depression unless their experiences are marked by feelings of extreme worthlessness, significant functional impairment, psychotic symptoms, psychomotor retardation, or suicidal ideation. Ordinary symptoms of depression, such as sleeplessness or loss of appetite, are considered healthy, functional emotional responses to the loss of a loved one. The bereavement exemption is slated for removal in the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, functionally redefining the emotional distress of bereavement as a psychiatric disorder. This study employs genealogical analysis to expose the multiplicity of forces that shape modern psychiatry and the ways that the redefinition of depression functions strategically in the social negotiation of truth and power. Under the guise of etiological and prescriptive neutrality, the redefinition of depression promotes a deeply biological model of psychiatric disorder, a medicalized understanding of human emotion, and a pharmacological approach to the treatment of emotional distress. Through genealogical analysis, this project seeks to enable informed, meaningful ethico-political responses to these developments. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Communication 2011

The everyday life of the Royal Society in the second half of the nineteenth century is a largely unworked field within the history of Victorian science. As the principal forum for English science, the Royal Society was a crucial context for' the working out of the major changes in science over the period. The Society made its own singular responses to the developing needs of science for funds to support increasingly expensive researches, and for a more efficient means of publication for the growing number of active workers. These aspects are dealt with at length in the first section. The image of science which was held to by some of its leading practitioners and organisers is very significant in tracing the developing tensions within Victorian science. This led to a widespread sensitivity to any commercial or political involvements on the part of prominent men of science, which might have seemed to compromise their disinterestedness. An area which is very revealing of many characteristic modes of thought entertained by Victorian men of' science, is the evaluation of' scientific performance. Enshrined in the refereeing procedures of the Royal Society, this process provides many insights into the contemporary meaning of the issues of the day. For a long period following 1870 the government of the Royal Society was in the hand of the group of scientific naturalists who surrounded Thomas Huxley. Their personal ambitions and energetic support of the cause of' scientific naturalism contributed to an extremely vigourous phase of the Royal Society's history. A detailed coverage is provided of the spectacular rise and surprisingly rapid decline of the power and influence of this group in this focal point of Victorian science.

<p> Using performance and cultural study lenses, this dissertation employs a case study methodology to explore how embodied Black male political voice was used during the 1968 Summer Olympic medal stand protest in Mexico City, Mexico. Creative moral protest is a "hallmark of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience" <i>The art of moral protest</i>, (Jasper, 1997). By the late 1960s, several innovative expressions of political activism, involving Black men, had been set forth in the United States. However, on October 16, 1968 in Mexico City, the world witnessed one of history's most memorable and iconic protests. Using a brazen and unprecedented style, two Black US college athletes expanded socio/economic discourse relating to Black Americans. Epitomizing innovation in moral protest and cultural representation, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, with raised Black-gloved fists, furthered international awareness to the struggle for equal rights in America. Collectively, the track stars fashioned an unprecedented cultural discourse using imagery and symbolism as their political voice during the 1968 Olympic medal stand awards ceremony. </p><p> Grappling with political forces of White supremacy and institutional racism, the two Olympians combined social aptitude with academic and political consciousness. In doing so, the San Jose State University students used a visual protest language that aided in how the world defined politically conscious Black masculinity. Their display during the 1968 Summer Olympic medal stand ceremony helped to introduce many to the disenfranchised voice of Black America, still echoing against the backdrop of the ideology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Following the deaths of King and Malcolm X. The two Olympians sought to expand upon the successful use of symbolic boycotts and protest marches to challenge an American meta-narrative about Black citizenship and identity. Black males, in particular, were involved in highly visible groups such as: <i> The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense</i> and, <i>SNCC</i>. The two met Professor Harry Edwards, leader of <i>the Olympic Project for Human Rights</i> (<i>OPHR</i>), while students at San Jose State University. They later joined <i>OPHR</i>. According to Edwards, author of the book <i>The Struggle That Must Be</i>, (Edwards, 1980), an Olympic boycott protest was intended to "set forth the imagery of intelligent Black men who were socially conscious" (Edwards, 1980,p.28).</p><p>

"Found at Sea" is a historical study centered on the Atlantic Ocean. This dissertation employs ships' logbooks in combination with a GIS mapping methodology to address the ocean, itself, as a site for historical developments. Eighteenth-century mariners sailed the ocean in more varied ways than historians have previously described. This dissertation demonstrates that the Atlantic Ocean of the late eighteenth century was a highly-populated, very social, international space. It was normal for a ship to see another ship about half of the days while it was at sea. During peacetime these sightings could lead to friendly exchanges of news, food, and even spare parts in case of emergency. During wartime, shipping patterns adjusted to reflect new trading alliances and the threat of enemy vessels.

In spite of a vast and robust literature on madness and its institutions, colonial Mexico remains unchartered domain and little is known about the Hospital de San Hipólito in Mexico City, the first hospital of the Americas to specialize in the care and confinement of the mentally disturbed. Founded in 1567 by a penitent conquistador, San Hipólito provided caridad or charity, including specialized medical and custodial services, to some of New Spain’s most marginal, troubled, and troublesome subjects. This dissertation examines the history of this precocious colonial institution—including its growing alignment with both the Inquisition and secular criminal courts from which it often received patients—raising questions about medical and nonmedical understandings of madness, or locura, and its connection to categories of race, class, and gender; patient experience and agency; and how the hospital fit (and did not) into larger imperial agendas. Although the dissertation charts the entirety of San Hipólito’s colonial history, a major focal point is the second half of the eighteenth century. It was during this period—often associated with the tightening of colonial rule under the absolutist Bourbon monarchs—that the hospital was remodeled and amplified, and its wards increasingly populated by allegedly insane criminals forcefully confined by mandate of the Inquisition and the secular law enforcement. Ostensibly intended for pobres dementes (mad paupers), by the late eighteenth century, San Hipólito had assumed a central role in the management of madness not just in connection to poverty, but also in relation to a range of religious and sexual offenses, and violent crimes such as murder. Drawing on hospital records, as well as criminal and Inquisition cases, I stress that such changes were broadly linked to the growing medicalization of madness rather than to its putative criminalization or the transformation of the hospital into an instrument of social control. San Hipólito was far from a bricks-and-mortar embodiment of a powerful colonial regime; its history reveals the ad hoc nature of confinement, and cases involving patient flight and concerns over feigned madness underscore the inability of the colonial state to fully govern the lives of its subjects. / History of Science

While scholars have argued that modern medical authority over sexuality stands in some relation to earlier religious discourse, modern religion and its new relationship to medicine are absent from these narratives. This dissertation takes up just such a study through narrating the emergence of modern pastoral counseling and its assumptions, categories, and therapeutic techniques, all of which were deeply entangled with modern sciences of the mind. Modern pastoral counseling marks a decisive discontinuity from the long tradition of philosophical and Christian care for the soul in its relation to medicine and in its view of the self. This dissertation argues that mid-century American Protestant understandings of sexuality depended on a modern psychological conception of the self. Through analysis of archival documents, theological texts, and hospital case histories from the early clinical pastoral training movement, this study investigates the shifting pastoral rhetoric used to understand sexual maladjustment, and it traces shifting attempts to rework Christian sexual ethics. While psychiatry was the primary framework for making sense of queer love—at times even for queer people themselves—some fashioned new and imaginative languages for expressing forms of queer love and queer religion. Juxtaposing clinical discourse with these diverse genres not only illuminates the limits of contemporary debates about religion and sexuality, but it also illustrates the importance of studying entanglements of religion, science, and medicine in everyday life and social practice. / Religion, Committee on the Study of