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What does the saying ‘Yankee Dodge’ mean?

With the words “We are going to try a Yankee Doge today, gentlemen, for making men insensible”, Robert Liston, senior surgeon at University College Hospital in London prepared to perform the first public operations in Europe involving the amputation of a limb while the patient was anaesthetised with Ether.

“The Yankee Dodge” to which Liston was referring to had been practised two months earlier on 16th October 1846, at a Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The hospitals first surgeon and principal founder, Dr John Collins Warren. He had successfully removed a tumour from the jaw of a 20 year old printer named Gilbert Abbot.

Ether was administered to the patient by a local dentist, Dr William Thomas Green Morton, who only a month earlier had become the first dentist to remove a tooth painlessly from a patient anaesthetised with ether.

Once Abbot was unconscious, Dr Warren cut away the tumour and shortly afterwards Abbot safely came around. ‘Did you feel any pain?’Morton asked him. ‘No,Sir,’ replied the young man ‘only some blunt thing scratching my cheek!’

Previously, operating without anaesthetics, surgeons severed arms and legs at high speed, while the patient, usually blindfolded and tied to a stretcher, remained fully conscious and screaming with pain, despite the piece of leather given to bite on.

The more compassionate surgeons mesmerised or hypnotised their patients, half suffocated them, made them intoxicated, sedated them with opium or froze the part of the body which was to be operated on.

Before serving as the anaesthetist at Warren’s history making operation, Dr Morton had been the partner of another Boston based dentist, Horace Wells, who was the first person to use nitrous oxide, or laughing gas as an anaesthetic in dental surgery.

In 1844 Dr Wells had one of his own teeth extracted while under the influence of nitrous oxide, and he later used it successfully on several patients.

Morton, however preferred ether as a means of killing pain. After his successful demonstration of surgical anaesthetic in a hospital, Morton patented his discovery under the name of ‘Letheon’.

Meanwhile, Wells campaigned to have his own use of nitrous oxide, which he claimed was safer than ether, recognised as a surgical ‘first’. It was against this background that on 21st December 1846, the Scottish born Robert Liston prepared to follow Dr Warren’s example and operate on an anaesthetised patient.

Robert Liston Surgery
Robert Liston performing an amputation in front of a crowd of spectators. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Liston entered the hospital’s operating theatre wearing his customary coat and apron which were encrusted with months of accumulated dirt. A few moments later the patient, a butler named Frederick Churchill, was bought in. He had a diseased thigh that needed amputating.

A colleague of Liston’s then applied the anaesthetic by means of an inhaling device containing a sponge soaked in ether. Liston took a long, serrated knife and rapidly sawed into the thigh. He completed the amputation in some 30 seconds without Churchill feeling a thing. Liston then turned to a spellbound audience and said ‘This Yankee Dodge, gentlemen, beats mesmerism hollow!’

Among the onlookers that days was Joseph Lister, a 19 year old student who attended several of Liston’s anatomy lectures at University College.

Lister was appalled by the unhygienic conditions in the operating theatres of the day, which he felt must put patients at risk of infection.

At the time, the death rate in British hospitals following successful amputations was one in every three patients. In nearly every case the patients who died, did so a short while after their operations as the result of infected wounds, generally known as ‘Hospital Gangrene’.

Most doctors held that infection in operation wounds was caused by the entrance of air. Lister however, believed that germs in the air, not air itself, were responsible for the deaths in the overcrowded, unclean wards. Twenty years went by before Lister put his theory to the test.

In 1861, he was appointed surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Over the next five years he noted that some 50 per cent of the patients in the male accident ward died from sepsis, or blood poisoning, caused by infected wounds.

Then in 1865 Lister came across the work of the French chemist Louis Pasteur, who argued that disease was spread by airborne microbes, or germs.

Lister began to experiment with antiseptics, which he hoped would act to form a barrier between the wounds and the germs. After trying several chemical agents, he settled on carbolic acid, which until that time had been used mainly for cleaning foul smelling sewers.

Lister decided to try out the acid on patients with compound fractures, in which the broken bone had pierced the skin, often bringing about death through infection.

His first such patients was an 11 year old boy named James Greenlees, who was admitted to the infirmary on 12th August 1865. James’ left leg had been fractured and Lister dressed the wound with carbolic acid. The leg was then splinted and bandaged, four days afterwards the dressing was duly removed. There was no sign or smell of suppuration.

Over the next few days two more antiseptic dressing were applied and the wound began to heal. Just over six weeks after his accident, James Greenlees walked out of the hospital with his leg healed.

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What is Divali?

Divali is a festival of lights that marks the start of the Hindu New Year.  The Hindu community celebrates this event on the 15th day of the Kartika month, and it will take place on 7th November this year.

It has many different spellings such as Diwali and Deepavali.

Rangoli of Lights

Rangoli decorations, such as the one shown above, are extremely popular during Diwali and are made using coloured powder or sand.

The Festival of Lights honours Rama-chandra, who was the seventh avatar (incarnation of the god Vishnu).  The story told is that Rama returned to his people after 14 years of exile on this day.  Whilst he was away he was said to have fought and won against the demons and the demon king, Ravana. 

To celebrate Rama-chandra victory over evil, the people lit their houses to show that light beat darkness.

Also, the goddess of happiness and good fortune, named Lakshmi, is celebrated on this day. She is believed to roam the Earth and enter homes that are pure, clean, and bright. This festival significance is to show the spiritual meaning of an “awareness of an inner light”.

Lamps and fireworks are lit and homes are spring cleaned to celebrate this event, along with sweets, savouries and Divali treats and a gathering of friends and family.

The Hindu community dress in their traditional dress, with the women wearing jewellery and some have Mehendi, a form of henna decoration, painted on their palms.

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What are the Seven Deadly Sins?

According to the Roman Catholic religion there are seven mortal or cardinal sins and these are listed below:

Pride
Meaning an excessive view of yourself without any regard to others.

Averice
Meaning an excessive pursuit of material possessions.

Lust
Meaning an uncontrollable passion or longing, especially in regards to sexual desires.

Envy
Means to want to have an item or gain the same experiences that others possess.

Gluttony
Means to overeat or over indulge in drink.

Anger
Means an uncontrollable feeling of hate towards another person and finally.

Sloth
Meaning excessive laziness or a failure to act and use your talents.

In 1995, the critically acclaimed feature film “Se7en“, which featured Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, graphically illustrated the seven deadly sins through the actions of a notorious serial killer.

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Oktoberfest Facts

The beginning of the first Oktoberfest took place on 12th October 1810 in Munich, Germany to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.

All Munich citizens were asked to join in the celebrations at a festivity to be held in a field just outside the city gates and in honour of the newly wed princess it was named Theresienwiese (Theresia’s fields). The celebrations ended with a horse race.

In 1811, as well as the horse races an Agricultural Show was introduced, designed to boost Bavarian agriculture. The horse races, which were the oldest – and at one time – the most popular event of the festival are no longer held today. But the Agricultural Show is still held every three years during the Oktoberfest on the southern part of the festival grounds.

In the first few decades, there wasn’t a huge amount of amusements available but then in 1818, a carousel and two swings were set up.

To quench the thirst of all the vistitors to this festival various small beer stands were erected with different ales and alcohol available.

In 1896 the beer stands were replaced by beer tents and halls instead and were set up by local landlords, whilst the rest of the festival fields were a funfair. By now there was a range of carousels and other fairground rides continued to come to the site in Germany.

Today, Munich’s Oktoberfest is the largest festival of it’s kind in the world, varying the different ales, beers and largers on an international level in keeping with the 20th century.

At the foot of the Bavaria Statue, adjacent to the Huge Oktoberfest grounds there are still fairground rides like the carousels, roller coasters and lots of other hair raising rides for all ages of visitors to enjoy.

The festivities follow a program of events, which includes the Grand Entry of the Oktoberfest Landlords and Breweries, the Costume and Riflemen’s Parade, and a concert involving brass bands representing the “Wiesn”.

The Oktoberfest celebrated its 200th Anniversery in 2010, and it is only during Wars and a cholera epidemic that have briefely interrupted the yearly beer celebration.

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What is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is considered to be a marketing ploy for online retailers to get shoppers to buy items at generously discounted prices all through the day.

This is a follow on from the ‘Black Friday’ deals but with the added benefit of not getting injured as you shop from the comfort of your home and not get pushed from pillar to post trying to grab a major bargain!

As with ‘Black Friday’, ‘Cyber Monday’ also orginated in America and occurs on the Monday following “Thanksgiving Day” which is on the last Thursday in November.

It is estimated from various credit card firms that around £7.7 million will be spent during Monday’s busiest online discount day.

And due to the shopping phenomenon some online retailers are offering a Cyber Week of offers and deals to make the most of people’s Christmas spending.

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