Sir William Osler (1849-1919) and God's House in Ewelme.

When William Osler was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine in Oxford he also became, ex officio, Master of the Almshouse at Ewelme in Oxfordshire. The link with the Almshouse, its inmates and the villagers of Ewelme gave great pleasure to both Osler and his wife, who spent much time there. This paper explores reasons why Osler found the position so attractive and rewarding.

Bastard Breadfruit and other Cheap Provisions: Early Food Science for the Welfare of the Lower Orders.

Breadfruit is best known in connection with an infamously failed project: the 1789 mutiny against the Bounty, commanded by William Bligh. However, four years later, Bligh returned to the Pacific and fulfilled his commission, delivering breadfruit and other Pacific foods to Caribbean plantations. Placing these plant transfers in the emerg- ing sciences of food and nutrition in the eighteenth century, this essay examines the broader political project of what would much later be called 'the welfare state; which motivated British officials' interest in experimenting with novel ingredients and recipes to cheaply nourish a range of dependent populations in institutional settings. Perhaps most strikingly, their nutritional recommendations borrowed directly from agricultural practices, particularly from new methods for feeding livestock in confinement.

[To the history of Tretiyakov almshouse of the A.I. Vishnevskiy Institute of Surgery].

The article deals with reconstruction of history of building and functioning of Tretiyakov almshouse in the A.I. Vishnevskiy institute of surgery. The archive documents were used for exploration. The input of architect S.I. Soloviyev into formation of architectural complex is demonstrated. The significance of this object in the history of national architecture is established.

The impact of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic on economic performance in Sweden: an investigation into the consequences of an extraordinary mortality shock.

We study the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on short- and medium-term economic performance in Sweden. The pandemic was one of the severest and deadliest pandemics in human history, but it has hitherto received only scant attention in the economic literature--despite representing an unparalleled labour supply shock. In this paper, we exploit seemingly exogenous variation in incidence rates between Swedish regions to estimate the impact of the pandemic. The pandemic led to a significant increase in poorhouse rates. There is also evidence that capital returns were negatively affected by the pandemic. However, contrary to predictions, we find no discernible effect on earnings.

'Abnormalities and deformities': the dissection and interment of the insane poor, 1832-1929.

The body trade of anatomy schools in Victorian times that underpinned the expansion of medical education has been neglected. This article examines dissection records of insane paupers, sold to repay their welfare debt to society. Each cadaver was entered in an 'Abnormalities and Deformities' dissection book. Student doctors paid fees to anatomists to be taught the pathology of insanity under the Medical Act. Anatomists also dissected cadavers to do further brain and eye research on epilepsy and glaucoma in the insane. These bodies were often dissected to their extremities. Their fragmentary remains were then disposed of in a common grave. This secret body trade and its asylum supply-chain merit further work in disability studies and the history of psychiatry.

[The almshouse of Count Scheremetiev: the past, the present, the future (to the bicentenary of opening)].

The article deals with the bicentenary of the almshouse of count. The historical data is presented concerning the family of princes Cherkassky, the first owners of land where later count Scheremetiev built the almshouse. The history of spiritual life of almshouse is reflected, the process of building is described. The basic principles of private alms-deed developed and implemented by count Scheremetiev are exposed. The history of relieving officers and wardens of almshouse and its role in the development of charity and alms-deed in Moscow is considered. The analysis of activities of Scheremetiev hospital from 1810 to 1918 is provided, focusing on its input into development of medical science and practical medicine. The role of head doctors S. M. Kleiner, A. T. Tarasenkov, P. N. Kildushevsky, S. E. Berezovsky, Ya. V. Kir in the making and functioning of almshouse is emphasized. The historical continuity of professional activities and principles of medical are delivery in Scheremetiev hospital and Sklifosovsky Research Institute of acute care is demonstrated.

Political order and the ambivalence of expertise: Count Rumford and welfare reform in late eighteenth-century Munich.

From 1784 to 1798, the military expert and natural philosopher Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, worked in Munich for Elector Karl Theodor of Bavaria on a series of reforms that demanded a careful articulation of the reformer's expertise. This case study of Rumford's welfare reforms posits that the ambivalent nature of expertise, which relies simultaneously on generally accessible and on exclusive knowledge, was already present in the conceptual framework of Rumford's mechanical experimental philosophy and that this ambivalence was visible in the performative practice of the experimenter. Gestures of revelation and concealment and of displaying and obscuring were crucial to Rumford's (temporary) success in establishing his authority in Bavaria. Challenged by local advisers, the reformer called on a newly emergent form of public. Rumford's conceptual and practical articulation of expertise thus contributed to an increasing polarization of the political order in the Bavarian capital.

Hospitals for the excluded or convalescent homes?: workhouses, medicalization and the poor law in long eighteenth-century London and Pre-Confederation Toronto.

Workhouses proliferated throughout England and the British Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Their role in increasingly institutionalized welfare systems has been well studied. Less attention has come to focus on their considerable medical services. Large infirmaries within English workhouses can be found by the early eighteenth century, providing crucial medical care to the very poor. However, levels of workhouse medicalization varied greatly throughout the Atlantic world. This article compares the medical services of workhouses in London with the one established in Pre-Confederation Toronto to assess how and why their medical histories diverge so greatly.