"Four Corners and a Void": Idiocy and Childhood Disability in Nineteenth-Century America.

Over the second half of the nineteenth century, thousands of Americans were admitted to schools for so-called idiotic children, later known as institutions for the feebleminded and linked to the Eugenics movement. While idiocy is often presumed to be the antecedent of intellectual disability, an analysis of the stories of three hundred children admitted to one such institution over a forty-year period demonstrates an unexpected diversity of appearances, abilities, and behaviors. Within the walls of the institution, idiocy was composed of children whose perceived abilities deviated from the expectations of their social position. Families further shaped the diagnosis of idiocy by negotiating the timing of admission for their children, influenced not only by personal factors, but by shifting educational and employment opportunities, and cultural tolerance of diversity. Consequently, idiocy became the broadest descriptor of disability during the nineteenth century.

[Luiz Nunes and the plan for health institutions in Pernambuco]. / Luiz Nunes e o projeto de instituições de saúde em Pernambuco.

During Pernambuco governor Carlos Lima Cavalcanti's term (1930-1937), the architect Luiz Nunes and his team were able to produce a series of plans for notable public buildings in the short period of time spanning 1934 to 1937. This article analyzes plans for the School for Abnormal Children and the Military Brigade Hospital, which exemplify the close relationship between medical knowledge, modern architecture, and state government policy and have not yet been examined in detail in academic studies. The main sources were the archives of the Diário da Manhã and Diário de Pernambuco newspapers, as well as the group of architectural plans in the Jordão Emerenciano Public Archive.

Em Pernambuco, durante a gestão do governador Carlos Lima Cavalcanti (1930-1937), o arquiteto Luiz Nunes e sua equipe conseguiram realizar, em curto espaço de tempo, de 1934 a 1937, uma série de projetos de edifícios públicos notáveis. Neste artigo, são analisados os projetos da Escola para Anormais e do Hospital da Brigada Militar, que exemplificam a estreita relação entre o saber médico, a arquitetura moderna e a política do governo estadual, além de serem objetos pouco explorados em estudos acadêmicos. As fontes principais da pesquisa foram os arquivos dos jornais Diário da Manhã, Diário de Pernambuco e o conjunto de projetos de arquitetura levantado no Arquivo Público Jordão Emerenciano.

Luiz Nunes e o projeto de instituições de saúde em Pernambuco / Luiz Nunes and the plan for health institutions in Pernambuco

Resumo Em Pernambuco, durante a gestão do governador Carlos Lima Cavalcanti (1930-1937), o arquiteto Luiz Nunes e sua equipe conseguiram realizar, em curto espaço de tempo, de 1934 a 1937, uma série de projetos de edifícios públicos notáveis. Neste artigo, são analisados os projetos da Escola para Anormais e do Hospital da Brigada Militar, que exemplificam a estreita relação entre o saber médico, a arquitetura moderna e a política do governo estadual, além de serem objetos pouco explorados em estudos acadêmicos. As fontes principais da pesquisa foram os arquivos dos jornais Diário da Manhã, Diário de Pernambuco e o conjunto de projetos de arquitetura levantado no Arquivo Público Jordão Emerenciano.

Abstract During Pernambuco governor Carlos Lima Cavalcanti's term (1930-1937), the architect Luiz Nunes and his team were able to produce a series of plans for notable public buildings in the short period of time spanning 1934 to 1937. This article analyzes plans for the School for Abnormal Children and the Military Brigade Hospital, which exemplify the close relationship between medical knowledge, modern architecture, and state government policy and have not yet been examined in detail in academic studies. The main sources were the archives of the Diário da Manhã and Diário de Pernambuco newspapers, as well as the group of architectural plans in the Jordão Emerenciano Public Archive.

Dr. Andrew Foster: A Literature Review.

Often compared to Laurent Clerc, Thomas Gallaudet, and Alexander Graham Bell, Dr. Andrew Foster was a deaf African American who founded 32 schools for the deaf in 13 African nations. The 60th anniversary of his arrival in Liberia and Ghana and the 30th anniversary of his tragic death in a Rwanda airplane accident both occur in 2017. Renewed interest in Foster has spawned research and events to reexamine questions about his contributions to the expansion of deaf education in Africa. However, none of these activities have taken a full biographical approach. More in-depth, historical, and biographical research is needed to answer the many remaining questions about Foster's life and legacy. A literature review was conducted to investigate what are considered Foster's key contributions and the factors that might have motivated him to expand access to deaf education in Africa.

Local health policies under the microscope: consultants, experts, international missions and poliomyelitis in Spain, 1950-1975.

One of the main focuses of analysis of this paper concerns the missions of international health agency experts to Spain to report on the situation, the activities in the fight against physical disabilities in children and on the actions taken to cope with the problem. The Spain-23 Plan was the instrument used by WHO and other agencies to start the process of change in a country undergoing a period of transformation under the enduring Franco dictatorship. As key sources, the paper uses unpublished reports of WHO experts on the subject, which resulted from visits to the country between 1950 and 1975. The methodological approach consists of an analysis of discourses from primary sources within the historiographical framework.

Políticas sanitarias locales puestas a prueba: consultores, expertos, misiones internacionales y poliomielitis en España, 1950-1975 / Local health policies under the microscope: consultants, experts, international missions and poliomyelitis in Spain, 1950-1975

Este trabajo analisa las misiones de expertos de organismos sanitarios internacionales en España destinadas a informar sobre la situación, las actividades realizadas y las intervenciones necesarias en la lucha contra la discapacidad física de los niños. El Plan España-23 fue el instrumento utilizado por la OMS y otras agencias para poner en marcha el proceso de cambio en un país en transformación durante la larga etapa de vigencia de la dictadura franquista. El trabajo utiliza como fuentes informes inéditos de expertos de la OMS, que fueron resultado de visitas realizadas al país entre 1950 y 1975. El abordaje metodológico consistió en un análisis del discurso que se encuentra en las fuentes y su contextualización en los marcos historiográficos pertinentes.

One of the main focuses of analysis of this paper concerns the missions of international health agency experts to Spain to report on the situation, the activities in the fight against physical disabilities in children and on the actions taken to cope with the problem. The Spain-23 Plan was the instrument used by WHO and other agencies to start the process of change in a country undergoing a period of transformation under the enduring Franco dictatorship. As key sources, the paper uses unpublished reports of WHO experts on the subject, which resulted from visits to the country between 1950 and 1975. The methodological approach consists of an analysis of discourses from primary sources within the historiographical framework.

[100th anniversary of the Oskar-Helene-Heim - an obituary]. / 100 Jahre Oskar-Helene-Heim - ein Nachruf.

The Oskar-Helene-Heim is one of the birthplaces of German orthopaedic clinics. The clinic was demolished in winter 2013/2014. Almost all of the historic buildings of the traditional specialist hospital in south-west Berlin were torn down in in the preparation for a housing project. The history of this facility is briefly described in this article.

Dr Karl Koenig: a brief survey of his extraordinary early years.

Over 70 years ago, an Austrian émigré doctor - Karl Koenig - came to Scotland where he established the Camphill Movement. Today that Movement embraces over 100 communities for children and adults with developmental disabilities in at least 24 countries. One aspect of Koenig's biography that has not been explored concerns his childhood: an extraordinary omission given its inspirational character. Without an appreciation of this critical period in his life, any understanding of his very considerable achievements not least his pioneering success in establishing the Camphill Movement must be incomplete.

["No pleasant side can be discovered in this young boy"--aspects of "child euthanasia" in Silesia]. / "Irgend eine angenehme Seite ist bei dem Jungen nicht zu entdecken"--Aspekte der "Kindereuthanasie" in Schlesien.

Several thousand children also fell victim to the murder committed on physically or mentally handicapped persons under the term "euthanasia" during Nazi times. While at first they were included in the killings administered under "Action T4", beginning in 1941 the process of selection and murder was relocated to specialized "child departments" developed just for this purpose. Under the auspices of the Reich Committee for the Scientific Registering of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses (Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schwerer Leiden) a network expanded with the objective of screening children and youth that did not seem fit and supportable for society and future generations. Care and educational institutions increasingly came into the center of attention. The primarily pedagogically motivated intent of removing children and youth from a harmful environment could very easily and quickly turn into organized murder. An example of this is Peter A. from Görlitz, who was ten years of age at the time of his murder. His path from his family to the corrective care that ultimately lead to his commitment into the specialized "child department" in Loben took less than half a year. His right to life was denied by Elisabeth Hecker, the director of the youth psychiatric clinic, as a result of labeling him as disruptive and useless.

Karl Koenig: the Austrian refugee doctor who founded a worldwide movement in Scotland.

In this paper, the circumstances which led to the creation of the Camphill Movement in Scotland are described. Attention is drawn to the rejection by Dr Karl Koenig--co-founder of the Movement--of too narrow an approach to the treatment of children and adults with intellectual disabilities and his advocacy of a holistic approach. Koenig was one of the first medical practitioners in Britain to proclaim and demonstrate that all children with an intellectual disability, regardless of the severity of that disability, have a potential that can be unlocked and developed. There are now over 100 Camphill communities in more than 20 countries making it one of the largest independent providers of services for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in the world.

["Euthanasia" of children in Nazi Germany - the case of Günter Nevermannn. On the responsibility of childhood and adolescent psychiatry in the past, the present, and the future]. / Nationalsozialistische «Kindereuthanasie¼ - das Beispiel Günter Nevermann. Zur Verantwortung der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft.

«Euthanasia¼ was the cynical euphemism used by the Nazis to refer to the systematic murder of hundreds of thousands of mentally sick and handicapped people between 1939 and 1945, at least 6,000 of whom were children. Based on the example of Günter Nevermann, this paper provides insight into the complex acts of registering, selecting, and targeting children labelled as "inferior" and "unworthy to live." This case clearly shows that Nazi doctors were not necessarily enmeshed in some tragic conflict. Rather, apparently without any qualms, they sacrificed the sick children who had been entrusted to their care, for the ideal of obtaining a "racially healthy corpus," a term used without being questioned. Most of the perpetrators were never brought to justice, and not a few of them later held managerial positions in child and adolescent psychiatry in the two German states. Many of them were members or even honorary members of the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie e. V." in its present or previous form. We feel it is necessary to inform the public effectively about this state of affairs, to discover what really happened and to determine who was responsible.

["With all measures...". Appeal proceedings and political specialty disputes about orthopedics at the Berlin University and the Charité during the time of the Kaiser Empire, the Weimar Republic and national socialism]. / "Mit allen Mitteln..." Berufungsverfahren und fachpolitische Auseinandersetzungen um die Orthopädie an Berliner Universität und Charité in der Zeit des Kaiserreichs, der Weimarer Republik und des Nationalsozialismus.

In 1934 the NSDAP University-Commission forced the president of the German Society of Surgery and the chairman of the German Orthopaedic Society to sign a reconciliation agreement. First of all, orthopaedists and surgeons were ordered to refrain from attacking each other in public. In the future, in the event of any complaints, they were to address the 'Reichsärzteführung' at the Ministry of the Interior. On the basis of papers and documents from the archives of the medical faculty, the East German Ministry for State Security and the former Berlin Document Centre, this article describes the history of the emerging medical specialty orthopaedics at the University of Berlin and the Charité hospital. It covers a period from 1890 through 1945 and focuses on the varying relations between political authorities, medical associations and the faculty. The main attention is given to ethical and economic disputes and to the way in which professors for orthopaedics were appointed. The two pioneers of orthopaedic surgery, Julius Wolff and Albert Hoffa had to overcome less resistance than their successors Georg Joachimsthal and Hermann Gocht. Gocht's fate changed, when the NSDAP took Power. As a protégé of the regime he represented the medical faculty during the period of political cleansing. In 1937 the appointment of the orthopaedist Lothar Kreuz as a full member of the medical faculty was no longer a university matter anymore. His appointment was negotiated entirely within the organisations of the NSDAP. Politically approved, Kreuz served as dean of the medical faculty and later was to be the last rector of the University of Berlin. For the first time, this article documents the connections between Kreuz, the paramilitary squadron of the party SS, and key political figures.

Inclusão de crianças com deficiência mental na escola comum. Visão crítica do modelo atual / Inclusion of children with mental deficiency in the common school: a critical vision of the present model

A deficiência mental é uma das doenças neurológicas mais frequentes na população pediátrica. Embora descrita há milhares de anos, muitos aspectos neurobiológicos da deficiência mental permanecem desconhecidos. O modelo educacional mais adequado para essas crianças permanece em discussão e em constante evolução. Este artigo tem como objetivo destacar os principais aspectos históricos da deficiência mental e a evolução das diretrizes sobre inclusão de crianças especiais nas escolas comuns.