Archive for February, 2009

Costal cartilages

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Costal cartilages

Sternocostal and interchondral articulations. Anterior view.

Anterior surface of sternum and costal cartilages.
Latin cartilagines costales
Gray’s subject #29 127

The costal cartilages are bars of hyaline cartilage which serve to prolong the ribs forward and contribute very materially to the elasticity of the walls of the thorax.

Contents

  • 1 Differences from 1-12
  • 2 Structure
    • 2.1 Surfaces
    • 2.2 Borders
  • 3 Extremities
  • 4 External links

Differences from 1-12

The first seven pairs are connected with the sternum; the next three are each articulated with the lower border of the cartilage of the preceding rib; the last two have pointed extremities, which end in the wall of the abdomen.

Like the ribs, the costal cartilages vary in their length, breadth, and direction.

They increase in length from the first to the seventh, then gradually decrease to the twelfth.

Their breadth, as well as that of the intervals between them, diminishes from the first to the last. They are broad at their attachments to the ribs, and taper toward their sternal extremities, excepting the first two, which are of the same breadth throughout, and the sixth, seventh, and eighth, which are enlarged where their margins are in contact.

They also vary in direction: the first descends a little, the second is horizontal, the third ascends slightly, while the others are angular, following the course of the ribs for a short distance, and then ascending to the sternum or preceding cartilage.

Structure

Each costal cartilage presents two surfaces, two borders, and two extremities.

Surfaces

The anterior surface is convex, and looks forward and upward: that of the first gives attachment to the costoclavicular ligament and the Subclavius muscle; those of the first six or seven at their sternal ends, to the Pectoralis major. The others are covered by, and give partial attachment to, some of the flat muscles of the abdomen.

The posterior surface is concave, and directed backward and downward; that of the first gives attachment to the Sternothyroideus, those of the third to the sixth inclusive to the Transversus thoracis, and the six or seven inferior ones to the Transversus abdominis and the diaphragm.

Borders

Of the two borders the superior is concave, the inferior convex; they afford attachment to the Intercostales interni: the upper border of the sixth gives attachment also to the Pectoralis major.

The inferior borders of the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth cartilages present heel-like projections at the points of greatest convexity.

These projections carry smooth oblong facets which articulate respectively with facets on slight projections from the upper borders of the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth cartilages.

Extremities

The lateral end of each cartilage is continuous with the osseous tissue of the rib to which it belongs.

The medial end of the first is continuous with the sternum; the medial ends of the six succeeding ones are rounded and are received into shallow concavities on the lateral margins of the sternum.

The medial ends of the eighth, ninth, and tenth costal cartilages are pointed, and are connected each with the cartilage immediately above.

Those of the eleventh and twelfth are pointed and free.

In old age the costal cartilages are prone to undergo superficial ossification.

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University of Padova

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

University of Padua
Università degli Studi di Padova

Latin: Universitas Studii Paduani


Motto: Universa Universis Patavina Libertas (Latin)
Motto in English: Liberty of Padua, universally and for all
Established: 1222
Type: State-supported
Rector: Prof. Vincenzo Milanesi
Students: 65,000
Location: Padua, Italy
Sports teams: CUS Padova (http://www.cuspadova.it/)
Affiliations: Coimbra Group, TIME network
Website: www.unipd.it/


“Gymnasivm Patavinum:” The University’s main Bo palace shown in a 1654 woodcut

The University of Padua (Italian Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD), located in Padua, Italy, was founded in 1222. It is among the earliest of the universities and the third oldest in Italy. As of 2003 the university had approximately 65,000 students.

Contents

  • 1 History
  • 2 Eminent faculty and alumni
  • 3 List of Faculties
  • 4 See also
  • 5 External links
  • 6 References

History

The university was founded in 1222 when a large group of students and professors left the University of Bologna in search of more academic freedom (’Libertas scholastica’). The first subjects to be taught were jurisprudence and theology. The curriculum expanded rapidly, however and by 1399 the institution had divided in two: a Universitas Iuristarum for civil law, Canon law, and theology, and a Universitas Artistarum which taught astronomy, dialectic, philosophy, grammar, medicine, and rhetoric. (The two were only reunited into one university in 1813.)

The student body was divided into groups known as ‘nations’ which reflected their places of origin. The nations themselves fell into two groups: the cismontanes for the Italian students and the ultramontanes for those who came from beyond the Alps.

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, the university was renowned for its research, particularly in the areas of medicine, astronomy, philosophy and law. This was thanks in part to the protection of the Republic of Venice, which enabled the university to maintain some freedom and independence from the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. During this time, the University adopted the Latin motto: Universa universis patavina libertas (Paduan Freedom is Universal for Everyone). The university had a turbulent history, and there was no teaching in 1237-61, 1509-17, 1848-50.

The Botanical Garden of Padova, established by the university in 1545, was the second such garden in the world, and is the oldest which remains to this day on its original site. In addition to the garden, best visited in the spring and summer, the university also manages nine museums, including the renowned Museum of History of Physics.

Since 1595, Padua’s famous anatomical theatre drew artists and scientists studying the human body during public dissections. It is the oldest surviving permanent anatomical theatre in Europe. Among the students was illustrator Andreas Vesalius, author of De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543). The book triggered great public interest in dissections and caused many other European cities to establish anatomical theatres.

On June 25, 1678, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia became the first woman graduate in history when she was awarded a degree in Philosophy.

The University became one the universities of the Kingdom of Italy in 1873, and ever since has been one of the most prestigious in the country for its contributions to scientific and scholarly research: in the field of mathematics alone, its professors have included such figures as Gregorio Ricci Curbastro, Giuseppe Veronese, Francesco Severi and Tullio Levi Civita.

The last years of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century saw a reversal of the centralisation process that had taken place in the sixteenth: scientific institutes were set up in what became veritable campuses; a new building to house the Arts and Philosophical faculty was built in another part of the city centre (Palazzo del Liviano, designed by Giò Ponti); the Astro-Physics Observatory was built on the Asiago uplands; and the old Palazzo del Bo was fully restored (1938-45). Obviously, the vicissitudes of the Fascist period - political interference, the Race Laws, etc - had a detrimental effect upon the development of the university, as did the devastation caused by the Second World War and - just a few decades later - the effect of the student protests of 1968-69 (which the University was left to face without adequate help and support from central government). However, the Gymnasium Omnium Disciplinarum continued its work uninterrupted, and overall the second half of the twentieth century saw a sharp upturn in development - primarily due an interchange of ideas with international institutions of the highest standing (particularly in the fields of science and technology).

In recent years, the University has been able to meet the problems posed by overcrowded facilities by re-deploying over the Veneto as a whole. In 1990, the Institute of Management Engineering was set up in Vicenza; then the summer courses at Brixen (Bressanone) began once more; and in 1995 the Agripolis centre at Legnaro - for Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine - opened. Other sites of re-deployment are at Rovigo, Treviso, Feltre, Castelfranco Veneto, Conegliano, Chioggia and Asiago.

Recent changes in state legislation have also opened the way to greater autonomy for Italian universities, and in 1995 Padua adopted a new Statute that gave it greater independence.

As the publications of innumerable conferences and congresses show, the modern-day University of Padua plays an important role in scholarly and scientific research at both a European and world level. True to its origins, this is the direction in which the Institution intends to move in the future, establishing closer and closer links of co-operation and exchange with all the world’s major research universities.

Eminent faculty and alumni

  • Pomponio Algerio, student of civil law (1550s) executed under the Roman Catholic Inquisition.
  • Nicholas of Cusa
  • Pietro Pomponazzi
  • Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer
  • Pietro Bembo, poet
  • Sperone Speroni
  • Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Kabbalist and playwright. Founder of Hebrew literature and false messiah.
  • Reginald Cardinal Pole
  • Andreas Vesalius, anatomist
  • Gabriele Falloppio, anatomist
  • Daniele Barbaro, translator of Vitruvius
  • Ermolao Barbaro, appointed professor of philosophy in 1477
  • Francesco Barbaro, humanist
  • Marcantonio Barbaro, administrator who established an inclusive admission policy
  • Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente
  • Torquato Tasso, poet.
  • Boris Pahor, writer
  • Sir Francis Walsingham
  • Pietro Pomponazzi held the chair of natural philosophy from 1495 to 1509
  • Jacopo Zabarella held the chairs of logic, and philosophy, from 1564 to 1589
  • Cesare Cremonini held the chairs of natural philosophy, and medicine, between 1591 and 1631
  • Galileo Galilei held the chair of mathematics between 1592 and 1610
  • William Harvey, anatomist.
  • Antonio Vallisneri held the chairs of practical medicine, and theoretical medicine, between 1700 and 1730
  • Giovanni Battista Morgagni
  • Ugo Foscolo
  • Francesco Zantedeschi
  • Elena Cornaro Piscopia
  • Giuseppe Tartini, musician and composer
  • Giacomo Casanova, traveller, author and seducer.
  • Federico Faggin, inventor of modern CPU
  • Francysk Skaryna - the printer of the first book in an Eastern Slavic language

List of Faculties

The University of Padova offers a wide range of degrees in 13 faculties:

  • Faculty of Agriculture
  • Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
  • Faculty of Economics
  • Faculty of Education
  • Faculty of Engineering
  • Faculty of Law
  • Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Science
  • Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
  • Faculty of Pharmacy
  • Faculty of Political Science
  • Faculty of Psychology
  • Faculty of Statistical Science
  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

See also

  • List of oldest universities in continuous operation
  • List of Italian universities
  • Padua
  • Top Industrial Managers for Europe

External links

  • University of Padua Website (Italian) (English) (Spanish)
  • Museums of the University

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Walter H. Seward

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Walter H. Seward

Walter H. Seward on September 16, 2007, less than one month before his 111th birthday and almost exactly a year before his death
Born October 13, 1896(1896-10-13)
Toledo, Ohio,
United States
Died September 14, 2008
(aged &0000000000000111.000000111 years, &0000000000000337.000000337 days)
West Orange, New Jersey,
United States
Residence West Orange, New Jersey,
United States
Occupation Former lawyer
Title Esq.

Walter H. Seward (October 13, 1896 – September 14, 2008) was an American supercentenarian who was, at the time of his death, the third-oldest verified man living in the United States, the sixth-oldest man in the world, one of the 30 oldest living people and was the verified oldest recognized living person in New Jersey. As of January 2009, Seward also ranks as one of the 35 oldest men ever.

Contents

  • 1 Early life
  • 2 Later life
    • 2.1 Death
  • 3 See also
  • 4 Reference
  • 5 External links

Early life

Seward was raised in Toledo, Ohio, and moved to Vineland, New Jersey, while he was in high school.

He was a 1917 graduate of Rutgers University and a 1924 graduate of Harvard Law School.

Later life

He practiced law through his 90s.

Death

Seward died on September 14, 2008 at age 111 years 337 days from a blood infection that weakened his heart.

See also

  • Supercentenarian

Reference

  1. ^ http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/rutgers_oldest_alumnus_walter.html

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/rutgers_oldest_alumnus_walter.html

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Greg Lewis (running back)

Friday, February 27th, 2009

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Greg Lewis
Date of birth: August 10, 1969 (1969-08-10) (age 39)
Place of birth: Port St. Joe, Florida
Career information
Position(s): Running back
Jersey ?: 20
College: Washington
NFL Draft: 1991 / Round: 5 / Pick: 115
Organizations
 As player:
1991-1992 Denver Broncos
Playing stats at DatabaseFootball.com

Gregory Alan Lewis (born August 10, 1969 in Port St. Joe, Florida) is a former professional American football running back who played two seasons for the Denver Broncos. Lewis was an All American and Pac 10 offensive player of the year in 1990 at the University of Washington. He was the innaugural winner of the Doak Walker Award given to college football’s most outstanding running back.

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Stoke Ferry railway station

Friday, February 27th, 2009

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Stoke Ferry
Location
Place Stoke Ferry
Area King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
Coordinates 52°34?03?N 0°31?08?E? / ?52.5675°N 0.5189°E? / 52.5675; 0.5189Coordinates: 52°34?03?N 0°31?08?E? / ?52.5675°N 0.5189°E? / 52.5675; 0.5189
Operations
Original company Downham and Stoke Ferry Railway
Post-grouping London and North Eastern Railway
Platforms 2
History
August 1, 1882 Station opens
September 22, 1930 Closed to passengers
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain
A B C D-F G H-J K-L M-O P-R S T-V W-Z
Portal:UK Railway UK Railways Portal

Stoke Ferry is a closed railway station in Norfolk. It was the terminus of a 7¼ mile branch line from Denver which opened on 1 August 1882 and finally closed to all traffic in 1965.

Bradshaw’s Railway Guide 1922 shows a service of 4 trains a day on weekdays only between Stoke Ferry and Downham on the Great Eastern Railway’s Cambridge to King’s Lynn line.

The village of Stoke Ferry lies on the River Wissey and the station was on the southern edge of the village.

Former Services

Preceding station Disused railways Following station
West Dereham   Great Eastern Railway
Stoke Ferry Branch
  Terminus

See also

  • List of closed railway stations in Norfolk
  • Ryston
  • Abbey and West Dereham

Reference

  • The Great Eastern Railway by Cecil J. Allen published by Ian Allan Limited. Hampton Court, Surrey. 1955.

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Tonyrefail

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Coordinates: 51°35?02?N 3°25?50?W? / ?51.583973°N 3.430554°W? / 51.583973; -3.430554

Tonyrefail
Welsh: Tonyrefail

Tonyrefail is located in Wales2

Tonyrefail

Tonyrefail shown within Wales

Population 11,035
OS grid reference ST009882
Principal area Rhondda Cynon Taff
Ceremonial county Mid Glamorgan
Constituent country Wales
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Postcode district CF39
Dialling code 01443
Police South Wales
Fire South Wales
Ambulance Welsh
European Parliament Wales
UK Parliament Pontypridd
List of places: UK • Wales • Rhondda Cynon Taff

Tonyrefail is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales. It is situated four miles north-west of Llantrisant below the Rhondda Valley and at the head of the Ely Valley. Historically the site of a rural hamlet, it evolved in an industrial village during the second half of the 19th century, when coal and steel became synonymous with South Wales.

Contents

  • 1 History
  • 2 Buildings of note
  • 3 External links
  • 4 Bibliography
  • 5 References

History

Early records show Tonyrefail to be a dairy-farming and livestock-raising area, and many early farmhouses still exist in some form today. This was in stark contrast to the nearby valleys, that were forced to adopt arable and sheep farming activities due to their hilly geography. Early industrialisation began in the late 18th century around a corn mill and woollen factory, but it wasn’t until deep coalmining began that employment grew on a large scale. At its peak Coedely Colliery employed nearly 1800 men which not only changed the face of Tonyrefail, but also created the establishment of nearby colliery settlements such as Coedely, Thomastown and Bryngolau.

It was once a busy town serving the communities of Coedely, Trebanog, Gilfach Goch and Tonyrefail itself. These days though it is a quiet residential town.

Buildings of note

One of the most notable buildings in Tonyrefail is Collenna House, a three story mansion originally built in 1093, which overlooks the village. The house is believed to have been built by the Welsh noble, Einion ap Collwyn who after a dispute with Iestyn ab Gwrgant, married Iestyn’s only daughter, Nest. The two are said to have set up home at Collenna House and it was around this time that they founded the old Church of St. John. Collena House would eventually become home to the Prichard family, who trace their line back to the house’s original Norman occupants. One of the more notable members of the Pritchard family, who would eventually die at Collenna house, was Reverend Richard Prichard, Vicar of Llandaff. His son, John Prichard was a renowned Welsh architect who was responsible for restoration work at Llandaff Cathedral and many other local churches.

External links

  • www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Tonyrefail and surrounding area

Bibliography

  • Lewis, Dillwyn (1971). A History of Tonyrefail. Risca: The Starling Press Limited. 

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Montesquieu University - Bordeaux IV

Friday, February 27th, 2009

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Montesquieu University - Bordeaux IV
Université Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV
File:Montesquieu University - Bordeaux IV logo.gif

Established:
Type: Public
Location: Bordeaux, France
Website: http://www.u-bordeaux4.fr/

Montesquieu University - Bordeaux IV (Université Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV) is a French university, based in Bordeaux. It is under the Academy of Bordeaux.

The University of Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV is the successor of the former Law and Economics Faculty, whose origins go back as far as the 15th century. It incorporates long-standing teaching programmes and institutes which have an established reputation in the academic specialities of the University, notably law, political science, and economics and management.

It is organised into 6 departments (UFR) in the areas of economics and management, law, and economic and social administration (AES), as well as an Institute of Business Administration (IAE), 2 University Institutes of Technology (IUT). In addition, the Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies is also annexed to the University.

The University boasts 14,000 students and has a staff of 400 teachers and researchers with a non-academic staff of 300. It awards 4,100 diplomas each year at the various sites in Bordeaux itself as well as at the satellite sites of Agen and Perigueux.

The increasingly evident research potential of the University can be measured in figures: 3 Doctoral Schools (law, social and political sciencs, economics, management and demographics) and 57 masters. Individual research projects come together to make up the 12 government-recognised research centres, some of which are attached to large research organisations such as the CNRS (the National Centre for Scientific Research) and the National Foundation of Political Science. It would be impossible in a few words to cover the diversity and the quality of the research; let us simply stress that the University of Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV has an open approach to the local economy, a fact much appreciated by researchers, and it has acquired an unquestionable reputation, nationally and internationally, in a number of academic areas where it is regarded as a centre of excellence. Without presenting an exhaustive list, the following areas are just a few examples of this: international finance; comparative foreign law and politics (Spain, Africa and developing countries, America, Central Europe, etc.); regional economic development, local management and administration and town and country planning; social and health legislation; community law; public administration and company management.

The University of Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV is well-established within its region and open to the world outside. It is committed to diversification and modernisation and with this in mind has recently increased its range of vocational training programmes available to students. The University is proud if its rich past and perfectly equipped to provide teaching of quality while remaining at the leading edge of academic research.

See also

  • University of Bordeaux
  • List of public universities in France by academy

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White Sanicle

Friday, February 27th, 2009

White Snakeroot
White Snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum).
White Snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum).
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Eupatorieae
Genus: Ageratina
Species: A. altissima
Binomial name
Ageratina altissima
(L.) King & H.E.Robins.
Synonyms

Eupatorium rugosum Houttuyn.

White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima), also known as White Sanicle or Tall Boneset, is a poisonous perennial herb in the family Asteraceae, native to eastern North America. An older binomial name for this species was Eupatorium rugosum, but the genus Eupatorium has undergone taxonomic revision by botanists and a number of the species once included there have been moved to other genera.

Plants are upright or sometimes ascending, growing to 1.5 meters tall, producing single or multi-stemmed clumps. They are found in woods and brush thickets were they bloom mid to late summer or fall. The flowers are a clean white color and after blooming small seeds with fluffy white tails are released to blow in the wind. This species is adaptive to different growing conditions and can be found in open shady areas with open bare ground; it can be weedy in shady landscapes and in hedgerows. There are two different varieties Ageratina altissima var. angustata and Ageratina altissima var. roanensis (Appalachian white snakeroot); they differ in the length of the flower phyllaries and shape of the apices.

Contents

  • 1 Toxicity
  • 2 Cultivation
  • 3 See also
  • 4 References
  • 5 External links

Toxicity

White Snakeroot contains the toxin tremetol; when the plants are consumed by cattle, the meat and milk become contaminated with the toxin. When milk or meat containing the toxin is consumed, the poison is passed onto humans, and if consumed in large enough quantities can cause tremetol poisoning in humans. The poisoning is also called milk sickness; notably, it was the cause of death of Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln. The plants are also poisonous to horses, goats, and sheep. Signs of poisoning in these animals include depression and lethargy, hind feet placed close together (horses, goats, cattle) or held far apart (sheep), nasal discharge, excessive salivation, arched body posture, and rapid or difficult breathing.

Cultivation

An asexual propagated cultivar, sold under the name Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’, is grown in gardens for its dark tinted foliage. The darkest color, which is a chocolaty black, occurs in a sunny position, and the plants grow best in moisture retentive soils and are shade tolerant. More recently, the plant can be found under the correct species name and is listed as Ageratina altissima ‘Chocolate’.

See also

  • List of plants poisonous to equines

References

  1. ^ “Ageratina altissima (Linnaeus) R. M. King & H. Robinson var. roanensis (Small) Clewell & Wooten”. Flora of North America. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250068005. 
  2. ^ “Ageratina altissima (Linnaeus) R. M. King & H. Robinson var. altissima”. Flora of North America. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250068004. 
  3. ^ “Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’”. Missouri Botanical Garden. http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=V230. 

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Stopnica Monastery

Friday, February 27th, 2009

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Stopnica Monastery

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Stopnica Monastery is a stone reformist monastery in Stopnica, Poland that was founded by Krzysztof Ossoli?ski 1587-1645 in the seventeenth century.


Front view of Stopnica


The only remaining part of the old monastery church, destroyed during World War II

 This Poland-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopnica_Monastery”
Categories: Monasteries in Poland | 17th-century establishments | Poland stubsHidden category: Poland articles missing geocoordinate data

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Mizora

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Mizora is an utopian novel by Mary E. Bradley Lane, first published in 1880–81, when it was serialized in the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper. It appeared in book form in 1890. Mizora is “the first portrait of an all-female, self-sufficient society,” and “the first feminist technological Utopia.”

The book’s full title is Mizora: A Prophecy: A Mss. Found Among the Private Papers of Princess Vera Zarovitch: Being a True and Faithful Account of her Journey to the Interior of the Earth, with a Careful Description of the Country and its Inhabitants, their Customs, Manners, and Government.

Mizora is one element in the wave of utopian and dystopian fiction that distinguished the later decades of the nineteenth century.

The novel is “the second known feminist utopian novel written by a woman,” after Man’s Rights (1870) by Annie Denton Cridge. The concept of an all-female society dates back at least to the Amazons of ancient Greek mythology — though the Amazons still needed men for procreation. In Lane’s Mizora, reproduction is by parthenogenesis.

The book depicts an all-female “utopia” existing within the Earth. The Mizorans practice eugenics; all of them are blonde “Aryans,” who disdain people of darker skin. (In modern terms their society is deliberately racist. That term is perhaps applicable to the book as well.) In its ancient history, the land was ruled by a military general elected president (a version of Ulysses Grant). When the general ran for a third term (as Grant was urged to do in 1880), the society of Mizora descended into chaos. Eventually a new all-female social order arose in Mizora. The last men were “eliminated” — though it is not clear whether they were overtly killed or left to die out. It is said that men are more forgotten than hated.

The novel also refers to political repression in contemporary Russia, and the suppression of the Polish revolt of 1863. The first-person narrator, Vera Zarovitch, is a young wife and mother, but she has fallen foul of the Czarist regime and has been sentenced to exile in Siberia. She escapes northward into the Arctic, where her kayak is swept over a vast waterfall to Mizora. She spends fifteen years there, learning the ways of the culture; at the end of that time she longs to return to her husband and child, and teach her own society what she has learned.

As a utopian novel, the book devotes some time to the futuristic technology such as “videophones.” The Mizorans can make rain by discharging electricity into the air. Though Mizora has no domestic animals, its women eat chemically-prepared artificial meat — an innovation that is only under development in the early twenty-first century.

Lane plays with the customs and conventions of her own society, as utopian writers normally do. In Mizora, a narrow waist is considered a “disgusting deformity” — reversing the preference of Lane’s own time for tightly-corseted women.

Lane’s book anticipates some of the features of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s famous Herland by three decades. It was closely followed by other feminist utopian works, Mrs. George Corbett’s New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future (1889), and Unveiling a Parallel (1893) by collaborators Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Merchant. Simultaneously, some male utopian writers published works that involve feminist issues and questions of gender roles; Charles Bellamy’s An Experiment in Marriage (1889) and Linn Boyd Porter’s Speaking of Ellen (1890) are examples.

Mizora also belongs to the curious class of hollow Earth literature.

The second edition of Mizora appeared in 1975, and it was re-released in 1999 by the University of Nebraska Press. Little is known of the author; Mrs. Lane did not want her husband to find out she was writing about the world being better off without men.

References

  1. ^ New York, G. W. Dillingham, 1890.
  2. ^ Mary E. Bradley Lane, Mizora: A World of Women, Introduction by Joan Saberhagen; Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1999; Introduction, p. vi.
  3. ^ Howard P. Segal, Future Imperfect: The Mixed Blessing of Technology in America, Amherst, MA, University of Massachusetts Press, 1994; p. 117.
  4. ^ Jean Pfaelzer, The Utopian Novel in America 1886–1896: The Politics of Form, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984; pp. 146-50.
  5. ^ James Matthew Morris and Andrea L. Cross, Historical Dictionary of Utopianism, Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, 2004; p. 172.
  6. ^ Peter Fitting, Subterranean Worlds: A Critical Anthology, Middletown, CT, Wesleyan University Press, 2004; p. 157.

See also

  • Arqtiq
  • The Diothas
  • The Republic of the Future
  • 2894

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