50 Years Ago

Dr. H. J. Kingsley and Dr. J. E. A. David of Bulawayo have described ... the case of a girl aged 22 months ... She appeared to be completely insensitive to pain ... She was admitted to hospital for investigation and was noticed to have periods of blankness which were thought to be some type of petit mal. Many investigations were made and all results were normal. While she was in hospital her sensitivity to pain was tested and it was found that the child was insensitive to pain almost all over the trunk, limbs and face, and a sterile hypodermic needle could be stuck through the skin to the subcutaneous tissues without any flinching ... Confusion exists in the literature about congenital absence of pain ... Dr. Walter B. Shelley of Philadelphia thinks that these cases are not as rare as is supposed and that there are people who experience coronary thrombosis or a perforating appendicitis, or have babies, without pain. Apparently, where pain is absent, itching is also absent.

From Nature 19 December 1964

100 Years Ago

Physics of the Household. By Prof. C. J. Lynde — The author of this book is professor of physics in the Macdonald College, an affiliated college of the McGill University, Montreal, where a school of household science is one of the branches of the institution, and it is for students of household science that the book is written. It presents the subject of physics in close relation to its domestic applications, and abounds in illustrations and examples of household appliances and processes. It should be of great use to science teachers, especially those who have to teach girls.

From Nature 17 December 1914