An update for past and potential purchasers of The Real Mr Frankenstein and for others who have expressed interest in this important research, by way of a summary of key events and research during 2011. (For 2010 comments, see View)At the end of 2010 it became clear that the volume of material in Edition 1 of TRMF, while still important to academic researchers, needed condensation as it had reached 650 pages. Accordingly, careful pruning was undertaken during January 2011 to condense less relevant material and reissue it as Edition 2. That allowed new material to be introduced. As a result the page count for Edition 2 has settled around 475 pages.
Edition 2 of The Real Mr Frankenstein is now available as a downloadable eBook version in PDF format containing over 300,000 words, 475 pages and 300 illustrations, at a constant price of £9.99 (GBP9.99). It is a non-fiction resource, meticulously researched, with over 1500 footnoted sources. To purchase a download via Paypal please click on the button.
Social History of Medicine
There has been a welcome increase in support from respected medical historians and members of the medical profession, and I have received invitations to speak on the subject.
However, several academic historians are still struggling to come to terms with this new and unexpected perspective of William Smellie MD and William Hunter MD in the history of man-midwifery, i.e. obstetrics. As an example, it was necessary to submit a paper to the respected academic journal Social History of Medicine to rebut a series of errors and misrepresentations made by Professor Helen King of the Open University. My paper in SHM setting out a rebuttal of her views can be viewed at;
http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/12/06/shm.hkr165.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=bGvNbUEC6TCi1q0
New Research Content in TRMF During 2011
During 2011 key evidence has emerged to expand and reinforce earlier conclusions, including;
1 A copy of Elizabeth and volume two of The Legacy have been located and reviewed. Both were traditionally attributed to Mrs Carver, but textual and other evidence supporting the identification of Carlisle as the author of these Gothic novels has been added. As a minor example, part of Elizabeth is situated in the city of Lisle, a typical Carlisle word play.
2 A statistical analysis has been made of the 531 difficult and non-difficult cases listed in William Smellie's Treatise on Midwifery. When this analysis is applied to Smellie's statement of the number of cases he attended, together with a contemporary publication by William Douglas, accusing Smellie of causing the death of eight women, it is apparent Smellie and his students were experimenting with forceps, the crotchet, and other obstetric instruments in many deliveries where intervention was not warranted. There is also evidence to show that Smellie, or Smollett on his behalf, sanitised the content of Smellie's Treatise before publication.
3 A copy of the rare private journal of Peter Camper, Itinera in Angliam, was obtained for study. Camper records in detail his visits to Smellie in 1749-1752, but he never expected his journal to be published. Hence, unlike Smellie's Treatise, there is no sign of Camper sanitising the content of his own journal. As indicated in my SHM paper, the journal provides evidence of Camper's involvement with Smellie in the planned murder of pregnant women for forceps experiments and for dissection.
4 The historical record in 1700-1750 has been furthered researched and a number of references found which demonstrate the extreme rarity of undelivered subjects prior to 1750, thus reinforcing the evidence showing that the undelivered subjects depicted in forensic details the atlases of Smellie, Hunter, and Jenty could only have been procured by murder.
5 The 18C history of the Caesarean has been expanded, along with contemporary descriptions comparing the greater risks from a lithotomy, or cutting for the stone, compared to a Caesarean. This favourable comparison, and French reports of success with the Caesarean, were inspiration for Smellie and Hunter to research Caesareans as a means to avoid the crotchet.
6 Further analysis of William Hogarth's Stages of Cruelty has identified more of the actual physicians depicted in the series of prints, including Frank Nicholls, the author of The Petition of the Unborn Babes. The dissection by Emperor Nero, of his mother Agrippina's womb, to see whence he had come, discloses why Hogarth chose the name Tom Nero.
Appearing here are two of the series of images which show that the composition for Hogarth's Cruelty in Perfection was inspired by the much earlier image and story about Emperor Nero. The full analysis was fascinating and is contained within TRMF.That, together with the unravelling of more of Hogarth's visual puns, endorses the view that Smellie and Hunter were engaged in secret Caesarean experiments, leading to the death of a number of non-consenting patients whose condition did not warrant a Caesarean section.
7 Further contemporary evidence has been added which indicates that prominent man-midwives called a conference in 1756, to censure Smellie and Hunter and seek assurances that their experiments would cease.
8 Although it has not yet been developed, a striking parallel has been noted between the anatomical atlases of Smellie and Hunter, and the famous 20C anatomical atlas of Eduard Pernkopf, about which there was recently considerable debate when it was revealed the illustrations in that atlas included concentration camp victims, murdered to order for dissection and depiction by Pernkopf in his atlas.
9 A detailed, line by line, analysis has been undertaken of the textual changes between the 1818 and 1831 editions of Frankenstein. In addition, a careful analysis of the social upheaval in London in 1825-1830 affecting politics, the medical profession, and the Royal family, supports the view that Carlisle was the inspiration for Victor Frankenstein, and that the 1831 revision of Frankenstein was prompted by a desire to make it less obvious Carlisle was that inspiration.
There are many other minor textual additions and about 10% more illustrations. Being an ebook, I feel the large number of illustrations help to break up the text, without adding to the cost that would make them prohibitive in a pbook.
Charles Byrne - The Irish Giant
Right at 2011 year end there was an academic debate in the British Medical Journal as to whether the skeleton of the Iris Giant, Charles Byrne, should be buried. Readers will recollect that Carlisle assisted John Hunter with preparing the skeleton and that allusions to the Irish Giant can be discerned in The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey and via that into Frankenstein My contribution to that debate was made in a Rapid Response of 26 December 2011 in BMJ at http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d7597?tab=full where I wrote;
[In the interest of informed debate, it should be noted that the issue of Charles Byrne has wider implications. In two papers I have had published, in JRSM (1) and SHM (2), I have demonstrated that the undelivered subjects depicted in the famous 18C anatomical atlases of William Smellie and William Hunter were procured by murder-to-order of pregnant women. I have little doubt that the Hunter Collection in Glasgow includes wet or dry preparations derived from these women.
Within the last fifteen years, there has been debate over the anatomical atlas of Eduard Pernkopf, wherein it was demonstrated that concentration camp victims were murdered for dissection and depiction in that atlas.(3,4) As a result of that debate it was agreed that preparations held in Austrian universities made from some of those victims should now be buried. However, not all the universities involved agreed to investigate the source of their preparations and hence it is probable that other preparations made from concentration camp victims still exist.
From my own research into contemporary sources, I have estimated that some 200,000 subjects were procured for dissection in Britain and Ireland in the hundred years 1730-1830.(5) The evidence of murder-to-order by Smellie and Hunter, together with other contemporary references, and the criminal value of a body, suggests that a proportion of those 200,000 subjects were murdered to order. One can only speculate the number, but if it was 5% that is 10,000 murders, and if it was 10%, that is 20,000 murders. The probability is that many wet and dry preparations in medical collections across Britain and Ireland are derived from subjects murdered-to-order.
The debate about the dry preparation of Charles Byrne who, let us remember, died from natural causes, therefore warrants extension to include discussion of the wet and dry preparations derived from those murdered-to-order for dissection by anatomists. Whether these preparations should be buried or not, I leave to others to decide.
However, I am firmly of the view that the victims, especially the pregnant women murdered by Smellie, Hunter and others, should not be forgotten by history. In the aftermath of the debate about the Pernkopf atlas some libraries withdrew their copies from circulation.
I do not propose that for the atlases of Smellie and Hunter, but I do believe that their victims would prefer those atlases be taught to students as representing a memorial to the involuntary sacrifice of their lives for the benefit of womankind, rather than as a means to laud Smellie and Hunter as "founding fathers" of the obstetric profession.
1 Shelton, D, The Emperor's New Clothes - J R Soc Med 2010;103:46-50
2 Shelton, D, The Internet and 'New' Historians – Soc Hist Med 2011; doi: 10.1093/shm/hkr165
3 Seidelman, W E, Medicine and Murder in the Third Reich, http://www.adl.org/braun/dim_13_1_med_murder_print.asp accessed 24 December 2011
4 Topographische Anatomie des Menschen, http://www.codex99.com/anatomy/93.html accessed 24 December 2011
5 Shelton, D, The Real Mr Frankenstein, Portmin, Auckland, 2011, p 85-86]
Motivation and Victim Recognition
As inferred in the Dedication in TRMF a major aim of my research is to remember the victims of Smellie and Hunter. Thus I hope that any readers in a position to help gain that recognition will assist in the spread of knowledge of the research.
I remain very grateful for past, and future, feedback from readers, and wish you well for 2012 in your own endeavours.
Download Purchase Link
As note above, the latest Edition is currently available as a downloadable eBook version in PDF format containing over 300,000 words, 475 pages and 300 illustrations, at a constant price of £9.99 (GBP9.99). It is a non-fiction resource, meticulously researched, with over 1500 footnoted sources. To purchase a download via Paypal please click on the button.
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