The Timeline Beta Blog

Another flow chart is in. I blogged about the first one here. These are so exciting to look at. This one follows three different posts, each with a distinct type of trajectory. I’m going to link to the map here through a thumbnail, and then discuss it using a transcription, since it won’t fit easily into the blog window.

(Click on the thumbnail for a fullsize image.)

The trajectory of the first post to be described (in green on the map) is listed as follows:

Bloodletting scene in Madame Bovary → 19th-century medical knowledge, tools → List of contemporary North American doctors’ tools and techniques of bloodletting → New post (with picture.)

Let’s follow this one from the beginning. Here is the passage from Madame Bovary:

Charles came into the room. Monsieur Boulanger introduced his man, who wanted to be bled because he felt “a tingling all over.”
“That’ll purge me,” he urged as an objection to all reasoning.
So Bovary ordered a bandage and a basin, and asked Justin to hold it. Then addressing the peasant, who was already pale—
“Don’t be afraid, my lad.”
“No, no, sir,” said the other; “get on.”
And with an air of bravado he held out his great arm. At the prick of the lancet the blood spurted out, splashing against the looking-glass.
“Hold the basin nearer,” exclaimed Charles.
“Lor!” said the peasant, “one would swear it was a little fountain flowing. How red my blood is! That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

And then here’s the post:

If we look at the flow chart and then compare the post to the source text, we see how this example shows how a very specific point from the text expands to a much larger topic (19th-century medical practices) and then comes full circle to the specific tools and practices of bloodletting.

The second example from the flow chart comes from our discussion of a rather astounding text by Jules Michelet on love. Here is the transcription from the flow chart:

Concept of Marriage in Michelet’s “On Love” → “Marriage is hard to analyze factually. What kind of related trends are we seeing in society? Birth rates? Contraceptives?” → Prostitution “I’m gonna get teased for this in class…” → Civil authorities cracked down on prostitutes to control the spread of syphilis… never mind the moral issues… → New post.

This example follows the opposite trajectory as the post on Madame Bovary, insofar as here the student began with a very general topic (marriage is one of the main topics of Michelet’s text,) and then looked for specific angles from which to understand the context of this (to 20th-century eyes) very odd treatise.

Another interesting aspect of this particular example is the way the student has included their train of thought in the sequence, as a way of explaining first a brainstorming process (birth rates and contraceptives as potential search terms) and then a selection process. Furthermore, the phrase about being teased in class here points to the role of the eventual public presentation in the selection process (note, however, that while the student did think they would get teased, their anxiety was not such that they hesitated to post to the timeline, present in class, or choose this example for their flow chart!)

I am pasting in the text from the resulting post here, rather than a screen shot, since there is no image (perhaps fortunately!)

Syphilis, Morality, and the Law

Jan 1, 1871 – Jan 1, 1903

A major concern during the 19th century was Syphilis. The disease causes the infected person to have (among other symptoms) genital sores and rashes all over the body. In the case of pregnancy and birth, Syphilis can also lead to still births and babies unable to survive very long after birth.

Throughout the West, the 19th century saw a strong focus on controlling sexuality and sexual practices. The disease was associated with immorality in that it was spread through the practice of having sex with multiple people rather than only a spouse.

French police and government administrations were particularly aggressive in trying to tackle this problem. They issued identification cards to prostitutes and conducted “weekly checks for sanity.” Any prostitute failing this examination would be carted off to jail. From the article by Gérard Tilles M.D:

The sanitary control of the prostitutes took place in awfull conditions. The prostitutes identified by the police by individual cards were subjected to weekly medical examination. Once syphilis was suspected, the patients were called in at a special infirmary, created in 1843 and located in the Headquarters of the Paris Police (Pr&eacutefecture de Police) 13. Then, after being controlled by the police, a physician appointed by the Police department conducted a physical examination strictly scheduled, each practitionner having about 1 minute per women at his disposal14.

After this very short examination, the patients regarded as ill, were driven in a police van used for murderers or thieves15 ” to special departments of general hospitals and after february 1836 to the newly created infirmary of the Prison-Hospital Saint-Lazare. In that way, from 1871 to 1903, 725 000 women being of age or not were arrested.

(Testing note — this was entered without an end date, the system inserted 1903 as the end date, which made it a duration event but one that wouldn’t display. All that’s fixed now, but boy…)

(side note #2 — for the same class period, this student posted a picture of the first commercial diaphram from 1882, a direct spin-off from the research path described above.)

The third and final example from this student’s flow chart deals with a post that actually begins with another post — Darwin’s Origin of the Species. I am including that post here, because it’s been up on the wall in the classroom almost since the beginning, and I suspect that the picture was what drew the student’s attention initially :

Here is the progression from the flow chart:

Darwin’s Origin of the Species in conjunction with Homais’ fascination with science and progress in Madame Bovary. → Louis Pasteur and the “Germ theory of disease.” → New post (with picture of Pasteur.)

So, Homais + Darwin = Pasteur (just kidding!)

In this case, all of the most interesting stuff happened in class, and not even in the same class as the post presentation. The student brought Pasteur back in for the discussion of Hippolyte’s gangrenous foot in Madame Bovary, along with a much more complete explanation of the impact of germ theory than is given in the actual post.

Overall, both concept maps submitted so far clearly demonstrate a critical telescoping process, from the larger picture to the detail and back to the larger picture, or inversely, from the detail to the larger picture and back again.

This is really exciting.