Descriptive Epidemiology of New Zealand's Highest Mortality Earthquake: Hawke's Bay in 1931.

In this study we aimed to produce the first detailed analysis of the epidemiology of the severe injury and mortality impacts of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake in New Zealand (NZ). This involved the compilation and analysis of archival data (hospitalisations and deaths) including the examination of 324 death certificates. We found that there were 662 people for whom some hospitalisation data were available at four weeks post-earthquake: 54% were still in hospital, 4% were still classified as "serious", and 5% had died (n = 28). Our classification of death certificate data indicated 256 earthquake-attributable deaths and for another five deaths the earthquake was estimated to have played an indirect role. There were 15 buildings associated with three or more deaths each (accounting for 58% of deaths with a known location). Many of these buildings were multi-storey and involved unreinforced masonry - with some of this falling into the street and killing people there (19% of deaths). In contrast, deaths in homes, which were typically of wood construction and single stories, comprised only 3% of deaths. In conclusion, this earthquake had a relatively high injury impact that appears partly related to the lack of regulations for building construction that would mitigate earthquake-related risk. Such regulations continue to be of relevance for New Zealand and for other countries in earthquake zones.

On the skin of a soldier: The story of flogging.

After Farrier-Major Critton struck the 150th lash on the back of Private Frederick John White, at the end of a common disciplinary session at Hounslow Barracks, West London, in 1846, the soldier, whistling, walked himself to the infirmary to have his wounds dressed. His skin healed promptly, but 4 weeks later, he was found dead in his dormitory. The army medical officers, after performing an autopsy, reached the conclusion that the soldier had died from inflammation of internal organs but excluded any connection with flogging. This version of facts did not convince the coroner for Middlesex, who decided to open an inquest. After 3 more weeks of inquiry and 2 more postmortem examinations, the famous dermatologist Erasmus Wilson contradicted the army officers by affirming that the soldier had indeed died from the effects of flogging as the analysis of the cutaneous lesions and underneath would demonstrate. This contribution will detail how the inquest into the death of Private John White sparked a medical debate on the effects of military flogging to the skin. The discussion raised by the publication of the details of the autopsies demonstrated that different and opposing points of view coexisted in the Victorian period concerning the relation between external lacerations and internal organs in cases of flogging.

[Three therapeutic recipes from the pages of the baptismal record book of the Kastel Parish in Istria]. / Tri recepta sa stranica maticne knjige krstenih zupe Kastel u Istri.

In Croatian archives a rich collection of registers is preserved. Among the oldest and best-conserved collections of such valuable sources in Europe, are those from the territory of Istria. Investigating these sources we focused our attention on three recipes for treatment of calculi and cuts found on pages of Kastel baptismal's record (1749-1815) in Istria. Similar to other recipes found in various other recipe collections they mirror interlace of folk experience and theurgical views of healing which was detected unexpectedly sometimes on unconventional places, have survived on Croatian territory throughout centuries.