Olaf reviewed in Publishers Weekly

This just in--the first review of DOCTOR OLAF VAN SCHULER'S BRAIN, from Publishers Weekly:

Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain
Kirsten Menger-Anderson. Algonquin, $22.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-56512-561-2

Menger-Anderson’s vivid and original collection follows several generations of New York doctors and charts the social and political forces that shaped New York City from the 17th century to today. Dr. Olaf van Schuler emigrates from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1664 and continues his study of animal brains. After he has a child by Adalind Steenwycks, each subsequent generation spins out in its own story, concluding with Dr. Elizabeth Steenwycks, the medical researcher daughter of Dr. Stuart Steenwycks, a plastic surgeon dying of a rare and fatal brain malady. Each generation applies the then current medical wisdom to tasks as varied as explaining a death by spontaneous combustion, resuscitating a boy’s corpse and using phrenology to predict human behavior. In the early 1970s, Americans’ obsession with their body image arises in the woeful tale of Sheila Talbot, 21, whose leaky breast implants hark back to the less-than-helpful medicine practiced in previous generations. The reader can follow how far medicine has advanced, but, surprisingly, note how human suffering and misery hasn’t come such a long way. (Oct.)

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Spontaneous combustion... can it happen to you?

In "The Burning," one of the stories in DOCTOR OLAF VAN SCHULER'S BRAIN, spontaneous combustion is used as a legal defense against murder. The story is set in the early part of the 18th century, a time when doctors diagnosed illness in terms of the humors, and medical implements were not sterilized before surgery, or at any other time for that matter. How quaint to believe that a human could combust spontaneously, some say. How long ago that was.

Yesterday, the Denver News reported a case of spontaneous combustion. In this case, a boy was badly burned, though not consumed, by a 2-foot-deep layer of coal dust heated by sunshine until it reached an explosive state.

Current thought on the cause of spontaneous combustion varies, but the most popular belief is likely the "wick effect", in which "the clothing of the victim soaks up melted human fat and acts like the wick of a candle," according to wikipedia. The wikipedia article also tells the fascinating story of the BBC's attempt to "prove" the viability of this hypothesis.

In August 1998, using a dead pig wrapped in a blanket and placed in a mocked-up room, the BBC set out to prove the wick effect theory in its science television show QED, episode entitled "The Burning Question".

A small amount of petrol was poured on the blanket as an accelerant. After igniting the petrol, the researchers left it to burn by itself. The temperature of the fire was regularly recorded at only around 800 °C (1472 °F).

As the fire burned through the pig's skin, the fire melted the pig's subcutaneous fats, which flowed onto the blanket. Bone marrow, which also contains a high amount of fat, contributed to the burning.

Sadly, the experimental results were questioned by one of the experts brought on to the show, John E Heymer, "a former police officer and author who has written extensively on the field of spontaneous human combustion" and a frequent contributor to Fortean Times, which is where I first came across the combustion story.

Clearly, the experts continue to disagree.

Aging the Brain

Next time I forget an acquaintance's name, or walk into the kitchen and can't remember why, I'll click on this New York Times story and pat myself on the back. Evidently, according to recent studies, my brainpower is not declining. Instead, "the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit."

“It may be that distractibility is not, in fact, a bad thing,” said Shelley H. Carson, a psychology researcher at Harvard whose work was cited in the book. “It may increase the amount of information available to the conscious mind.”

It may be! Shelley H. Carson says so, at least.

Other studies find that a "reduced ability to filter and set priorities...could contribute to original thinking." Now all I need to do is find a positive spin for procrastination.

For more information see the NYT story, or read the book it describes, “Progress in Brain Research.”

Brain Food

Yum Sugar brings us a fine recipe for brain cookies! The dough is "arranged in long tubes" and "shaped like a brain." Although the author advises that these special treats be reserved for Halloween, I believe that they are appropriate for pretty much any occasion. Keep in mind that you "will need an entire bottle of food coloring to make the deep red blood glaze."

For recipe details, and a picture of these fine confections, go to the source: Disgust Your Guests with Brain Cookies.

Death, and How to Diagnose It

In "Happy Effects", one of the stories in DOCTOR OLAF VAN SCHULER'S BRAIN, set in the 1700s, the protagonist waits beside the body of her slowly decaying son because she, like many people of her day confronted with bodies displaying similar symptoms, did not believe that he was truly dead. Rather than risk burying him alive, she waited several increasingly odor-filled days to ensure that he was truly deceased.

Fortunately, today, we know when someone is dead and safe to bury. Or do we?

The Fortean Times links to a recent story about a Wisconsin family of three who lived with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman for several months because their "bishop" claimed that grandma would come to life, provided that her family prayed hard enough. The woman had apparently passed away while relieving herself on the home's one toilet, which led the family to use "makeshift" toilet facilities for the months that passed between the expiration and the arrival of the local Deputy. For more on the story, see the Fox website.

Bassett's Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy

Stanford's Bassett collection of human dissection is now online! Well, some of the images. More will follow by this summer. A selection of the striking, 3-D images of the human body can be viewed at here (well worth the click).

Bassett, a 1934 graduate of Stanford's School of Medicine, and a "genius for dissection" collaborated with William Gruber, inventor of the View-Master, to create the Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy. Over the 17 years the two worked together, they produced 221 View-Master reels with 1,554 color stereo views of dissections, accompanied by explanatory text and labeled drawings. More details about the collaboration can be found in the John Schwartz's New York Times story, The Body in Depth or on the Stanford site.

Dr. Olaf is bound

Greetings! We're all back from a trip to NYC, where I finally got to meet my editor, Antonia Fusco, in person. We've been working together for a couple years, but only over the phone, email, or manuscripts on paper. It was great to see her and the Algonquin offices. The advance review copies of Dr. Olaf were ready as well, so I got to hold the book and thumb through pages. That was a lot of fun. Now I'm trying to find people interested in reading it! The book looks very nice, with a cover image on front and blurbs on the back. It's small--5x7, which is nice as well. I asked Antonia if I could post the cover image--will do that as soon as it's okay to share it. That's the latest on Olaf. Hope you're doing well.