Discover the Claremont Center for Engagement with Primary Sources (CCEPS)
Hi everyone,
Hi everyone,
In a letter
from December, 1887 Charles Frankish sends his condolences to a man who
suffered a “bilious attack.” As someone who is interested in medical history,
my interest was piqued. I looked up the term “bilious attack,” and the internet
returned the following Merriam Webster definition:
A. biology : of or relating
to a yellow or greenish fluid that is secreted by the liver and that aids
especially in the emulsification and absorption of fats – of or relating
to bile
B. biology : marked by or
suffering from liver dysfunction and especially excessive secretion of bile – a bilious attack –
a bilious patient
C. appearing as if affected by a bilious disorder – a
sickly bilious face
Apparently this man had some sort of liver disease, which was known as
a bilious attack at the time. Reading further I came across this passage on the Merriam Webster website:
Bilious is one of several words
whose origins trace to the old belief that four bodily humors (black bile,
yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) control temperament. Just like phlegmatic
(“of a slow and stolid phlegm-driven character”), melancholy (“experiencing
dejection associated with black bile”), and sanguine (“of a cheerful,
blood-based disposition”), bilious suggests a personality associated with
an excess of one of the humors – in this case, yellow bile. Bilious, which
first appeared in English in the mid-1500s, derives from the Middle French
bilieux, which in turn traces to bilis, Latin for bile. In the past,
“bile” was also called choler, which gives us choleric, a synonym of
bilious.
It is interesting how ideas
influence language, even after the ideas have gone out of vogue. For example,
liver spots are not related to the liver at all and are instead caused by sun
exposure, almost like a large freckle. However, liver spots were named because
people once believed they were a symptom of liver problems. So even though we
know they are not caused by liver disease, language has not adjusted to our new
knowledge.
It is also
interesting how words originally used for medical conditions, become associated
with personality traits. I’m sure there is a historical reason for this, but I
don’t know what it is. All I know is that I’ve used the word melancholy many
times and never meant for it to be related to black bile.
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Hi everyone!
This week I
continued to work on metadata and upload letters from Charles Frankish. Now
that I have worked on so many letters, I am starting to recognize names and
patterns in the documents. It is almost as if I am reading a long, abstract
novel where characters and events are related to the reader through Frankish’s
perspective. It took many letters before I could recognize stories developing
and a lot of work for me to piece the narrative back together since the letters
are all outgoing mail. However, it is a rewarding and exciting feeling to open
up a file and find a clue to what is happening in Ontario, California in the
1880s. Now, when I see a familiar name I get an idea of how Charles Frankish
will address them, what the letter will discuss, etc. And different events
develop over the course of many letters, such as the construction of the
electric railway that I mentioned last week. Each letter on a certain topic
updates me on the progress and setbacks that Frankish encountered so many years
ago.
This week I
have done so much metadata for the Charles Frankish letters. It is incredible
the amount of letters that I have been able to get through this week. I have
uploaded nearly 200 new letters on the Claremont Colleges Digital Library. I
wish I had more to say about the letters, but most of them detail various
business transactions for the Ontario Land Company. In particular these letters
provide information about property values, the sale of land, and water stocks.
Some of the more interesting topics include the construction of an electric
railway in Ontario as well as the development of a commercial center in the new
city. These letters haven’t been particularly interesting to me, but the facts
and figures included in these letters could provide researchers with useful data.
Check them out on the Claremont Colleges Digital Library!
After
months of creating metadata for the Chaffey brothers, I am finally done
uploading the Chaffey letters to the digital library! This is an exciting moment
because now researchers can access all of the letters in our collection online.
I have written blog posts before about the various historical narratives that
can be gleaned from these narratives, and I hope others find that to be true
the next time they visit the Claremont Colleges Digital Library. It seems odd
that I have read almost every Chaffey letter in our collection and now I am
done. There are no more Chaffey letters left for me to read.
Now I turn
to Charles Frankish and the large collection of letters from him that we have
in our collection. After the Chaffey brothers established Ontario, California
they moved to Australia to start a new colony based on the success of the
Ontario colony. They left Ontario in the hands of Charles Frankish who
continued to develop the city. Creating metadata for Charles Frankish is much
easier given the context I have from the Chaffey brothers’ letters. Charles
Frankish had to respond to many of the same issues that the Chaffey brothers
dealt with. However, new plans were also being made as the city grew rapidly.
For
example, several letters from 1887 refer to an electric railway being
constructed along an eight-mile strip of Euclid Avenue. It’s fascinating to
read the letters in chronological order because I feel like I am watching a
city being built. It’s even more interesting because I have been to Ontario,
and can think back to what changes the city has gone through to get from the
small settlement founded by the Chaffeys and developed by Charles Frankish to
the modern city we can visit today.
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