The Tumblr archival work continues…

(13 March 2014)

“See, in 18th Century terms, this is where the elite meet. And at the time, the salon for all the name-droppers was run by the lovely widow of a late leading liberal called Helvétius.” ”“ James Burke, The Day The Universe Changed

Yep, it’s been a while. I had a story project elsewhere to finish up with. (I completed a thing!) But since one of the earlier installments seems to have sparked a bit of a like-and-reblog frenzy, I figured I should get my butt in gear toward finishing out the series.

So it turns out that Benjamin Franklin was quite the mover and shaker. Also, he was influential. (Ba-dum-PISH!) This bit’s from early in the medical-oriented episode of The Day The Universe Changed, entitled “What The Doctor Ordered.” Along the way it takes in statistics and sewage while describing how we went from calling the shots to simply being a bunch of numbers in a medical database.

Luckily I already have the next selection staked out so it shouldn’t take quite so long to deliver another installment. (One hopes.)

(17 April 2014… one month later)

“Look at the new tools they had to play with by 1860. Things like viewing tubes for poking into every orifice. They hurt but not with anesthetic! So the doctors could look down their little tubes and see things worth taking out. And that was the problem!” ”“ James Burke, The Day The Universe Changed

I simply couldn’t shrink this one down the picture count keeps going up the more of these I do. Luckily I only have a few more episodes remaining and there’s a 10-picture cap so there we have it.

This takes care of the medical-drama episode of The Day The Universe Changed, “What The Doctor Ordered.” Next up? Darwin and company! Bring it on.