As summer rolls on writing and research are taking a back seat to gardening and home repair.  The back porch project is almost done and the gardens are looking nothing short of spectacular (note to self: wear jeans and turtleneck when gardening in the front yard to avoid exposing various parts of my 47 year old body to oncoming traffic and neighborhood children!).

We will be unable to meet our deadline of the end of June for the book chapter in the historical volume on anatomy and dissection. No surprise there.  The best laid plans of anthropologists often go astray (actually, that is a direct quote from our project leader to the book editor when she told him we could not meet the deadline!!).  For scholars this time of year is actually busier than the school year as teaching and administrative responsibilities give way to personal, property, family and (finally) research obligations.

The most recent addition to my already full plate is marketing.  I really need a marketing strategy to boost the on-line sales of Orphans and Inmates.  I had a great idea to hold a contest, but was told that it is illegal in New York to hold a contest in which a person has to make a purchase to be entered to win.  Ugh! Through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, the book is available to readers all over the world.  The question is how do we get the world to take notice?  Suggestions welcome!  The good news is local sales are going well and overall the book is selling better than expected.  However, considering most self published books don't sell at all, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

I am still trying to figure out the source of the chorea symptoms of a particular poorhouse inmate and almost the entire maternal side of her family.  Huntington's Disease doesn't fit because it is a genetic disorder and even if her children were older, they are still too young for a late-onset disorder like that.  Syndenham's Chorea can occur in children as a complication of rheumatic fever, but there appears not to be any evidence of such an outbreak in Buffalo during 1854.  Also, the deaths of the inmate's mother and aunt don't fit the age profile for this disease.  I am still thinking it is a febrile disease of some kind.  I am wondering if this maternal extended family (inmate, her children, her mother, her aunt and her nieces/nephews) all lived together and thus were all exposed to an infectious febrile disease.  I am still searching the Buffalo Medical Journal and the Poorhouse Hospital records in search of such a disease.  A potential candidate is intermittent fever.  It is often listed in the hospital records and can refer to a variety of illnesses, including malaria.  So when the dogs are settled, the weeds are pulled and the painting is finished, I will be learning more about intermittent fever!