It's hot, muggy, and Baby Huey and Howling Henrietta are both in the house so today should be an interesting day in Dogdom!  Recall that Baby Huey is the HDD (Huge Dumb Dog) in the process of learning to be a gentleman (we're getting there, slowly).  Howling Henrietta is HHH (Howling Hound from Hell), who feels the need to comment (rather loudly) on everything.  The heat and humidity has done nothing to dampen the spirits of either dog!  Doggy Daycare is like a box of chocolates, "ye neva know whatcha gonna git!". This statement is particularly true when there is a major holiday within the week.  With the fourth of July on a Friday, many folks are already off on their summer adventure.  However, if we look forward to a slow and easy day, we are sure to be packed to the rafters!

Regarding my inmate with the diagnosis of chorea, I have abandoned the theory that she and her family suffered from some sort of fever.  I had narrowed it down to intermittent fever (a generic term that could mean malaria, or some other recurring fever).  Intermittent fever is mentioned often in the poorhouse hospital records and discussed in detail in an 1840's article in the Boston Medical Journal, particularly at the Erie County Poorhouse.  I think if our woman had been ill with fever, it would have been mentioned as part of the very detailed discussion of her case in the hospital records since intermittent fever was of interest to physicians at the time.  I have moved on to the theory that they were exposed to some sort of environmental toxin (heavy metal poisoning?).  This is a rather difficult theory to prove as we really have no idea where she may have lived.  I looked in the City of Buffalo Directory (an incredibly valuable source of information for a rapidly changing city!) for 1854 and found six individuals who share her last name (five men and one woman).  My plan is to look in the obituaries to see if any of these men died that year or the previous few years and if my inmate was married to the deceased.  The working theory is that if this woman was widowed, she and her five children may have been taken in by her mother. The only woman listed in the directory owned a boarding house, perhaps the extended maternal family all lived there.  With the family living together, they may all have been exposed to some kind of toxin.  If we can narrow down a place of residence (from the City Directory), perhaps we can learn what, if any, manufacturing was done around the area, or where the water supply was, or what type of dishes were typically used by people of that socio-economic strata (ceramic with lead based glaze? pewter?).  So now that I have identified six potential relatives, the next step is to determine if obituaries were typically written this early, and if so, if any of the five men may have died in the few years before 1854 (I am also wondering if obituaries were written for woman).  I have also (mostly) abandoned the idea that this inmate's diagnosis would make a great case study to be presented at the American Association of Physical Anthropology next spring.  It wanders too much into the area of speculation for a scientific conference.  However, I am definitely going to develop this case into a character for the third book in the Orphans and Inmates series.