{"id":5248,"date":"2014-11-09T16:00:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-09T22:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=5248"},"modified":"2014-11-02T20:46:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T02:46:22","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-november-9-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=5248","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour for November 9, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Today’s Mythical Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Myth: The Caesarean section procedure ultimately derives its name from Julius Caesar, who is often (falsely) claimed to have been the first baby born via Caesarean.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to pinpoint where exactly this story started, though a 10th century document is the likely culprit. The Suda, a Byzantine-Greek historical encyclopaedia, is one of the earliest records citing Caesar as the namesake of the Caesarean section, stating,<\/p>\n

The emperors of the Romans receive this name from Julius Caesar, who was not born. For when his mother died in the ninth month, they cut her open, took him out, and named him thus; for in the Roman tongue dissection is called \u2018Caesar.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

We now know that this account is incorrect on several points. First of all, babies had been cut from their mother\u2019s wombs in numerous cultures long before Caesar was around. In fact, this was actually part of imperial law in Rome known as the Lex Caesaria. The law, established in the time of Numa Pompilius (715-673 BC, well before Caesar\u2019s time), stated that if a pregnant woman died, the baby had to be taken from her womb.<\/p>\n

The second point that The Suda gets wrong is on Caesar\u2019s mother- she did not die in childbirth. Aurelia Cotta survived to see her son to adulthood and acted as one of his political advisers. Some historians even believe that she survived him.<\/p>\n

As Aurelia did not die in childbirth, it is extremely unlikely that she underwent a Caesarean section. As noted, \u00a0at the time, the operation was used as a \u201clast resort\u201d method of trying to save the baby\u2019s life. As far as historians can tell, nearly all- if not all- operations ended in the mother\u2019s death in those days. This was likely due to unsanitary conditions which led to infection, as well as haemorrhaging resulting in too much loss of blood.<\/p>\n

In fact, the procedure faced an extremely high mortality rate well into the 19th century and the first known successful C-section\u2014one in which both the mother and child survived\u2014wasn\u2019t performed until the late 16th century in Switzerland. \u00a0Funny enough- not performed by any sort of doctor, but by a pig gelder (castrater) who operated on his own wife. However, this instance wasn\u2019t well documented, so take it with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n

The first known such successful operation where the mother survived in Britain didn\u2019t occur until the early 1800s and in America just shortly before that. \u00a0And even in 1865, the survival rate for a woman having a C-section was only 15%. \u00a0So it\u2019s very unlikely that if Aurelia did have a C-section about 1000 years before and survived, that her unique accomplishment slipped through the pages of history unnoticed. That\u2019s not even considering the fact the a C-section wouldn\u2019t have been done until physicians was sure she was going to die anyway. \u00a0So she\u2019d have had to dually survive whatever they had thought was going to kill her and then the procedure.<\/p>\n

Much more compelling is the fact that the term for the babies cut from the womb after the mother died was \u201ccaesones\u201d. \u00a0This seems to be yet another very likely origin for the later \u201cCaesarian Operation\u201d that became \u201cCaesarian Section\u201d in 1598 when Jacques Guillimeau published a book detailing the work of midwives.<\/p>\n

Culled from: Today I Found Out<\/a><\/p>\n

I share all of this trivia with you so that you might not get misled by the fibbing beginning of this next feature…<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Morbid Video Du Jour!<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Surgical video of a C-Section from the 30’s??? \u00a0Yes, a surgical video of a C-section from the 30’s!<\/p>\n

Part One:
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ts-VXbavNCg#t=55<\/a><\/p>\n

Part Two:
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ORfY-IhaCW8<\/a><\/p>\n

Part Three:
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Dotta-sOn_s<\/a><\/p>\n

Don’t you just love the part where the doctor just reaches his hand inside the woman and pulls the baby out? I always think of Alien<\/em> when I see things like that. \u00a0You women who have given birth, I don’t know how you had the good old-fashioned gumption to do such a creepy thing!<\/p>\n

Oh, and don’t you love how the nurse holds the baby at the end, like she isn’t sure whether she wants it near her? \u00a0This totally reminds me of something else…<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Arcane Excerpts!<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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I love strange old books and one of the strangest I have in my collection is a 1904 book entitled Physical Culture for Babies<\/em><\/a> by a health nut named Bernarr Macfadden, who wrote tons of similar books. \u00a0He was kind of the Jake LaLanne of his day. \u00a0Okay, you hopelessly young people – he was the Shaun T. of his day. Anyway, this book is pure misogynistic insanity. \u00a0The message of this book? \u00a0Women kill their babies through ignorance!<\/p>\n

Here’s an excerpt from the preface:<\/p>\n

“Animals are gifted with an instinct which accurately dictates the best means of raising their young. \u00a0The human mother, however, is not only devoid of such instinct, but is in addition, handicapped by ignorance, harmful customas and superstitions, that are the legacies of the dark ages and increase in power for evil with the lapse of each succeeding generation. \u00a0The young woman into whose life there enter the duties and responsibilities of motherhood finds herself, therefore, confronted with conditions from which apparently there is no escape even if her inclinations prompt her to depart from the ‘good old ways’ in question. \u00a0[See? \u00a0Even if the woman wants to try to learn how to properly raise her child in a modern way, there’s no escape! \u00a0Except reading this book! – DeSpair]<\/em><\/p>\n

“Now this book will furnish some common sense instruction on rearing babies to those whose minds are capable of absorbing plain truths… \u00a0[If you don’t believe this book is truth, it’s only because YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH! – DeSpair]<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Thousands upon thousands of babies born into civilized life are practically murdered because of the ignorance of their parents. \u00a0Roughly estimated [ie. pulled from my not inconsiderable ass – DeSpair]<\/em>, there are perhaps as many as two thousand children daily sacrificed to the lack of knowledge and inability of mothers to secure the instruction that is essential to the proper care of their babies.<\/p>\n

“Every child born with sufficient vitality to maintain life is capable of acquiring a normal, healthy body. \u00a0Mental and physical ailments of every character are invariably due to the ignorance of mothers.” \u00a0[Yes, even those genetic defects – all caused by the ignorance of the mother! \u00a0Goddamn women – they mess EVERYTHING up! – DeSpair]<\/em><\/p>\n

So, in order to educate these ridiculously ignorant women who are killing their babies, he goes through micromanaging instructions on everything from the right linens and ointments to use for the first bath, to exactly how the baby’s bed should be made, to the correct food and hygiene, etc. \u00a0I’ll definitely be sharing some more misogynistic and ridiculous excerpts from those chapters in upcoming newsletters, but I wanted to get to some photos of the exercises that you should give your baby. \u00a0This is classic stuff!<\/p>\n

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\nAnd, apparently, make sure the child is naked when you do it!<\/p>\n

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\nCan you imagine the trouble you’d get in for a photo like this TODAY?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Mythical Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Myth: The Caesarean section procedure ultimately derives its name from Julius Caesar, who is often (falsely) claimed to have been the first baby born via Caesarean. It\u2019s hard to pinpoint where exactly this story started, though a 10th century document is the likely culprit. The Suda, a Byzantine-Greek historical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-garretdom","category-ghastly"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5249,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5248\/revisions\/5249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}