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Touchstones for Deterritorializing

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Touchstones for
Deterritorializing
Socioecological Learning
The Anthropocene, Posthumanism and
Common Worlds as Creative Milieux
Edited by Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles
Alexandra Lasczik · Judith Wilks
Marianne Logan · Angela Turner
Wendy Boyd
 Touchstones for Deterritorializing
Socioecological Learning
“This important book comes as daily news cycles consistently report “cata-
strophic” events in Earth’s new geostory—the Anthropocene. Amy Cutter-­
Mackenzie-­Knowles and her team of editors gather leading educational thinkers
to contemplate an uncertain future. In the face of epochal change they assert
that we will not adapt by using old habits of mind and old ways of being. As
touchstones, the anthropocene, posthumanism and common worlds guide edu-
cators into a creative learning milieu: examining new relationships with Earth;
permeating boundaries that separate human and more-than-human worlds;
moving beyond stewardship ethics; enacting flatter more equitable ways of
being; developing new forms of literacy to decode today’s world. A vital book for
our times.”
—Professor Emeritus Bob Jickling, Lakehead University, Canada

“Often we come across terms that challenge us to re-think the touchstone ideas
that shape how we can live, think, and be in the world. Terms such as Anthropocene
and Posthumanism are some of the more illuminating and perplexing of our
contemporary world. Having a text that explores these terms set in the contexts
of teaching and learning in our social and ecological challenges has to be useful
and instructive for those who want to re-think (and deterritorialise) the learning
opportunities we frame for our students and ourselves. Thank you to the authors
for coalescing around these obligatory and unpalatable ideas to help us find
intentional acts of resistance and ways towards respecting the interrelationship
of all things.”
—Dr Peta White, Faculty of Education, Deakin University, Australia
 Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-­Knowles
Alexandra Lasczik • Judith Wilks
Marianne Logan
Angela Turner • Wendy Boyd
Editors

Touchstones for
Deterritorializing
Socioecological
Learning
The Anthropocene, Posthumanism
and Common Worlds as Creative
Milieux
Editors
Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles Alexandra Lasczik
School of Education, Sustainability, School of Education, Sustainability,
Environment and the Arts in Education Environment and the Arts in Education
(SEAE) Research Cluster (SEAE) Research Cluster
Southern Cross University Southern Cross University
Bilinga, QLD, Australia Bilinga, QLD, Australia

Judith Wilks Marianne Logan

School of Education, Sustainability, School of Education, Sustainability,
Environment and the Arts in Education Environment and the Arts in Education
(SEAE) Research Cluster (SEAE) Research Cluster
Southern Cross University Southern Cross University
Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia Bilinga, QLD, Australia
University of Notre Dame
Wendy Boyd
Notre Dame, WA, Australia
School of Education, Sustainability,
Environment and the Arts in Education
Angela Turner
(SEAE) Research Cluster
School of Education, Sustainability,
Southern Cross University
Environment and the Arts in Education
Lismore, NSW, Australia
(SEAE) Research Cluster
Southern Cross University
Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia

ISBN 978-3-030-12211-9    ISBN 978-3-030-12212-6 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12212-6

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020

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mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
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 Foreword

In my final year as a secondary school student in the late 1970s in South

Australia I was fortunate enough to be able to study Geology. Mr Ingram’s
classes were as much experiential as they were theoretical. Every class had
us examining rock samples and fossils – studying their crystal structure,
touching (and even tasting) them to try to learn what they were as we
thought about where they came from and what they could teach us. We
handled 500 million year old Cambrian quartzites and made landform
models to look at tectonic plate movements, folding and erosion. We
studied geological eras, periods and epochs. We went into the field on
numerous occasions to learn about specific geological formations and
how the Earth had formed and changed through time. Geology taught us
about Deep Time, that the Earth was always in a state of change, and that
change was a natural process. But geologists also recognised the last ten
thousand years as the Holocene, an epoch in which the impact of humans
through agricultural land use, species extinction and increasing negative
impacts on local ecosystems had begun to change the world. Geologists
are now arguing about whether we have recently entered another epoch
called the Anthropocene, a time when the impact of human activity is so
profound that it is even changing the very nature of the Earth’s processes
and geology.
Since the Industrial Revolution, and especially since World War II, the
world has experienced the Great Acceleration, where humans have
v
vi Foreword

become the dominant species, instigating radical changes to the composi-

tion of the atmosphere, rises in sea levels and sea temperatures and where
wide scale destruction and disturbance of vast ecosystems – even whole
oceans – now occur at a speed not previously evident in the whole geo-
logical record. It now seems routine that daily news coverage will include
stories close to home about wildfire and megastorms, droughts and floods
as well as reports on the meetings of world economic leaders and inter-­
governmental panels to discuss climate change and the now very real
challenges it poses for the future of humanity. So entangled are human-­
induced problems and catastrophes that it seems reasonable to say that
we have entered what we might call the Great Uncertainty. All of us as
individuals, and each profession, are now called upon to respond. So,
what happens when environmental educators and educational research-
ers enter this uncertainty? What arguments must be made, what assump-
tions need disrupting, and how will thinking and practice need to change?
These are absolutely crucial questions, for how we educate the current
and coming generations will surely be amongst the most crucial responses
humans make to the many challenges we face.
This is the territory that the editors and writers of Touchstones for
Deterritorializing Socioecological Learning: The Anthropocene, Posthumanism
and Common Worlds as Creative Milieux have entered. The book com-
mences by carefully examining the Anthropocene, its origins and the
extent of its impacts. The challenges raised here have their parallel in
education, from micro to macro scales; for the individual learner and
teacher through to their society and their supporting ecosystems. The
book develops a searching examination of the ‘saturation of humanism’
and what may be required to clear away persistent assumptions and hab-
its, to make room for new ideas and actions. Readers will be asked to
consider a flattened ontology, where humans are no longer positioned as
the centre. Touchstones for Deterritorializing Socioecological Learning
addresses this possibility from a deeply pedagogical position, discussing
what it might mean for the learner to learn and the educator to educate
in such a common world.
Each chapter of the book examines, provokes and debates aspects and
examples of socioecological learning. The chapters may be read indepen-
dently with detailed discussion that addresses unlearning the dualisms (or
 Foreword vii

delearning as the editors phrase it) that have led to the onset of the
Anthropocene, or an analysis of the lived experience of learners in institu-
tions beset with tensions between creativity and compliance. There is dis-
cussion of the essential characteristics of the socioecological learner and
how this challenges dominant beliefs about voice, authority, decision-­
making. Provocative discussion of Big History, collaborative arts and the
learner as activist will challenge the reader to consider antidisciplinary
boundaries and how to foster more relational approaches and community
connections. But the real power of the book, I feel, is when we gather
these collective provocations, visions and discussions into a larger, coher-
ent and louder pedagogy of hope.
We cannot return to the dawn of the Holocene when, it is argued,
humans first began to live apart from nature as they begun the domestica-
tion of crops and stock. We cannot even return to unmake the steam
engine and curtail the radical trajectory that it launched. But the message
that this book makes most clear is that we can, from today, seek more
ethical relations with our fellow inhabitants on this beautiful, but trou-
bled, planet. Touchstones for Deterritorializing Socioecological Learning will
help us dissemble a human-centric education and raise a new pedagogy
of dwelling with the more than human world – with other species and
the rocks, oceans, ecosystems and atmosphere which we call Earth – our
only home.

Mount Helen, VIC, Australia Brian Wattchow

Author – A Pedagogy of Place: Outdoor Education for a Changing World

and Song of the Wounded River.
Lead Editor – The Socioecological educator: A 21st Century Renewal of
Physical, Health, Environment and Outdoor Education.
 Acknowledgments

The idea of this book sparked at a writing retreat at the Angourie

Rainforest Retreat on the North Coast of Australia in 2016. Huddled
together in a dark, dim-lit cabin the idea took hold as we troubled educa-
tion—what it was, what it could be, what it is for and what we could not
even yet imagine. This led us down a concentrated conversation path
about the focus of our writing at ‘this writing retreat’. The question was
posed ‘what book have you always wanted to write?’ As ideas circulated
with passion, frustration and intensity, sparks knocked together and we
found ourselves immersed in a rich dialogue about socioecological learn-
ing. It was that collective energy and passion of Southern Cross University’s
Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education (SEAE) Research
Cluster that made this book a possibility. The editors and authors are
indebted to its many members for providing reviews, much support and
camaraderie throughout the writing process.
We are especially grateful to the School of Education for its financial
and scholarly support of our writing retreats, which make books like
these imaginable.

ix
 Contents

1 Touchstones for Deterritorializing the Socioecological

Learner  1
Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, Alexandra Lasczik, Marianne
Logan, Judith Wilks, and Angela Turner

2 Posthumanist Learning: Nature as Event 27

Tracy Young and Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles

3 The Socioecological (Un)learner: Unlearning Binary

Oppositions and the Wicked Problems of the Anthropocene 49
Raoul Adam, Hilary Whitehouse, Robert B. Stevenson, and
Philemon Chigeza

4 The Risky Socioecological Learner 75

Judith Wilks, Angela Turner, and Brad Shipway

5 “It is not a question of either/or, but of ‘and … and’”: The

Socioecological Learner as Learner-Teacher-Researcher 99
William E. Boyd

xi
xii Contents

6 The Socioecological Learner in Big History: Post-­

Anthropocene Imageries139
Marilyn Ahearn, Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles,
Brad Shipway, and Wendy Boyd

7 Site/Sight/Insight: Becoming a Socioecological Learner

Through Collaborative Artmaking Practices163
David Rousell, Alexandra Lasczik, Rita L. Irwin, Jemma
Peisker, David Ellis, and Katie Hotko

8 De-imagining and Reinvigorating Learning with/in/as/for

Community, Through Self, Other and Place189
Maia Osborn, Simone Blom, Helen Widdop Quinton, and
Claudio Aguayo

9 Socioecological Learners as Agentic: A Posthumanist

Perspective231
Marianne Logan, Joshua Russell, and Ferdousi Khatun

10 Un/Folding Socioecological Learning: An Aesthetic

Portrayal263
Alexandra Lasczik and Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles

Afterword: Green Shoots in the Shadow275

Index281
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 Contributors

Raoul Adam is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at Southern

Cross University. He has taught in senior secondary education and lec-
tured extensively in educational psychology, humanities education, edu-
cational philosophy, curriculum and pedagogy. He is a recipient of several
university citations and a national ALTC Award for teaching. Raoul has
an active interest in the teaching-research nexus. His research focuses on
epistemological change and development in cultural contexts. He is espe-
cially interested in models for conceptualising complex social problems.
He has published his research in a monograph, peer reviewed journals
and book chapters, and has presented his work at numerous conferences
and symposia.

Claudio Aguayo is a Senior Research Officer at the Centre for Learning

and Teaching, Auckland University of Technology, where he contributes
to research and development of learning technologies. Claudio is cur-
rently undertaking research projects at the local, national and interna-
tional level in mobile learning, sustainability education, science education,
and educational app development. Claudio’s current interests include the
role of technology in non-formal contexts through affective and emo-
tional dimensions, the innovative use of emerging technologies and peda-
gogies in applied learning and teaching, and embodied enactive cognition
in virtual and augmented spaces.
xiii
xiv Contributors

Marilyn Ahearn recently graduated with her PhD from Southern Cross
University. Her PhD research focused on the impact of teaching Big
History in primary schooling and the extent to which it inform children’s
environmental values. Her child-framed research has implications for
primary education in the nesting of Big History and sustainability into
an inquiry-learning framework. Marilyn is experienced in primary edu-
cation, including roles on school leadership teams and in environmental
education initiatives. She advocates transdisciplinary, socioecological
learning that encompasses sustainability, the Big History story and chil-
dren’s wonder of the universe.

Simone Blom is an educator and researcher, currently undertaking PhD

research into the influence of the education system in the early years on
the child-nature relationship or more correctly, childhoodnature.
Simone’s research interests include posthuman and new materialist
approaches to nature, education and pedagogy. She has been involved in
environmental education across early childhood, primary, secondary and
tertiary sectors for nearly 20 years. She is currently an active member of
the Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education (SEAE)
research cluster and chairs the Lismore Environment Collective at
Southern Cross University.

Wendy Boyd is Senior Lecturer in early childhood education at Southern

Cross University. Wendy’s research focuses on provision of quality early
childhood programs to support the optimal development of all children.
This has cut across parents’ perspectives of early childhood programs; the
effectiveness of the early childhood workforce training; and the provision
of sustainable practices in early childhood education. She has published
37 high impact ERA-eligible publications. She is Editor of New Zealand
International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, and sits
on the Early Childhood Australia publications committee. Wendy was
25 years in the role of Director of a large long day care centre providing
high quality care at each assessment and rating point. She has worked
with early childhood educators, families, school principals and teachers
to ­implement educational and environmentally appropriate strategies
and practices.
 Contributors xv

William E. Boyd is a Professor of Geography at Southern Cross

University, and is a multi- and trans-disciplinary scholar – a geographer,
archaeologist, landscape scientist and educationalist. He draws on the
geosciences and humanities to inform his teaching and research. He
brings a geographer’s eye to his teaching in environmental management,
social engagement with environment, and cultural heritage. As an educa-
tionalist, he uses reflective and qualitative methods to examine pedagogy,
curriculum and teaching & learning practice. He uses an action learning
approach of early career mentoring and educational leadership, with a
focus on the scholarship of teaching & learning, transdisciplinary team-
based research, and student learning processes. Bill has published widely
in the scholarly literature in all his areas and has co-authored several
books. He holds doctorates from the Universities of Glasgow and St
Andrews and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the
Institute of Australian Geographers.

Philemon Chigeza is an experienced school teacher and academic at

James Cook University. He has a broad interest in the interaction between
cultural and cognitive representation and systems of representation.
Philemon’s earlier research focused on developing capacity building peda-
gogies that affirm students’ lived languages, experiences and knowledge
in their learning. His work explores the notion of agency and students’
negotiation of language and culture in mathematics and science class-
rooms. Philemon’s present research is focused on emerging technology-
based curriculum innovation designed to enhance engagement and
learning, particularly for blended and virtual spaces. Philemon is also
passionate about issues of environmental sustainability and how schools,
electronic media and the home can be productively used to work towards
a more sustainable and just society.

Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles is a Professor of Sustainability,

Environment and Education at Southern Cross University, School of
Education, Australia. She is the Deputy Dean Research & Higher Degree
Research (HDR) Training for the School of Education, as well as the
Research Leader and founder of the Sustainability, Environment and the
Arts in Education (SEAE) Research Cluster. She has led over 30 research
xvi Contributors

projects in environmental education and published 150+ publications

largely centred on ontologies in/as nature through socioecological and
more recently posthumanist theoretical orientations. She has a particular
interest in child-framed arts-based research methodologies, and leads
international research programs in climate change education and child-
hoodnature. Amy has also been recognised for both her teaching and
research excellence in environmental education, including the Australian
Association for Environmental Education Fellowship (Life Achievement
Award) for her outstanding contribution to environmental education
research. She is the co Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of
Environmental Education (AJEE).

David Ellis is a Lecturer in Design and Technology Education who is

currently working on a PhD study in technology education and profes-
sional learning. He loves innovative, eco and human-centered approaches
to design, and sees the classroom as the perfect platform for a disruptive
approach to reducing our ecological footprint. His Master’s degree in
Urban Development & Sustainability inspired an interest in emerging
and disruptive technologies, and alternative approaches to human settle-
ments and adaption. This has caused Dave to consider the role that edu-
cation should play in enabling young people to live more sustainably.
Dave is interested in researching and teaching in areas related to Design,
Maker and Technology Education. He consults in Technology Education
and interdisciplinary related (e.g. STEAM/STEM) issues and projects,
and is the current journal editor of the IIATEJ, a journal for the Institute
of Industrial Arts and Technology Education professional teachers’
association.

Katie Hotko is a self-taught artist specialising in Visual Arts for primary

aged children, and is passionate about children’s access to quality Visual
Arts educational experiences. She is a member of the Sustainability,
Environment and the Arts in Education (SEAE) Research Cluster at
Southern Cross University. Katie is now in her second year of her PhD
exploring Primary Teachers’ self-beliefs about creativity, and how these
beliefs affect their teaching of the Visual Arts. Katie earned First Class
Honours in 2016.
 Contributors xvii

Rita L. Irwin is a Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Art

Education and Curriculum Studies at the University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, Canada. Her research interests include preservice and inser-
vice arts teacher education, artist-in-schools programs, as well as the
intersections between arts education, curriculum studies and socio-cul-
tural issues. Her research involves action research, case study, image-based
research, and many forms of arts-based educational inquiry including
a/r/tography. She is also committed to leadership in arts education, cur-
riculum studies and education organizations, and most notably was the
President of the International Society for Education through Art for two
terms.

Ferdousi Khatun is a recent PhD graduant in the School of Education,

Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education Research Cluster,
Southern Cross University. Her PhD is focussed on Bangladeshi young
people’s ecoliteracy, applying a postcolonial socioecological theoretical
framework. Ferdousi is a chapter author in the Springer major reference
works on Childhoodnature (Cutter-Mackenzie, Malone & Barratt
Hacking, 2019). She also recently contributed to a chapter in the forth-
coming Oxford Handbook on Comparative Environmental Law. In
addition to undertaking her PhD, Ferdousi is a research assistant and
casual academic in the School of Education, Southern Cross University.
She has extensive past experience as a teacher, environmental educator
and botanist in Bangladesh, Nepal and Australia.

Alexandra Lasczik is Associate Professor, Arts and Education at

Southern Cross University, Australia and Deputy Leader and founder of
the Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education Research
Cluster (SEAE). She is deeply interested in movement both as a research
practice and as a thematic in her work. Most recently, this has encom-
passed contemporary and historic migrations, Arts education and Arts-
based educational research through embodied practices of painting,
performance, creative writing and visual poetics. As a secondary teacher
of some 25 years’ experience and as a teacher educator for the past 6 years,
Alexandra is profoundly committed to service, advocacy and activism on
behalf of children and the need for highly engaging Arts learning experi-
xviii Contributors

ences in schools. She is currently Chair, Arts-Based educational Research

Special Interest Group [ABERSIG] for the American Educational Research
Association [AERA] and is past Editor of Australian Art Education Journal
and past World Councillor (SEAPAC Region) for the International
Society of Education through Art [InSEA].

Marianne Logan is a Lecturer at Southern Cross University and is one

of the founding members of the Sustainability, Environment and the Arts
in Education (SEAE) Research Cluster. She is passionate about inspiring
learners in science, sustainability and the environment and providing
platforms for their voices to be heard. Areas that have been the focus of
Marianne’s research include school students’ attitudes to, and interest in,
science and school/university partnership programs in teacher education.
Marianne’s recent research involves child/youth framed, arts- based
research, including involvement in: ‘Young People Inspiring Awareness
of, and Action towards, their Local Natural Ecosystem’ relating to rain-
forests in Australia; an Australian Geographic funded research project,
‘Youth4Sea’, relating to marine debris (with Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles
and Lasczik); and ‘Empowering Young People to Engage with Mt
Tamborine Landcare Reserves’ (with Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles and
Lasczik). Marianne has published widely in international research jour-
nals and edited texts and is a section editor for the Research Handbook on
Childhoodnature: Assemblages of Childhood and Nature Research.

Judith McNeill is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the University

of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. She is an eco-
logical economist who has spent 20 years teaching and researching in
economics. She has published in areas such as climate change adaptation;
carbon taxes; energy policies; the funding of social infrastructure and
local government. She is now particularly interested in research which
revises the economics curricula towards teaching a macroeconomics that
respects the biophysical limitations to e­ conomic growth, rejects extreme
inequality of incomes and understands the consequences of recent irregu-
lar monetary policies. Prior to academic life, Judith worked in the public
service in federal and state Treasuries, the Parliamentary Library and the
intelligence services.
 Contributors xix

Maia Osborn is a primary school teacher, PhD candidate and member

of the Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education
(SEAE) Research Cluster at Southern Cross University. Maia’s research
explores the philosophies, pedagogies and practices of environmentally
conscious primary school teachers, with a specific focus upon how and
why they utilise community partnerships to enrich environmental educa-
tion. Through this research Maia seeks to advance social ecology with
consideration of posthumanism and community psychology. Maia’s
childhood experiences living on a sustainable farm strongly influence her
interests, research and practice.

Jemma Peisker is an artist, researcher and teacher deeply committed to

education in Australia. She is a Doctor of Philosophy candidate in the
School of Education at Southern Cross University and member of the
Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education (SEAE) Research
Cluster. Jemma has taught in South East Queensland schools for 11 years
as a Senior Visual Arts teacher and has a Graduate Diploma of Education,
a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Honours in Fine Arts and Bachelor of Education
Honours (First Class). For her Honours work, Jemma was awarded the
Southern Cross University Medal for research in 2015 and received the
Australian Postgraduate Award for her Doctoral studies in 2016. Her
research uses Arts-based educational research methodologies, and has a
focus on the primacy of material engagement in the Visual Arts. She spe-
cifically investigates the way bodily activity, cultural practices and trans-
formations in material culture can positively affect students and their
learning outcomes.

David Rousell is Research Fellow in the recently established Centre for

Biosocial Research on Learning and Behaviour at Manchester
Metropolitan University. He is currently working with a team of
­interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners in the development of
experimental research initiatives spanning the arts, humanities, and sci-
ences. David’s recent research and artistic practice has focused on creating
multi-sensory and immersive cartographies of learning environments
that are responsive to the changing material conditions of contemporary
life. David has exhibited his artwork in galleries, museums, and public
xx Contributors

spaces around the world, and his research has been published in the
International Journal of Education Through Art, the Australian Journal of
Environmental Education, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies
in Education, and Multi-­Disciplinary Research in the Arts. He recently
edited a book section entitled ‘Ecological Aesthetics and the Learning
Environment’ for the International Research Handbook on Childhoodnature
(Springer).

Joshua Russell is an Assistant Professor in Animal Behavior, Ecology,

and Conservation as well as Anthrozoology at Canisius College.
His research broadly looks at humans’ lived relationships with various
animals and the more-than-human world. He is particularly interested in
children’s relationships with animals, connections between animal studies
and environmental education research/practice, as well as queer experi-
ences of animality and nature. Joshua lives in southern Ontario with
his partner Sean and their rescue dog, Penny.

Brad Shipway lectures in the School of Education at Southern Cross

University, Australia, and has over 14 years teaching experience across the
primary, secondary, and tertiary educational sectors. Brad has a keen
interest in critical realism and the philosophy of education, supervising
postgraduate students in these areas. His current research projects revolve
around using critical realism as an underlabourer for emancipatory edu-
cational pedagogy.

Robert B. Stevenson is a Research Leader in Education for Sustainability

with the Cairns Institute at James Cook University. During an academic
career based in the USA, he served as Head/Chair of the Department of
Educational Leadership and Policy and Co-Director of the Graduate
School of Education’s Collaborative Research Network at the University
at Buffalo, New York. Prior to this, he taught high school mathematics
and then became a K-12 curriculum and professional development spe-
cialist in environmental education in Education Queensland. Bob is cur-
rently Director of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Sustainability
Education at JCU. He was lead editor of Engaging Environmental
Education: Learning, Culture and Agency (Sense, 2011) and the
 Contributors xxi

International Handbook of Research in Environmental Education (AERA/

Routledge, 2013) and is Executive Editor of the Journal of Environmental
Education (the oldest journal in the field).

Angela Turner is a Design and Technology Education Lecturer at

Southern Cross University, School of Education, Australia. She is an
Interdisciplinary teaching research scholar with a design industry back-
ground. Her specialist research area is defined through Technacy Genre
Theory (TGT), asserted to be transferrable to any research seeking to
identify, clarify and develop various forms of technological practice and
assessment strategies concerned with the choice and use of technologies.
Angela’s research methodology draws on the multifaceted synergies
between human agency, technology choice and the sustainable use of
materials as an ecological resource. Angela has collaborated with local
Aboriginal Elders on native bush food educational walking trails, and led
food education research projects with rural and remote school communi-
ties. Core to this includes cross-cultural food ontological framings on
nutritional health and food science, and Indigenous Australian food sys-
tems in relation to regional food sustainability design and development.

Brian Wattchow is a Senior Lecturer in Outdoor Education in the

School of Education at Federation University Australia. He has over
30 years of experience teaching, guiding and researching in outdoor edu-
cation. His research interests include sense of place, landscape and story-
telling. In 2010 he completed a 2500 km canoe descent of River Murray
and published his first collection of poetry titled The Song of the
Wounded River (Ginninderra Press, 2010). He co-authored A Pedagogy
of place: Outdoor education for a changing world (Monash University
Publishing, 2011) and was lead editor and author of The socio-­ecological
educator: A 21st Century renewal of sport, physical, health, environment and
outdoor education (Springer, 2014).

Hilary Whitehouse is an experienced environmental educator with a

strong commitment to researching, learning and teaching for sustainabil-
ity, science education and research education. Her current research inter-
est is in climate change education. She lives in Cairns and works at James
xxii Contributors

Cook University because she loves rainforests and reefs. Hilary is an exec-
utive editor of the Journal of Environmental Education, a member of the
international advisory board for the Australian Journal of Environmental
Education, and a life member of the Australian Association for
Environmental Education (AAEE). She has coordinated and taught
undergraduate and postgraduate subjects in science education, pedagogy,
education for sustainability and research education.

Helen Widdop Quinton is a Lecturer in Science, Sustainability, Health

and Wellbeing Education at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
Drawing on her past work as a school teacher and environmental educa-
tion project manager, her research centres on identifying the connections
between people and planetary wellbeing; particularly people’s interac-
tions and relationships with place, space and nature. Her recent research
focuses on working with adolescents in remote villages in the Eastern
Himalayan region of India to explore the social and physical geographies
of their local places.

Judith Wilks is Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Education

at Southern Cross University and also Adjunct Associate Professor with
the Nulungu Research Institute of the University of Notre Dame
Australia. She is an experienced educator with a significant research,
teaching and community engagement track record in regional education
services delivery in both the higher education and schooling sectors.
Judith’s research interests and publications stretch across a number of
fields. These include the promotion of agency, resilience, and citizenship
skills through participatory methodologies for children and young people
in environmental education learning settings. Judith has also been an
active member of national research collaboration (Nulungu Institute)
that has sought to promote access, participation and success in higher
education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. In recent
years Judith has undertaken considerable work in the Western Kimberley
region of Western Australia focusing on strengthening the learning expe-
riences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education students
living in remote locations.
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 Contributors xxiii

Tracy Young is a Lecturer at Swinburne University in Melbourne,

Australia with research interests in environmental sustainability, human-­
animal studies and early childhood education. Her current research trou-
bles the connections and disjunctions of children’s relations with animals
in family homes and early childhood education within a critical posthu-
man theoretical framework. The complex relations with children, ani-
mals and environments provide spaces for ethical analysis of how animal
species are socially constructed, culturally reproduced and positioned in
early childhood education.
 List of Figures

Vignette 1 Socioecological – A fluid yet intertangled mesh 3

Fig. 1.1 The geological time spiral-A path to the past. The U.S. geo-
logical survey (https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2008/58/) 6
Fig. 1.2 Animal exploitation as entertainment; a chimpanzee dressed
in human clothing and smoking to ‘entertain’ the young
children at a pre-school, Australia, 1970s 8
Fig. 1.3 The cane toad – an introduced species in Australia by
humans9
Vignette 2 The Anthropocene, malconsumption and the impact on the
planet; stumbling stone at the beginning of Wall Street,
New York transposed over water drenched windscreen in
carwash11
Vignette 3 Humanism, where the nonhuman is an object; Washed up
fishing catch in net and decomposed turtle on Kingscliff,
Australia16
Vignette 4 Common Worlds of nature-culture-childhood; Children
playing in tree next to a de-natured human play structure,
No adults without children, Glass sculptures made by a
human artist that resemble plants; a mother, child and tree 19

xxv
xxvi List of Figures

Vignette 5 Creative Milieux; Child in a cage in Japanese monkey park

where humans are enclosed and wild monkeys are ‘free’.
Humans use nuts to lure the monkeys in; Domestic kitten
gazes outside where he longs to be; Two metre dog sculpture
made of plants in Atlanta Botanical Gardens; Interspecies affec-
tion with a dog and a seal 22
Fig. 2.1 Daniel’s interview with a tree 33
Fig. 2.2 Kosi the pedadog exploring animal tracks with the kinder-
garten children 38
Fig. 2.3 River flowing through the Whanganui National Park, New
Zealand41
Fig. 3.1 A heuristic model for unlearning and learning dualisms 62
Fig. 3.2 A heuristic model for unlearning and learning nature/cul-
ture dualisms 63
Fig. 5.1 Opportunities for de-learning learning – the Anthropocene;
Man bites dog. What are the possibilities of mutual learn-
ing? Is it too late? Clockwise – tree of life, human-nonhu-
man mutuality; in the embrace of nature; fallen gods; tension
and revitalisation 103
Fig. 5.2 Opportunities for de-learning learning – posthumanism.
What is it to be human? What of the others? Who are the
teachers, who are the learners? Is there any learning happen-
ing? Top – queueing. Middle – power beyond human; inter-
national mango travel; human serenity; robotic dinosaurs;
here be dragons. Bottom – guarding the future? 105
Fig. 5.3 Opportunities for de-learning learning – Common Worlds;
decoupling human societies and natural environments.
Uncommon moments for common world insights.
Doorways to new learnings? Top – Patagonia as expected.
Middle – framing the coast differently; free flying – flying
free; power; resource depletion depleted. Bottom – ecohut;
the future of history past; why?; metal reeds 112
Fig. 5.4 Opportunities for de-learning learning – creative milieux:
uncommon friends. Unexpected synergies. Clockwise –
Hawai’i expected i.; Hawai’i expected ii.; bamboo forest
singing trees; uncommon danger; local totem; Kauai
rooster – global visitor; coffee art. Centre - intersecting
worlds120
 List of Figures xxvii

Fig. 8.1 View of the surrounding Himalayan Mountains above the

clouds from Ghoom High School 215
Fig. 9.1 Niha’s drawing on “International Mother Language
Day/21st February” with slogans such as “Bengali will be
our national language” in front of the Martyr’s Memorial at
the campus of the University of Dhaka 241
Fig. 9.2 Rainforest remnant growing where open pasture occurred
thirty years previously 248
Fig. 9.3 Young hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) emerging in the
rainforest remnant 249
Fig. 9.4 Advanced Hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) growing in
the rainforest remnant 249
Fig. 9.5 An example of a young strangler fig tree growing and sur-
rounding an older strangler fig tree 251
Fig. 9.6 Bangalow palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana) emerg-
ing in the built environment 252
Fig. 9.7 Turkey mound built close to carport 253
Fig. 9.8 Scrub turkey raking the leaves to build his mound 253
Fig. 9.9 Male and female scrub turkey on mound 254
Fig. 9.10 A potter wasp building a nest under a roof of a home 255
Fig. 9.11 A carpet python in a box of screws 256
Fig. 9.12 An Australian ring tailed possum in a home shed 257
 List of Tables

Table 3.1 Examples of dyads in socioecological discourse 59

Table 6.1 Big History thresholds. (Adapted from Big History Project,
2018, n.p.) 141
Table 6.2 Big History pedagogical intervention data collection and
analysis phases 149

xxix
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 View larger image

To particularize: The upper part is called the fundus; the widest

part, the body; the neck, the narrow part; and the lower portion the
mouth, or the os tincæ. The connexion of the fallopian tubes is well
shown.
The uterus, or womb, is described by physiologists as being of a
spongy structure—a structure that yields with its enlargement—that
grows with its growth—that resumes the former size when
disburdened of its contents. It is supplied with blood-vessels, is duly
supported, has scarcely a cavity when unimpregnated, but is ever in
a state of preparation for changes. Of conception we shall presently
treat.
There is one function too important to omit in this place, and this
is menstruation—a term indicating a monthly periodical discharge
that escapes, or which is given off, from the womb. At the
commencement of this function, woman is said to have arrived at
puberty; but there are cases of precocity, and others wherein it
never occurs, that neutralize this assertion; besides, menstruation,
being deferred or protracted, depends frequently upon peculiarities
of health. As soon, however, as it occurs, a sensible change takes
place in the female economy; and certainly the other developments
of womanhood rapidly follow.
Menstruation is the monthly discharge of a red fluid, common to
females from fifteen or sixteen years of age to between forty and
fifty; and it is held that, while a female menstruates, she is apt, and
capable also, to conceive. Menstruation is a device of nature to
relieve the system, or to preserve the balance of the circulation,
from the non-fulfilment of her intentions, by the absence of
procreation. It usually continues for four, five, or six days, and
seldom exceeds a few ounces. Its suppression is usually attended
with marked ill health, and many of the formidable complaints of
females are attributable to its irregularities. When anticipated, the
female encounters feelings of depression and lassitude, and exhibits
an aspect of feeble health. As a physiological fact, women, before
and after menstruation, are more desirous of the exercise of sexual
privileges, and usually the approach of the menstrual flow is
accompanied by a sexual orgasm. It has ever been deemed, by
almost universal consent, prudent for married persons and others to
abstain from the sexual embrace during that period. If only on the
score of cleanliness, it should be observed; besides, the likelihood of
establishing irritability, and the probability of interfering with this
healthful provision of nature, should deter from the indulgence. In
some countries, menstruating women are excluded from associating
with the other sex altogether, and are even forbid mingling with
household duties. At the close of this article will be found a series of
prescriptions and suggestions for the removal of the various
disturbances this function is liable to.
 The act of connexion is urged by what is called the sexual
propensity. It is accompanied by feelings of the intensest kind: the
acme of enjoyment is at the moment of seminal ejaculation. The
penis is excited to erection by the influx or rush of blood into its
cavernous or cellular structure; the scrotum becomes constricted,
and compresses the testicles; the vesiculæ seminales, and the
prostate gland, are also elevated by the muscles called levatores ani,
as shown in the preliminary anatomical drawings, whence their use
may now be better understood, as well as those of the perineal
muscles, which all more or less assist in causing the prompt and
forcible ejaculation of the spermatic fluid.
“In[7] the female, the sense of enjoyment, sub coitu, appears to
be principally excited by the friction of the labia interna and clitoris,
which are alike in a state of turgescence or erection. This nervous
excitement, as in the male, often reaches such a degree of intensity
that a kind of syncoptic state is induced.” A sense of contented
lassitude follows, and the mind is permitted to return from the
regions of excited imagination to its ordinary quietude.
The due occurrence of the phenomena just detailed does not
necessarily secure, although it generally succeeds in producing, a
prolific result. Health, aptitude, and one important condition, are
indispensable; and the last is—a positive contact between the male
sperm and female ovum.
There are many remarkable eccentricities that embitter married
life. A union may exist between two parties who are wholly inapt for
mutual enjoyment. The sensations belonging to the sexual act are
involuntary, and are provoked independently of the will: hence, in
connexion without consent, or under feelings of great repugnance,
the orgasm is sometimes aroused; and yet, where the greatest
affection and desire prevail, the male oftentimes unseasonably
concluding before the female, is a most tantalizing source of
disappointment. Further allusions will be found to this subject under
the heads of “Sterility,” and “Impuissance.”
As a preliminary aid to the description of the process of
impregnation, which ensues, the following anatomical draft is
presented:—

1. Section of the womb, upper 10 and 16. The fimbriated

part. extremity of do.
2. Do. of side. 11. The pavilion.
3. Do. of lateral covering. 12. The ovary.
4. Do. of lower part of womb. 13. Vesicles in do.
5. Cavity of the womb. 14. Continuation of ovary.
6. A prominence leading from the 15. Ligament of do.
openings of the fallopian tubes. 17. Pavilion of right ovary.
7. The vagina. 18. Right ovary.
8 and 9. Fallopian tube cut open. 19. Connecting band.
View larger image

Man, unlike other animals, is not smitten with desire to propagate

only at particular periods. In sentient beings, every season is
favorable to the flame of love.
 When conception takes place, the following phenomena are
believed to occur: The womb is supposed to participate in the
excitement of the sexual act, and at the moment of the orgasm, to
receive the male seed, and to mingle with it a fluid of its own. The
whole apparatus of the uterus appears influenced at the same time,
[8] by a kind of electric irritability. A vesicle, owing to the ovaria
being grasped or embraced by the fimbriæ, escapes from its
lodgment and enters the fallopian tube, where it bursts, and its
albuminous drop is conveyed into the womb.
From the circumstance of the male semen returning from the
vagina after copulation, it has been doubted whether it was intended
to enter the uterus. It certainly can only enter once,[9] and that
when impregnation takes place; and even then a small portion
suffices, for immediately after conception the mouth of the womb
becomes impermeably closed. The mouth of the womb lies
horizontally, like the lips of the face, while that of the orifice of the
urethra is arranged perpendicularly: hence the presumption, from
this better adaptation to transmit and receive, that the semen to
impregnate should enter the uterus.
This question is mooted, because it has been supposed by some
that impregnation ensues from the vapor or odor of the male seed
ascending to the womb. Contending parties admit, while others
deny, that the seed may be, and has been, detected in the womb of
females and animals having been slain (or who may have died)
during or soon after the act of copulation. Impregnation has
followed very imperfect penetration, such as in cases of unruptured
hymen, or of disproportion of parts, and other causes needless to
insert here, by which the supposition is supported that conception
takes place from vaginal absorption; but it must be remembered that
the seed is projected generally with great force, and that the
smallest possible quantity is sufficient for impregnation; also, that
the vagina possesses a constrictive movement of its own, whereby
the seed is carried into the womb.
After the escape of the “albuminous drop,” the vascular membrane
which contained it is converted into what is called a corpus luteum;
denoting thereby—for it assumes the form, after a while, of a fleshy
nucleus—that the female has either conceived, or has been under
the influence of strong amatory excitement. This salvo must be
admitted, for corpora lutea have been discovered in females where
intercourse was even impossible; but as this detection of corpora
lutea generally corroborates the surmise that so many conceptions
have taken place as there are corpora lutea, it is to be presumed
that the exception must be owing to some similarly powerful mental,
as well as physical excitement.
When impregnation has taken place, the womb begins to enlarge,
and become more soft, vascular, and turgid—the wonderful process
of fluids assuming the form of solids commences, and within a
fortnight an investing membrane is formed, called the decidua (I will
insert as few names as possible), consisting of two kinds of folds,
one lining the womb, and the other containing the ovum which has
therein “taken root.” The ovum is now a soft oval mass, fringed with
vessels, and composed of membranes containing the early fœtus.
See sketch.

View larger image

 When opened, the fœtus appears surrounded by three distinct
membranes: first, the decidua; secondly, the chorion, the inner fold
of the former; thirdly, the amnios. The decidua, as before stated,
lines the womb; the two others cover the ovum or fœtus. After a
time the amnios and chorion become adherent to each other, and a
fluid is interposed betwixt the amnios and fœtus, called the liquor
amnii. The fœtus, as it advances, is perceived to be hanging by an
organized support, called the umbilical chord, floating in the liquor
before named.[10]
A draft is here presented of an ovum (a section) of a fortnight old;
and adjoining is one just double its age, where the chord will be
perceived.

View larger image View larger image

The following further account may aid the description thus far
given. The ovum, protected by a membrane of its own, called the
amnios, descends into the uterus, where it takes its hold of the
membranes already there—the decidua. It pushes its way before, as
exemplified in the subjoined drawing:—
 a—The decidua lining the womb.
b—Do. protecting the ovum.
c—The upper part of the womb, where
the ovum has become adherent.
d—The ovum.
View larger image

The next cut shows the advanced condition of the fœtus:—

a—The womb.
b—The liquor amnii, with the
fœtus.
c—The chorion.
d—The decidua.
e—The opening of the
fallopian tubes.
View larger image

It will answer no practical usefulness to go through the whole

minutiæ of the various physiological changes that take place relative
to fœtal growth from the hour of impregnation to that of delivery.
What has already been detailed, has been offered to unveil a little of
that singular ignorance that exists generally among non-medical
persons regarding the history of themselves. “Too much learning is a
dangerous thing;” and it will readily be allowed, that a sufficient idea
that certain things happen is oftentimes as useful as to know how
they happen, especially when it belongs to a department requiring
much research, time, and ingenuity, thoroughly to understand, and
which may chance to be foreign to our ordinary pursuit.
The period consumed in gestation is forty weeks, or nine calendar
months, and the time is calculated from a fortnight after the
suspension of menstruation. Some married ladies pride themselves
upon being able to predict to a day—to tell the precise occasion
when they conceive, and which they date from some unusual
sensation experienced at the particular embrace which effected the
important change. Many medical men disallow that such tokens
present themselves, and are opposed to the belief which many
mothers entertain, that nature is so communicative; and also are
skeptical of those extraordinary influences that every day furnish
proofs of maternal imagination, occasioning to the burden they
carry, sundry marks, malformations, and monstrosities. Examinations
have found that the order of fœtal organization is somewhat as
follows: the heart and large vessels, the liver and appendages, the
brain, stomach, and extremities. The determination of sex and
number has hitherto defied exploration. In the early months of
pregnancy the womb maintains its natural position; but as it
enlarges, it also emerges from the pelvis into the abdomen. The
moment of its slipping out of the pelvis is termed quickening, of
which most women are sensible—some fainting on the occasion,
others being attacked with nausea, hysteria, and palpitation of the
heart. Quickening usually occurs between the fourth and fifth month.
The fœtus is then called a child—the law ordaining that, if a woman
intentionally procure, or such parties as may assist in so doing,
abortion or miscarriage before quickening, it is misdemeanor, if after,
murder.
The following diagram is presented to show the situation occupied
by the womb containing the child just ready to enter the world:—
 a—The womb.

b—The vagina.

c—The bladder.

d—The rectum.
View larger image

A full pregnant female, like a very corpulent man, walks very

erect: hence the popular notion that ladies in the one condition, and
gentlemen in the other, do not think meanly of themselves, but strut
along well pleased with their own importance. It is an uncharitable
idea; the attitude is unavoidable, the head and shoulders being
thrown back to counterbalance the protuberance in front—to
preserve, in fact, the centre of gravity, to save themselves from
falling.
Symptoms of Pregnancy.—Mysterious as is the process of
impregnation, there are many forewarnings which, being generally
found correct, are useful to be known. Great as are the changes that
take place in the female economy during child-bearing, and
productive as they frequently are of serious disturbances to health, it
is benevolently ordained that women who fulfil their destiny of
becoming mothers, have better health to sustain them through their
travail than the single or unprolific. The signs of pregnancy during
the first few weeks are very equivocal. The first probability is the
suppression of menstruation, which is accompanied by fulness of the
breasts, the nipples of which become surrounded by a dark areola;
headache, flushing in the face, and heat in the palms of the hands,
ensue; also sickness in the morning, and probably an accession of
mental irritability; various longings exist—many very ridiculous,
others bordering on insanity, and some indicating great perversion of
temper, habits, in hitherto well-conducted inclinations.
There are many phenomena more readily discovered by medical
men accustomed to the accoucheur’s employment than describable,
that indicate pregnancy; the sinking of the abdomen, the descent
and closure of the uterus, the altered facial looks, the state of the
pulse, &c., &c.
From the fourth month, when the womb ascends into the
abdomen, the signs are more positive: the protrusion of the navel,
the evident enlargement of the belly, the tenderness and fulness of,
and occasional escape of milk from, the breasts, clearly point out the
occasion.
About the fifth month, the movements of the child are very
apparent to the mother, when all doubt is removed.
There are some conditions of female life that assimilate to
pregnancy, and which have defied the judgment of matrons, and
even medical men, but they are rare—such as dropsy of the
abdomen, or ovaries, tumors, accumulations of wind, &c. These,
with the suspension of menstruation (which last is but an uncertain
sign, for it may depend upon cold, fever, or inflammation), have
destroyed the anticipations of fond wives, and have alarmed those
who desire not to become mothers.
Parturition takes place at the end of the ninth month; but children
born at the end of seven will live, and examples are related of some
that have “gone” ten. In France, legitimacy is allowed to children
born on the 299th day of pregnancy.
Labor is distinguished by a softening of the soft parts of the
female organs of generation, an abundant secretion of mucus, a
relaxation of the mouth of the womb, and a forcible contraction of
its body. The expulsion of the child is effected by pains of a straining
nature. After the birth of the child, the womb contracts to its normal
or unimpregnated size, giving forth a discharge, called the lochia,
that lasts for several days, and the breasts immediately furnish the
secretion of milk.
Previously to entering upon the consideration of the diseases
arising from infection, and for which this book was originally
composed, a word or two may be said upon a condition of the
womb, unfortunately of frequent prevalence, called prolapsus uteri,
or falling of the womb. Such occurrence may take place with single
females as well as with married, or those who have borne children.
It may be held as the result of debility; and according to the degree
of descent is the inconvenience and suffering. The first drawing
exhibits the natural position of the uterus:—
 a—The vagina.

b—The uterus.
View larger image

A partial descent of the uterus gives rise to painful dragging

sensations about the groins and fundament, and it is usually
attended by the “whites,” or leucorrhœa, a disease of which mention
is presently made:—

Partial descent of the

uterus.

a, a, a—Vagina.

b—Uterus.
View larger image

If prolapsus takes place during pregnancy, the womb impresses

upon the bladder and rectum, and occasions irritability of both those
structures; but as pregnancy advances, and as the womb ascends
into the abdomen, these inconveniences cease, and the womb
oftentimes regains its tone and position after child-birth. The womb
sometimes protrudes externally, and is a source of great distress.
See drawing:—

Prolapsus uteri.

a, a—Vagina.

b—Uterus.
View larger image

The treatment in these cases is chiefly mechanical, beside

supporting the general health. The first symptoms, however, demand
efficient attention, and the medical attendant should be made
acquainted with every particular.
It is a question whether the weakened condition of the supports of
the womb, and the consequent relaxed state of the vagina, are not
owing to the manner in which women clothe themselves. The pelvic
part of the female is kept always in a state of unnatural warmth,
from the load of petticoats and other unnameable female attire.
Contrast but the difference between the simple unlined trowsers of
the male and five or six-fold clothing of the other sex: either the one
must yield too much warmth, or the other must strike too cold. The
sedentary habits of women have of course much influence.
When retention of urine follows the falling down or partial descent
of the womb, the female should lie on her back, press the uterus
into the pelvis, and urinate in that position.
The womb, beside becoming displaced, is subject to an eversion,
or a turning inside out. Happily, such cases are unfrequent, but any
disturbance of so important an organ demands the promptest
attention.
 DISEASES OF WOMEN, AND THE
USE OF THE SPECULUM.

View larger image

The introduction of the stethoscope and the speculum constitute

two important epochs in medical science—the former ascertaining,
by the conveyance of sound, disease in the most hidden and
inaccessible parts of the human frame, and the latter bringing to
view structures which, without such aid, are necessarily veiled from
our sight. The speculum consists of an instrument formed of silver or
steel, that without pain or inconvenience is passed into the vagina,
when, by a simple contrivance, it is made to expand and dilate the
vaginal passage, and thereby expose to view the entire canal,
together with the uterine aperture. The usefulness of such a
method, whereby disease can at once be detected, admits of no
dispute. It is physically painless; and if opposed to female diffidence
and modesty, its importance and serviceableness should be balanced
against the mental distress such a procedure may occasion. On the
one hand, without its assistance, the treatment of the disease is at
best but conjectural; on the other, by its aid, it is safe and sure—
much suspense and suffering is at once put an end to. Experience
has proved that many local disturbances, that were believed to have
been merely vaginal irritation, have been discovered to depend upon
absolute disorganization of the neck and mouth of the womb. Deep-
seated ulceration has been detected, and cancerous enlargements;
the disease thereby having been exposed, has had the necessary
and successful treatment. In Paris, it is considered so valuable that a
chair, termed a “speculum chair,” has been invented solely for its
use. See engraving on previous page.
The speculum is now in the hands of every respectable medical
man, and the class of disorders that hold it in requisition are being
better understood, and consequently more successfully combated. In
no cases is it more useful than in secretive irregularities, such as in
leucorrhœa, gonorrhœa, or syphilitic ulceration. Without further
comment, these diseases will be considered.
 GONORRHŒA IN THE FEMALE.
This disease is rarely so violent as in man, it being mostly confined
to the uterine conduit; in fact, except by the discharge, women are
almost unconscious of its existence, mistaking it, when occurring in
married life, for leucorrhœa. Occasionally, however, the inflammation
is highly acute, and a variety of distressing symptoms ensue. There
is considerable excoriation around, and a swelling of the organs,
much ardor urinæ, and the same constitutional disturbance as in the
other sex.
The medical treatment of both sexes is constitutionally alike; but
the female has to depend more upon local treatment than the male.
Hence the importance of injections. Now here is another source of
difficulty: women are as averse to the use of the syringe as they are
to the speculum; and the consequence is, vaginal diseases are
generally protracted to double as long as they need be. However, as
these hints are likely to be seen only by those who doubtlessly have,
and who indisputably ought, to exercise it, namely, influence over
the sex in persuading them to submit to what common sense
bespeaks as most prudent and expedient, appropriate formulæ for
the suggestions just recommended will be found a few pages hence.
Frequent ablution, rest, temperate diet—the more farinaceous and
mucilaginous the better, avoiding entirely wines, fermented and
spirituous liquors, together with mild (Form 63) aperients and
salines, constitute the chief means of cure. Injections are
indispensable.
I have already alluded to the difficulty of getting female patients
to be their own confessors. If they appoint others, every possible
information should be furnished, and fastidiousness by no means
should supplant the avowal of real facts. Although gonorrhœa in
women is generally less severe than in the male, it is vexingly
oftentimes more lasting; which is easily accounted for, owing to the
extent of surface diseased: whereas in man it is limited to the
narrow urethra, and seldom exceeds an inch or two upward,
constituting not one tithe part of the space morbidly affected in the
former. See, however, the formulæ.
 SYPHILIS IN FEMALES.
The principal features of syphilis in women consist of ulcers,
excoriations, warts, and buboes. Women, of course, are alike liable
to all the forms of secondary symptoms. Chancres usually appear
within and on the labiæ. In the drawing here given, the labiæ are
drawn aside to expose the ulceration; and they are also found within
the vagina and surrounding the mouth or protuberance of the
womb. It is in these cases that the speculum is had recourse to; and
in the Parisian hospitals every case is subject to such a mode of
investigation.

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 The following three illustrations show what a degree of severity
ulceration and other changes put on. The first exhibits superficial
excoriation extending rapidly, and occasionally a swollen appearance
of the os uteri; the second shows extensive chancrous ulceration;
and the last of a tuberculous character, like little hardened tumors.
But for the speculum, these conditions might have gone on to
worse, and led to irremediable mischief: their treatment,
independently of local means, such as injections, &c., would have
been prolonged to an almost indefinite time. The use of styptics is
demanded in female as well as male syphilitic developments, and
accordingly the employment of nitrate of silver, copper, &c., is
advised, as already explained.

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 The following drawing shows the extent of mischief and
annoyance to the external organs of female generation consequent
upon neglect. The external labiæ are studded with chancres. The
thighs, buttocks, and rectum, are dotted and overspread with
excoriations. The person from whom this sketch is taken was an
unfortunate woman of the town. As it is not my intention to
particularize cases, although from my peculiar province I could fill up
as many pages as this book contains, with details of such histories, I
have only to add, by way of summary, that the topical and
constitutional treatment being alike in both sexes, the only
modifications required will be the regulating of the doses of the
medicines, which must be done with reference to the idiosyncrasy,
age, and temperament, of the patient. The frail system of woman is
less able to withstand the dire effects of the disease, or the potent
means for its extirpation, than her stronger brotherhood, and
therefore the abler and more experienced the counsel, the fairer the
chance of her recovery; a hint that the writer feels assured will not
be received by those to whom his pages are addressed, as a vain
appeal to repose confidence in other advice than their own.
View larger image
 LEUCORRHŒA, FLUOR ALBUS, OR
THE WHITES
This is the most prevalent of all derangements of the female
economy, connected with the uterine system; and from its
debilitating effects, induces a train of maladies that tend to embitter
personal comfort more than any other human ill. Leucorrhœa
consists of a discharge of acrid, or bland, but variously-colored
mucus from the vagina, differing in intensity according to the cause
and duration. It would be idle to offer the many arguments set up to
prove whence it proceeds, or to examine the discussions as to
whether it is the produce of the uterine vessels, or the vaginal
secretives. That both aid in its formation is doubtless the case (as
the employment of the speculum has satisfactorily proved); and
equally certain that, according to the amount of irritability existing
therein, so depends the quantity and character of the discharge. It
exists in the married and single—in the moral and unchaste; and
therefore the cause should be cautiously divined, it being evident
that other than sexual indulgences establish this annoying and
distressing affliction. It may be fairly conceded to be a vitiated
secretion, depending upon a weakened state of the local vessels,
and, moreover, in particular habits, to be a salutary evacuation. On
the other hand, it must not be denied that it is oftentimes, where it
occurs to persons living sub judice mariti, the result of sexual
intemperance, or disease springing from an indiscriminate
indulgence in the same.
However, as my purpose is more with the symptoms and
treatment, the following may be received as a summary of what
occurs, and what should be done for the removal thereof:—
 In addition to the discharge, which at one time is scanty, at
another profuse, there are usually severe pains in the loins and
lower part of the abdomen: there is a sense of bearing down, as
though the womb were descending and even protruding. The
general health of the patient is disturbed, loss of appetite, excessive
languor, a pale and emaciated look, sleepless nights, dark areola
around the eyes, various hysterical and other nervous affections, and
numerous disturbances indicating a weakened and impaired state of
mind and body. Among other causes beside those alluded to, may be
enumerated irregular living, late hours, mental and bodily fatigue,
deficient exercise, impure air, and neglect of personal ablution.
Among the consequences of a long-continued leucorrhœa, an almost
certainty of sterility should not be omitted.
Treatment.—In leucorrhœa, where or where not consecutive to
gonorrhœa, depending on loss of tone of the secretive vessels of the
internal organs of generation, the chief indication is to impart vigor
and restore strength, which it is evident depends much upon an
avoidance of those causes that first started the disease.
Although leucorrhœa bears a strong resemblance to gonorrhœa,
there are points by which to distinguish the one from the other. In
gonorrhœa, the discharge is unceasing, but small in quantity, and is
usually accompanied by inflammatory symptoms; whereas in
leucorrhœa, the discharge is irregular and copious, often coming
away in large lumps.
The treatment of fluor albus is indicated by the degree of severity
present. Where the prominent feature is the discharge, the
indication is to increase the action of the absorbents by restoring the
tone of the diseased surface, and at the same time to strengthen the
system. Where the disease is complicated with weakness and
relaxation, astringents should be given by the mouth, and also
administered in the form of injections. The alkaline solution of
copaiba is a very valuable medicament, and may be taken twice or
thrice daily. It may also be employed as an injection, by adding one
or two ounces to a pint of water, and a teacupful thrown up several
times in the day. There are many domestic remedies, which, from
their harmless properties, can at least do no injury, if they are not
productive of good; as, for instance, a strong decoction of green tea,
an infusion of oak bark, or alum-water; or diluted port wine—all to
be used as injections, which, if it shall so please the patient, may be
tried prior to the annexed:—

Form 64.
Chalybeate Pills, for Leucorrhœa, or other Female Sexual
Weakness.
Take of—
Sulphate of iron 1 scruple.
Balsam of copaiba and liquorice powder—of each a
sufficiency to form the mass, which is to be divided into 40
pills, of which 3 or 4 may be taken three times a day.
Or, take of—
Sulphate of zinc 1 scruple.
Extract of camomile 1 drachm.
” gentian 1 ”
Syrup, a sufficiency.
Mix, and form 24 pills. Dose—two twice a day.

Form 65.
Strengthening Mixture.
Take of—
Infusion of bark 7½ ounces.
Sulphate of quinine 8 grains.
Diluted sulphuric acid ½ drachm.
Syrup of orange-peel 2 drachms.
Mix. Dose—three tablespoonfuls twice or three times a day.

Form 66.
 Astringent Pills for Leucorrhœa.
Take of—
Extract of Peruvian bark 1 drachm.
Gum kino 1 ”
Alum ½ ”
Nutmeg 1 scruple.
Syrup, sufficient to form the mass. Divide into 36 pills.
Dose—three pills three times a day, to be followed by a
teacupful of lime-water.

Form 67.
Astringent Pills.
Take of—
Alum 30 grains.
Catechu 1 drachm.
Opium 5 grains.
Mix to form 30 pills. Dose—three twice a day. Useful in
chronic gonorrhœa and leucorrhœa.

Form 68.
Astringent Pills for obstinate Gleet, or Leucorrhœa.
Take of—
Gum kino 1 part.
Canadian turpentine 4 parts.
Powder of tormentilla, as much as may be necessary to form
a mass. Divide the same into pills of 5 grains each, and take
from three to half a dozen of them night and morning.
Continue them for a week or fortnight. A very useful remedy.

Form 69.
Astringent Injections for Leucorrhœa or Gonorrhœa.
Take of—
The compound solution of alum ½ oz. to 1 oz.
Water 1 quart.
 Mix.
Injections may be used two or three times a day. If found to
irritate, they should be diluted with water. Appropriate
syringes are to be had; but the best are those formed by the
Enema apparatus.

Form 70.
Astringent Injection.
Take of—
Sugar of lead 1 scruple.
Water 1 quart.
Mix.
Or, take of—
Catechu 1 drachm.
Myrrh 1 ”
Lime-water ½ pint.
Mix.
Or, take of—
Nitrate of silver 1 scr. to 1 dr.
Water 1 quart.
Mix and strain. This lotion is much, and very effectively, used
by the profession.
Or, take of—
Sulphate of zinc ½ to 1 drachm.
Water 1 quart.
Mix.
See Forms 11 and 12.
The remaining diseases peculiar to the female pelvic viscera and
their outlet, are hæmorrhoids, irritability and inflammation of the
bladder, disordered uterine functions, urethritis, or inflammation of
the urinary passage, and, lastly, internal and external irritation or
excoriation. But as these fall within the province of every family
practitioner, to the consultation of whom no morbid delicacy should
prevent a patient, having such in their confidence, from resorting, I
shall conclude this section by appending sundry prescriptions, in
order that, should prudence not direct the sick one or her friends to
call in the advised assistance, help may not be entirely withheld, and
in order that, if the aid offered be not the means of supplying the
loss of a more proficient and skilful director, it may at least be found
mitigatory of these interruptions of health and comfort:—

Form 71.
Pills to promote the flow of the Menstrual Secretion.
Take of—
Aloetic pills, with myrrh 1 drachm.
Compound iron pill 1 ”
Mix to form 24 pills. Take two twice a day.
Or, take of—
Compound galbanum pills 1 drachm.
Socotrine aloes 1 ”
Mix to form 24 pills. Dose—two twice a day.

Form 72.
Injection for the retention of the Uterine Periodical Secretion.
Take of—
Liquor of ammonia 10 drops.
Milk ½ pint.
To be used morning and evening. This is a remedy that has
been used by many medical men with very great success.

There are no means so importantly serviceable as the

frequent use of the warm and vapor bath.

Form 73.
Stimulating Drops to restore the Menstrual flow.
Take of—
Compound tincture of aloes 1½ oz.
 Tincture of black hellebore 1 drachm.
” castor 1 ”
” Lyttæ 30 drops.
Mix. Dose—a teaspoonful in water three times a day.

Form 74.
To relieve entire suppression.
Take of—
Compound galbanum pills 1 drachm.
Sulphate of iron 1 ”
Extract of savin 10 grains.
Of black hellebore 20 ”
Syrup sufficient to form 36 pills. Dose—three twice a day.

All these medicines must be given with great caution.

Form 75.
To check an immoderate flow of the Menstrual secretion.
Take of—
Infusion of roses 8 oz.
Tincture of opium 30 drops.
Mix. Dose—three tablespoonfuls three times a day.
Or, take of the tincture of ergot of rye, a teaspoonful in
water twice a day.
Or, take of the sesqui-chloride tincture of iron, 20 to 30
drops in water, three times a day.

Form 76.
For painful Menstruation.
Add to a portion of gruel, upon going to bed, 15 or 20 drops
of laudanum. This quantity may also be taken in the
morning, and repeated several days; the bowels in the
meantime to be relieved by castor oil.
The warm hip bath, in these cases, is invaluable.