First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

Physiognomy and ekphrasis are two of the most important modes of description in antiquity and represent the necessary precursors of scientific description. The primary way of divining the characteristics and fate of an individual, whether inborn or acquired, was to observe the patient’s external characteristics and behaviour. This volume focuses initially on two types of descriptive literature in Mesopotamia: physiognomic omens and what we might call ekphrastic description. These modalities are traced through ancient India, Ugaritic and the Hebrew Bible, before arriving at the physiognomic features of famous historical figures such as Themistocles, Socrates or Augustus in the Graeco-Roman world, where physiognomic discussions become intertwined with typological analyses of human characters. The Arabic compendial culture absorbed and remade these different physiognomic and ekphrastic traditions, incorporating both Mesopotamian links between physiognomy and medicine and the interest in characterological ‘types’ that had emerged in the Hellenistic period. This volume offer the first wide-ranging picture of these modalities of description in antiquity.

This book offers a critical review of the head and neck from an anatomical, physiological and clinical perspective. It begins by providing essential anatomical and physiological information, then discusses historical and current views on specific aspects in subsequent chapters. For example, the anatomy of the skull cap or cranial vault provided in the first chapter is discussed in the context of malformation and identity, as well as the development of the bony skull, in the following chapters. These chapters provide stepping-stones to guide readers through the book. There are new fields of research and technological developments in which Anatomy and Physiology lose track of progress. One of the examples discussed is the automated face recognition. In some respects, e.g. when it comes to cancers and malformations, our understanding of the head and neck – and the resulting therapeutic outcomes – have been extremely disappointing. In others, such as injuries following car accidents, there have been significant advances in our understanding of head and neck dysfunctions and their treatment. Therefore head movements, also during sleep, and head and neck reflexes are discussed. The book makes unequivocal distinctions between correct and incorrect assumptions and provides a critical review of alternative clinical methods for head and neck dysfunctions, such as physiotherapy and lymphatic drainage for cancers. Moreover, it discusses the consequences of various therapeutic measures for physiological and biomechanical conditions, as well as puberty and aging. Lastly, it addresses important biomedical engineering developments for hearing e.g. cochlear implants and for applying vestibular cerebellar effects for vision.

The establishment of a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in the seventeenth century and an expansion of the sphere of colonial influence in the eighteenth century made South Africa the only part of sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans could travel with relative ease deep into the interior. As a result individuals with scientific interests in Africa came to the Cape. This book examines writings and drawings of scientifically educated travellers, particularly in the field of ethnography, against the background of commercial and administrative discourses on the Cape. It is argued that the scientific travellers benefited more from their relationship with the colonial order than the other way around.