Effeminate Edmund Burke and the masculine voice of Mary Wollstonecraft

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the gendered and nationalist rhetorical strategies Mary Wollstonecraft used in her work The Vindication of the Rights of Man which was written as an open letter of response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France . While a number of scholars note Wollstonecraft’s adoption of a masculine voice in her systematic feminizing of Burke, this article also pays attention to the ways in which Wollstonecraft impugns Burke with the taints of being crypto-Catholic, Irish, and quasi-French. We notice how Wollstonecraft’s masculine voice is rational, combative, righteously passionate, middle-class, patriotically English and critically Protestant. We compare the fashioning of Wollstonecraft’s voice with contemporary political caricatures of John Bull and the cartoon depictions of Edmund Burke that appeared as Wollstonecraft was composing her VRM. Wollstonecraft’s VRM gained her considered attention and her critique of Burke’s character, (and what this article claims is her misreading of his aesthetic treatise), have been remarkably influential even to the present day. The characteristics of the distinct voice created in Wollstonecraft’s first Vindication are also evident in her second and more famous Vindication of the Rights of Woman. However, the rhetorical commitments entailed in Wollstonecraft’s public voice created challenges for her arguments in the second Vindication that demand careful attention.     

Identification of fetal blood stains by radioimmunoassay of alpha 1-fetoprotein.

Radioimmunoassay of alpha 1-fetoprotein(AFP) for medico-legal identification of fetal blood stains using a commercial kit is described. The AFP content in fetal blood stains on filter paper ranged from 21--320 ng/9 mm2. The protein was detected in stains of adult blood and retroplacental blood in only negligible amounts. Aging of the blood stains did not influence the values up to 1 month. The method is simple and sensitive enough for application to medico-legal-practice.     

Assessment of edema fluid distribution in the brain

The technique is proposed allowing quantitation of brain edema and typing of liquor distribution in different parts of brain tissue. In combination with other assays this test can determine a variant of tanatogenesis, detect cause of death and duration of the terminal period. The method application is illustrated by the study of brain hydration in mechanical strangulation asphyxia. It is shown that this death is associated with hypohydration of cerebral structures, especially pronounced in the cortical compartments.     

Assessment of unfavorable outcomes of dental care provoked by the patient

Some causes of ineffective dental care because of the patient's negligence were analyzed. In 16 cases the patients ignored recommendations of the dentist and missed visits to the doctor. As a result, the patients developed complications leading to esthetic dissatisfaction, prolonged treatment, repeated prosthetic management.     

Criteria of personal identification by the hyoid bone

We studied 16 sizes of the hyoid bone (HB) from 158 corpses of known gender, Russians, who had died at the age over 15 years by the K. Miller et al program (1998) and 205 back projection electroroentgenograms of the neck of patients of the traumatological hospital in the town of Kirov. HB skeletization was made by the enzymatic drug enzyme. SPSS package and multidimentional statistics (regression and discriminant analyses) were used for data processing. It was established that HB is an informative object of forensic medical personal identification allowing determination of the body length and gender as well as anatomical, x-ray and osteometric individual features. Precision of human body length diagnosis by HB is 6.71-7.26 cm. Therefore, this method should be used in combination with the diagnosis by long tubular bones. Diagnosis of human gender by osteometric signs of HB based on one-dimentional discriminant analysis is feasible in 80-85%, based on canonical discriminant analysis--in 91.1% cases. The method of anatomic, osteometric and roentgenological assessment of HB individuality can be used in personal identification by intravital x-ray of cervical organs and in traumatic defects of HB. The methods may be applied in forensic medical practice in expert examination of body fragments or isolated bone fragments.