While awaiting the return of the next series of Ad Libitum posts from
one of my reviewers (he had a death in the family), I'll take a moment
to answer a few questions the ad libitum series has generated.
Q: "I am very interested in your historical research on ferret diets...
would you please discuss the documents and where I can get copies?"
A: This could be an eight-part mini-series on PBS.
I am happy to discuss it in a general way, but since I plan on publishing
the material specific to ferrets, I have to protect releasing the
specific data into the public domain. For that, you will just have to
wait.
For this basic discussion, information about ferrets can be direct,
indirect, or inferred. A direct reference is something that directly
addresses a ferret issue, such as any number of Buffon's references on
polecats and ferrets, published from the late 1700s and throughout the
1800s. An indirect reference discusses something else, but includes a
section that addresses ferrets. An ad selling purse nets and ferret
muzzles is an example of an indirect reference. An inferred reference
doesn't discuss ferrets at all, but the nature of the reference indicates
a knowledge or awareness of the animals. For example, the American
cutter, USS Ferret (sailed in 1809) can be used to infer the presence or
awareness of ferrets by people of that era.
Obviously, direct references have more evidentiary value than an indirect
or inferred reference, but combinations of the three are the most
powerful. For example, finding a book discussing ferrets is pretty good
evidence people know about them, but finding an ad selling cages or
ferreting equipment, as well as names of ships named Ferret from the same
era is very strong evidence that ferrets were known, kept, used, and
bred. For example, I have inferred references showing people not only
knew about ferrets between 1790-1830 (3 USA sailing ships named Ferret),
but that they were owned and used for ratting (direct and indirect
references in books, newspapers and magazines).
The same technique can be used to discover specific health issues,
although in many respects it is much harder. For example, supposed you
used the FML to investigate the diseases common to ferrets. The problem
is common aliments are over reported compared to rare illnesses, so
absolute percentages are impossible. However, there are ways to
statistically control some of these problems, and the resulting data are
generally trustworthy.
The number one mistake is making the assumption that people living in the
past are stupid. This is very common when regarding so-called primitive
people (visualizing and manufacturing an arrow point is as intellectually
difficult as higher math functions). People working with ferrets a
century ago may not have understood why their animal was losing their
hair (and could have invented a hundred reasons to explain why), but
they would have mentioned the baldness. MOST ferret books a century ago
included detailed veterinary information, and were remarkably consistent
in types of disease mentioned, included extended lists of symptoms.
All you have to do is find the references and generate the data.
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 3975]
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