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]