Some Current Trends in the Study of Renaissance Medicine
The following brief reflections on the present state of scholarship in Renaissance medicine make no claim to provide a comprehensive overview of the field. Medicine is of broad historical interest because a web of connections link it to the culture as a whole. Variously considered, medicine has a place in the history of science and technology, in social history, and in a wide sweep of cultural and intellectual history ranging from the history of philosophy to the study of popular mentalités. Moreover, although the field of the history of Renaissance medicine is one in which much, including fundamental work, remains to be done, it is also one that is now being vigorously developed in some widely diverse ways. Confronted with this breadth of topics and materials, I am seeking only to isolate a few major directions in current work
John Caius and the Linacre tradition.
To TALK of Thomas Linacre and John Caius together iti the same paper is almost like commending a saint and a sinner in the same sermon. Linacre is universally praised by his contemporaries and by modem scholars alike, while Caius in his writings and in his daily relationships seems petulant and domineering, with a dislike of Welshmen, whom he excluded from his refounded College along with the blind, the deaf, the halt, the lame, and sufferers from grave or incurable diseases.1 Linacre's achievement was to drag medicine in this country into the sixteenth century; the effect of Caius' example, it is alleged, was firmly to keep it there for a further two centuries. Caius was a reactionary in many ways, of that there is no doubt-his preference for the old rituals and institutions was strengthened by his experience of unruly junior fellows and boisterous undergraduates given to games and drinking, who preferred to spend their money on fashionable clothes that would soon wear out rather than on books that would endure.2 Yet his attachment to the past was not just wistful yearning for a bygone age: he was aware of the positive benefits to the present to be gained by adherence to an active tradition, that of the medical humanism of Linacre, whose memory he venerated and whose tomb he repaired and, in his will, commanded his executors to clean and mend.3 His medical fellowships at his college, his proud and autocratic rule of the College of Physicians, cannot be understood without Linacre's example, and Caius would assuredly have been delighted and flattered by Bullein's praise of him for "shewyng himself to be the seconde
English Code-Mixing and Code-Switching in Thai Songs
This study aims to investigate the attitudes of Thai people toward English code-mixing and code-switching in Thai songs and to find out if English code-mixing and code-switching in Thai songs could be an effective pedagogical instrument for learning the English language. The researcher selected a target population of 50 Thai participants (25 adolescent and 25 middle aged participants) and, by using a questionnaire, surveyed their attitudes towards the mixing and switching of English vocabulary in Thai songs. In addition to the questionnaire, two from the 50 participants were interviewed. One was an adolescent who has a very good knowledge of English and the other was a middle aged participant with almost no knowledge of English. The findings show that a majority of the middle aged participants disagree on the positive attitudes and reasons of people who listen to Thai songs which mix and switch the English language while a majority of the adolescent participants believe that some people who listen to Thai songs which mix and switch the English language are knowledgeable as well as show good taste and have a high social status. On the other hand, both the adolescent and middle aged group agree that some Thai songs which mix and switch the English language sound annoying and are inconsistent in conveying the meaning of the lyrics. Both groups also agree that Thai songs which mix and switch the English language may help listeners to enhance their knowledge of the English language. When interviewed individually, the participant who is very good in the English language tended to emphasize only the English competency of the listeners; while the participant who does not have any knowledge of the English language tended to emphasize the listeners‟ liking of the lyrics, the meaning and the melody of the songs. However, the use, as a pedagogical instrument, of Thai songs which mix and switch the English language could open up an additional choice for language learners in English vocabulary learning. Such songs would be acceptable as an effective pedagogical instrument for learning the English language if the English words in the songs also show correct English syntax.