Early Visitors Research Articles

Characteristics of patients who visited emergency departments for headache in South Korea: A descriptive cross-sectional study.

This study aimed to describe the characteristics of adult patients who visit emergency departments (EDs) for non-traumatic headache in South Korea. Little is known about East Asian patients who visit EDs for headache. This observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study retrospectively analyzed 2019 National Emergency Department Information System data, including age, sex, co-occurring fever, symptom duration, insurance type, transportation mode, ED level, triage level, ED visit time, specialist consultations at the ED, disposition from the ED, and outcomes. The proportion of patients with a life-threatening secondary headache and the diagnostic codes were investigated. A total of 227,288 patients were observed in this study, accounting for 2.2% (227,288/10,238,360) of all ED visits. Females (63.1%; 143,493/227,288) visited EDs more than males, and patients aged 50-60 years (21.0%; 47,637/227,288) visited most frequently. A total of 61.5% (93,789/151,494) of ED visits were within 24 h after headache onset, and 57.6% (131,056/227,288) of visits were assigned to non-urgent triage levels. The most frequent discharge codes were "R51: Headache (not better specified)" from the ED and ward, and "I60: Subarachnoid hemorrhage" from the intensive care unit. The rate of migraine diagnosis was 7.2% (16,471/227,288). A total of 3.1% (7153/227,288) of patients were diagnosed with life-threatening secondary headaches, most commonly subarachnoid hemorrhage (1.2%; 2744/227,288) and cerebral infarction (0.6%; 1341/227,288). In South Korea, the characteristics of patients who visited the ED for non-traumatic headache were not very different from those in existing studies; however, patients tended to visit EDs early and be classified as non-urgent, and emergency physicians tended to enter the diagnosis code "R51: Headache (not better specified)", resulting in a much lower rate of migraine diagnoses. Non-urgent early visitors coded with "R51" may include those who have not yet been diagnosed with primary headache and have not been treated, but who need further research. Not applicable.

Shaping Royal Image through Repurposed Royal Residences in the Late Nineteenth Century: Queen Victoria’s Museum at Kensington Palace

On Queen Victoria’s eightieth birthday, 24 May 1899, the State Apartments at Kensington Palace, the Queen’s childhood home, opened to public visitors. As the nineteenth century drew towards its end, and aware of her own mortality, the restoration of the palace and the representation of the State Apartments provided an opportunity for the Queen, as a proactive curator, to construct a visual narrative of her reign and signal the relationship she sought between monarch and subject within spaces redolent with and conditioned by her life narrative. With the Queen’s encouragement, and under the aegis of Liberal politician and courtier Lord Esher, paintings and other artefacts were gathered to position her within the royal lineage and international dynastic networks. They celebrate her reign as the culmination of nineteenth-century British imperial ambition, and reflect and recast her personal history. The nature of the re-presentation of the State Apartments at Kensington Palace and the impact they had on early visitors is compared to the visitor experience at Osborne House, another royal home closely associated with the Queen’s history, which opened to public visitors following a state-managed restoration shortly after the Queen’s death.

Documenting the flora of a diversity hotspot: Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874) and his botanical exploration of Madeira island

AbstractOceanic island floras often exhibit remarkable concentrations of endemic diversity, provide spectacular examples of rapid evolutionary radiations and harbour floras under significant threat due to anthropogenic pressures. They have attracted the interest of biologists for centuries, but their floras continue to yield new taxa and, at a global scale, the extent of their plant diversity remains imperfectly known. Both natural characteristics and historical factors have shaped the development of knowledge of island floras. In this paper, we investigate the approach of Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874), to documenting the flora of Madeira island in the North Atlantic. Lowe collected abundantly in Madeira between 1826 and 1873, resulting in several works on Madeira's flora, published from the 1830s. At a time when taxonomic research on island floras was often based on limited collections made during brief expeditions, Lowe's research on the flora, spanning almost half a century, was exceptional. In this study, 2579 herbarium specimens collected by Lowe were georeferenced and used to investigate temporal, spatial and taxonomic patterns in Lowe's collecting activities. We also examine the distribution of specimens by Lowe to other botanists. Some biases are evident in Lowe's collecting efforts, with steep slopes under‐sampled and coastal sites over‐sampled. These reflect constraints imposed by topography and transport links. These limitations aside, Lowe's work on the Madeiran flora was conducted in a systematic manner, resulting in a comprehensive study of the entire flora. His approach was distinctly modern: he gathered and studied all available information in herbaria and in the published and unpublished writings from earlier visitors; his initial fieldwork was conducted widely to gain knowledge of all habitats and their floras; later fieldwork focussed on less‐explored and most promising areas; duplicates were sent to other botanists, facilitating taxonomic exchanges on critical taxa; and his later fieldwork focussed on plant groups where taxonomic problems had been detected. As a result of Lowe's sustained and systematic approach, he is the single most prolific contributor to the study of Madeira's endemic flora. His approach is a model to documenting island floras still relevant today. Areas poorly sampled by Lowe were areas that were difficult to access, which also protected them from anthropic destructive activities and allowed them to serve as refuges for endemic flora. Those areas deserve particular attention in efforts to complete the survey of Madeira's plant diversity, using technological advancements such as drones to prospect areas that are otherwise still largely inaccessible.

Early Twentieth-Century Visitors and the Development of Modern Mathematics in China

Early Twentieth-Century Visitors and the Development of Modern Mathematics in China

Identifying and Responding to Suicidality: Evidence-Based Strategies for Early Childhood Home Visitors

Identifying and Responding to Suicidality: Evidence-Based Strategies for Early Childhood Home Visitors

These spots of excavation tell: using early visitor accounts to map the missing graves of waterloo

ABSTRACT This paper uses the writings of early visitors to the field of Waterloo to examine the treatment of the dead following the battle fought on 18 June 1815. It is proposed that these memoirs and journals, along with various artworks, contain information that can assist not only in the explanation of the complexities of body disposal, but also guide us to the location of grave sites on the battlefield. It is further suggested, on the basis of the picture building from recent archaeological investigations, that at least some of the larger graves were exploited for human and animal bone, which in the first half of the nineteenth century served as an important source of phosphate fertilizer.

Decision-Making During Early Intervention Home Visits: From Minimal to Meaningful Parent Participation

ABSTRACT Family-early educator partnerships are foundational to early childhood and early childhood special education, and collaborative decision-making regarding child and family need is recognized as a critical component of these partnerships. This study investigated how two Part C early intervention home visitors and four parents communicated during home visits, and discursively selected strategies to promote children’s development. The following research questions were addressed: (1) How is decision-making constructed through discourse by parents and home visitors during home visits? (2) How do decision-making structures contribute to parent participation in decision-making? Analysis of home visit transcripts and interviews with home visitors indicated that how home visitors introduced the opportunity to make a decision and addressed options with families played an essential role in the extent to which parents meaningfully participated in decision-making. Although home visitors intended to provide parents with opportunities for full participation, this was not consistently realized during home visits. Home visitors predominantly initiated and controlled discussion topics. Features of words spoken and actions taken through language contributed to interactional construction of home visitors as assessors and advice givers, with parents in more passive roles, such as informants and advice followers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Suicide Gatekeeping: An Important Potential Role for Early Childhood Home Visitors

Parents of young children with disabilities may experience high levels of stress and psychological distress that may put them at higher risk for experiencing suicidality. Thus, early childhood home visitors (e.g., professionals who work for home-based early intervention programs) may serve as important gatekeepers for identifying and referring parents who are experiencing psychological distress, including suicidal thoughts. However, most early childhood home visitors do not receive training on identifying or intervening with distressed and potentially suicidal caregivers. Therefore, early childhood home visitors would benefit from acquiring evidence-based, accessible strategies for identifying and responding to caregivers who they know or suspect are experiencing suicidal thoughts—a class of knowledge and skills that can be obtained through “suicide gatekeeper” training. In this article, we provide evidence-based information about suicide risk among parents of young children with disabilities, the intervention of suicide gatekeeping, and how suicide gatekeeping can be incorporated into the early childhood home visitor role.

On Being Difficult: The Pursuit of Wonder1

Is discomfort intrinsic to wonder? The author pursues this question by showing how early visitors to the Niagara Falls found that efforts to improve the view eliminated the difficulty that made viewing the falls rewarding in the first place. Visitors’ experiences accord with eighteenth-century accounts that suggest that wonder thrives on difficulty and desire thrives on inaccessibility. This aesthetic effect finds expression in The Arabian Nights and other texts that both represent and enact narrative withholding, and also in the visual form of the arabesque, which beguiles the eye with movement but does not go anywhere. The essay concludes by connecting these insights into aesthetic difficulty to present-day concerns that attempts to bring the humanities to a broader audience may “dumb down” art. I conclude that such concerns miss the point that aesthetic experiences depend upon a tension between legibility and illegibility that artworks continue to generate in new and unforeseen ways.

The demonic countryside: beckoning early modern visitors through oni legend and ritual

This article explores the role of legends and rituals centered on oni (demons) as a mode of place-making in early modern Japan. Focusing on evidence from Shinano (present-day Nagano prefecture), it begins with medieval oni narratives centered on Mount Togakushi and then turns toward Edo period adaptations that ushered in a host of new sites. I argue that this type of engagement with popular narratives played a vital role in place-making strategies by fostering new modes of ritual, economy, and identity as well as connections with the rest of the country. My analysis focuses on a twofold process by which these developments took place: first, the creation of local legends inspired from well-known oni tales; and second, the implementation of Buddhist rituals that promoted the legends while simultaneously placating the malignant spirits they resurrected.

Left justified: The early campaign for an international law response to Khmer Rouge crimes

In April 1979, a mission of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers made a solidarity visit to Cambodia in the immediate aftermath of Khmer Rouge rule of the country. One of the mission members, John H. E. Fried, a former advisor to the United States' military trials at Nuremberg, was moved to subsequently advocate for United Nations recognition of the then ostracised Cambodian state. The crisis of post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and the political justifications made by early visitors there, illuminate late Cold War cultures of progressive international law scholarship and activism through their constitutive affects and material practices. While legal investigation of Khmer Rouge crimes is now largely understood through the frame of ‘transitional justice’, this paper rejects such a framing. It argues instead for attention to Cambodia's early experiences, in which left legal activism – calling for Nuremberg's lessons to be applied to the violence perpetrated in Vietnam and Cambodia – played an important role. For scholars interested in post-1979 Cambodia, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum historical visitor books, recently digitised, promise insight into the multiple actors, motivations and understandings of international ‘early responders’ to evidence of Khmer Rouge crimes.

Compte rendu de Nourritures, abondance et identité. Une socio-anthropologie de l’alimentation à Tahiti par Christophe Serra Mallol

Christophe Serra Mallol draws on his fieldwork in two Tahitian communities early in the new millennium to place his ethnography of food ways across the time span from ancient Tahiti as recorded by European visitors in the 1600s up to modern Tahiti. The early visitors created a picture of Tahiti as a lush green environment in which food abounded; such depictions led to a misunderstanding that coined “the myth of abundance” (p. 220) which he questions. During their short-term stays botanists ab...

A Brief History of Jerusalem: From the Earliest Settlement to the Destruction of the City in AD 70

Klaus Bieberstein, Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of Bamberg (about 130 miles east of Frankfurt, Germany), has written a clear and informative summary of the history of Jerusalem from its earliest settlement to its destruction by the Romans in AD 70. Jerusalem is one of the most excavated sites in the world, and yet only a fraction of its history has been uncovered to date. Bieberstein correctly likens the situation to “a puzzle of which only a fraction of the pieces are known” (preface).It is highly challenging to excavate Jerusalem, as the city has been continuously populated since early times and has a dense population today. Further complicating its archaeological history is the fact that several of the most important breakthroughs from the 1960s to 1980s only have had preliminary reports published (e.g., Kathleen Kenyon [1961–67]; Benjamin Mazar [1968–78]; Yigal Shiloh [1978–85]), with later finds often helping to correct earlier misconceptions from various archaeological discoveries. A book such as this, therefore, is decidedly helpful in sorting through all the significant data.After some preliminary comments in chs. 1 and 2, ch. 3 (“History of Archaeological Research”) nicely orients the reader for the more detailed archaeological descriptions that come later. While few of these earlier excavations were carefully recorded or properly written up, a number of these early visitors made important finds: Edward Robinson (1838, 1852; the Siloam Tunnel; Robinson’s Arch); Charles Wilson (1864, 1867–70; Wilson’s Arch); and Charles Warren (1867–70; Warren’s Shaft).The main section of the book, chs. 4 through 7, provides an overview of the archaeological finds from the first settlement in Jerusalem through the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Herodian periods. Little is known about Jerusalem’s earliest visitors, but what little evidence there is suggests that hunters and gatherers used it only for temporary stopovers. The first small settlement appeared during the Early Bronze Age above the Gihon Spring (3700–2500 BC). These dates differ slightly from those of Amihai Mazar, who dates this period to 3300–2300 BC (Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000-568 B.C.E., Anchor Bible Reference Library [New York: Doubleday, 1992], 30), but Bieberstein claims to follow Johanna Regev, Pierre de Miroschedji, et al., “Chronology of the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant: New Analysis for a High Chronology,” Radiocarbon 54 (2012): 525–66. However, it should be noted that there have been significant difficulties in matching up archaeological finds with radiocarbon dating. See, for example, Lily Singer-Avitz, “Archaeological Views: Carbon 14—The Solution to Dating David and Solomon?” BAR 35.3 (2009): 28, 71; Amihai Mazar and C. Bronk Ramsey, “14C Dates and the Iron Age Chronology of Israel: A Response,” Radiocarbon 50 (2008): 159–80; and Manfred Bietak, “Antagonisms in Historical and Radiocarbon Chronology,” in A. J. Shortland and C. Bronk Ramsey, eds., Radiocarbon and the Chronologies of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Oxbow, 2013), 78–110.Particularly helpful in this section are the notations Bieberstein makes of more recent archaeological evidence that help to correct earlier opinions (e.g., pp. 27, 30, 32, 33). Additional maps or pictures to illustrate his descriptions would have been useful, especially when describing the walls and specific archeological finds, but this is not always within the control of the author. Bieberstein adopts a modern historical-critical approach to the biblical text. This is an interesting contrast to his approach to the works of Josephus and the books of Maccabees, which he appears to take at face value. A more balanced view of the biblical text would have been appreciated.An excellent bibliography provides an up-to-date overview of the archaeological excavations and many of the artifacts that have been found over the last century and a half. The wealth of valuable information it provides can serve as a springboard for further research. Overall, this book is easy to use and provides a solid foundation of the history of Jerusalem on which to build further.

FEASTING, RITUAL PRACTICES, SOCIAL MEMORY, AND PERSISTENT PLACES: NEW INTERPRETATIONS OF SHELL MOUNDS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Shell mounds have not been investigated as prominent ritual features in southern California, despite evidence to the contrary. The largest extant shell mound in the region is on Santa Cruz Island, measures 270 by 210 m (44,532 m² in area), is 8 m higher than the terrace it rests on, is covered with 50 house depressions, and dates to 6000–2500 B.P. In the 1920s, three cemeteries were excavated at the top of El Montón; one young woman stood out among the over 200 individuals in that she was buried with 157 stone effigies. Analysis of multiple lines of evidence, including stratigraphic profiles of features, 85 radiocarbon dates, ground penetrating radar, and mortuary data, supports my claim that the mound was a persistent place where early visitors had significant feasts, constructed dwellings, buried their dead, and performed ceremonies where select groups of infants, children, and adults were revered. These mortuary rites conveyed the symbolic power of the place and created a history of events that became part of a mythical and real past that was repeatedly visited, modified, and (re)interpreted as social relationships were reinforced. This study supports the idea that shell mounds are socially constructed landscapes, not just accumulations of refuse.

Losing—and Salvaging?—the Rural Landscape of Graeco-Roman Philadelphia

Between Biblical ‘Ammon’ and Early Umayyad ‘Amman’ lie a thousand years of Graeco-Roman Philadelphia. During this period the population of the classical city and its hinterland reached a peak not seen again until the 20th century. During the Middle Ages, however, the population shrank dramatically, the city was abandoned, an island of crumbling grandeur, surrounded by an equally depopulated landscape—the skeleton of a once thriving network of roads, villages, farms, monasteries, and field-systems. Even after re-settlement began at Amman in the 1870s, population in city and hinterland was thin and scattered, the abundant ruins often well-preserved. Development throughout the Belqa—the extensive fertile hinterland of Amman, was evident but relatively slow for some 70 years. After 1948, the impact of successive waves of refugees on top of a region-wide population explosion, began to transform the landscape and devastate the archaeological record. The process is accelerating and spreading. Even in the city, many substantial buildings captured on 19th century photographs have been lost to development; in the hinterland, the vital rural context of a great Classical city has been extensively overwhelmed. Nevertheless, much can yet be salvaged. Beginning with Seetzen in 1806, westerners began to explore ‘east of Jordan’. Many recorded their observations and some mapped, painted, drew, and increasingly photographed—including from the air. Collectively, the corpus of evidence is considerable, ranging from the observations of scores of early western visitors to the more recent archaeological surveys of the 1970s. Appropriately for present purposes, outstanding amongst such visitors and explicitly scientific and systematic were the PEF surveys of Warren in 1867 and Conder in 1881.

ESR and X-ray Structure Investigations on the Binding and Mechanism of Inhibition of the Native State of Myeloperoxidase with Low Molecular Weight Fragments.

As an early visitor to the injured loci, neutrophil-derived human Myeloperoxidase (hMPO) offers an attractive protein target to modulate the inflammation of the host tissue through suitable inhibitors. We describe a novel methodology of using low temperature ESR spectroscopy (6 K) and FAST™ technology to screen a diverse series of small molecules that inhibit the peroxidase function through reversible binding to the native state of MPO. Our initial efforts to profile molecules on the inhibition of MPO-initiated nitration of the Apo-A1 peptide (AEYHAKATEHL) assay showed several potent (with sub-micro molar IC50s) but spurious inhibitors that either do not bind to the heme pocket in the enzyme or retain high (>50 %) anti oxidant potential. Such molecules when taken forward for X-ray did not yield inhibitor-bound co-crystals. We then used ESR to confirm direct binding to the native state enzyme, by measuring the binding-induced shift in the electronic parameter g to rank order the molecules. Molecules with a higher rank order—those with g-shift Rrelative ≥15—yielded well-formed protein-bound crystals (n = 33 structures). The co-crystal structure with the LSN217331 inhibitor reveals that the chlorophenyl group projects away from the heme along the edges of the Phe366 and Phe407 side chain phenyl rings thereby sterically restricting the access to the heme by the substrates like H2O2. Both ESR and antioxidant screens were used to derive the mechanism of action (reversibility, competitive substrate inhibition, and percent antioxidant potential). In conclusion, our results point to a viable path forward to target the native state of MPO to tame local inflammation.

Nine Mile Canyon: the archaeological history of an American treasure

With an estimated 10,000 ancient rock art sites, Mile Canyon has long captivated people the world over. The 45-mile-long canyon, dubbed the World s Longest Art Gallery, hosts what is believed to be the largest concentration of rock art in North America. But rock art is only part of the amazing archaeological fabric that scholars have been struggling to explain for more than a century. Jerry D. Spangler takes the reader on a journey into Mile Canyon through the eyes of the generations of archaeologistswho have gone there only to leave bewildered by what it all means. The early visitors in the 1890s were determined to recover collections for museums but never much cared to understand the people who left the artifacts. Then came a cadre of young scientists the first to be trained specifically in archaeology who found Mile Canyon to be an intriguing laboratory that yielded more questions than answers. Scholars such as Noel Morss, Donald Scott, Julian Steward, John Gillin, and John Otis Brew all left their boot prints there. Today, archaeological research is experiencing another renaissance a new generation of university-trained archaeologists is determined to unravel the mystery of Mile Canyon using scientific tools and techniques that were unavailable to past generations. Through the words and thoughts of the archaeologists, as well as the more than 150 photos, readers come to see Mile Canyon as an American treasure unlike any other. As the first book that is devoted exclusively to the archaeology of this uniqueplace, Nine Mile Canyon will evoke fascination among scholars and the general public alike.

A Study on the Western Residents’ Daily Lives and the Differenciation of their Perception on Korean Culture in the Period of Port Opening

In history of Korea, it’s is after 1880s that westerners fully started to join Korean social and historical developments.<BR> Westerners couldn’t be completely free of Orientalism. But they began to know about Korea and have affection for it.<BR> In particular, westerners residing in Korea had less difficulty in eating food than early visitors to Korea who quite suffered from too much exotic taste of Korean food. Because they were affordable enough to buy imported food from Japan and China or even the United States or Britain although it took a while to deliver food. In addition, they remodeled Hanok(traditional Korean-style house) to satisfy their tastes and enjoyed their free time by playing tennis. However, they would be ill with endemic diseases and homesick. Children, in particular, died young.<BR> To Koreans, the western residents were something that they were curious about and in awe of. It seemed that westerners living with these Koreans felt superior and pleasant for that and thought Korea was a good place to live in.<BR> But some westerners who resided in around open ports and Seoul in the period of port opening helped introduce western cultures by playing a role as ambassadors for private interchange and promoted Korean traditional cultures to change and develop to modern cultures.

From Mendana to Riesenfeld : Early Accounts of and Speculation on Taro Irrigation in the Asia-Pacific Area

The earliest written account of taro irrigation in the Asia-Pacifi c area apart from early Chinese sources appears to be from Mendana’s voyage to the Solomon Islands in 1567, when irrigation systems on Guadalcanal were seen. In the intervening 400 years, before serious archaeological investigation of such systems, there was much further description and speculation regarding the history and origins of such systems. Members of Captain Cook’s expeditions in the 1770s were impressed by taro irrigation systems they saw in the Hawaiian Islands, Tahiti and New Caledonia. Early visitors to other island groups also saw taro irrigation: John Williams described the practice on Rarotonga in 1823, Wilkes recorded it in the Fijian archipelago during the US Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842, and the missionary John Geddie mentioned taro irrigation in an account written soon after he settled on Aneityum Island in Vanuatu, in 1848. Such early accounts—and what they tell us about the attitudes of those who encountered irrigation systems in the Pacifi c—are the subject of this presentation.

Liquid Landscape: Possession and Floridian Geography

third volume of John James Audubon's Ornithological Biography (1835) includes painting of brown pelican perched upon mangrove in Florida Keys. While bird is Audubon's primary object of interest, he is also evidently fascinated by glossy and deep-coloured mangroves on which it nestles, for at end of his lengthy description of brown pelican is short section entitled The Mangrove (383). am at loss for an object with which to compare these trees, in order to afford you an idea of them, Audubon writes, but he settles on figure of a tree reversed, and standing on its summit (386). Audubon asks us to imagine mangrove as an upside down tree, roots of which spread widely above ground while its trunk is submerged below. Unlike most trees, he means to say, mangroves grow low along earth's surface and have roots that take hold by spreading outward over ground rather than delving deeply into it. Such lateral roots present some unique spectacles. From shores of Florida, Audubon observes, the Mangroves extend towards sea, their hanging branches taking root wherever they come in contact with bottom (386). He even notices islands entirely formed of Mangroves, which raising their crooked and slender stems from bed of mud, continue to increase until their roots and pendent branches afford shelter to accumulating debris, when earth is gradually raised above surface of (386). As Audubon observes, mangrove trees that cover Florida's coasts prosper precisely because their roots construct their own solid foundations. As roots spread outward sand clings to them and it is not unusual for small islet to form where before there was only water. This is why mangrove tree is sometimes described as nature's way of converting water into (Blake 30l). Interestingly, mangrove cannot take root in dry and stable earth; its shallow, lateral roots require wet and unstable ground in order to establish themselves. I begin with Audubon's mangrove because his observations on it suggest that roots can be successfully pursued in absence of secure material foundations. While early Anglo-American discussions of possession idealize terra firma, message of The Mangrove is that possession does not require stable ground. Here and in other early writing on Florida, mangrove trees are only one of many unique features that provide useful metaphors for considering variety of forms that founding and belonging could take. Florida's combination of geography and topography, which was singular among all of nation's actual and prospective possessions, secured its prolonged lack of political incorporation. But these exceptional qualities also made it testing ground for alternative models of taking root. In discourses of agriculture, natural history, and geography, language used to describe root taking in Florida countered many of claims about foundation and settlement that were developing elsewhere in new nation, finally putting productive pressure on philosophical bases of emerging model of agrarian republicanism itself. in Florida has been called land for good reason. (1) Many early Americans were fascinated by variety of singular ways in which and water combine in and around peninsula because of excessive rainfall, frequent hurricanes, and vast swamps that extend across seemingly interminable flatness saturated with standing water. phenomenon of erosion is particularly remarkable in Florida because it happens on three sides. Some early visitors even speculated that peninsula constantly dissolved, and that Florida Keys were mere marks and traces of an original shoreline lost long ago to sea (De Brahm, Report 240). To stand on Floridian ground is to experience precarious footing: as naturalist William Bartram notes, because Florida's unique geological base is permeable limestone reservoir that routes water along innumerable subterranean avenues, even where seems solid it is thick with liquid running incessantly through concealed hydrological networks just beneath surface (192-93, 226). …