Russian diary is published
Extracts from the diary of a Russian traveler in Argentina during the 1830's have been published by the Center of Latin American Studies at the University of Kansas.
"A Trip Across the Pampas of Buenos Aires (1836-1837)" was translated from the Russian by Jack Weiner, acting assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese at KU, who stumbled across the work while engaged in bibliographic browsing at Indiana University.
The author of the diary, Platon Chikhachev, left few historical reminders of himself. Weiner was unable to discover much about the man during an intensive search at the Soviet Geographic Society in Leningrad in 1965, and the National Archives and National Library of Buenos Aires do not mention his name.
The reminiscences differ from others of the period in that Chikhachev did not seek contacts with important figures and gives no complete names in the text. Instead, he concentrates upon narrative of local landscape and customs, and some social criticism.
Chikhachev's is the first known testimony on Argentina written by a Russian.
Weiner receiver two Master of Arts degrees from Middlebury College, in Spanish (1959) and Russian (1963), and is completing his dissertation for a Ph.D. in Spanish from Indiana University.
KU Med Center
Head injury study set
A new interdepartmental study of the relation of head injury to vital organ function will be undertaken in the KU School of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Charles E. Brackett, professor of surgery and head of the section of neurosurgery.
George A. Wolf, Jr., dean of the School of Medicine and provost, said the U.S. Public Health Service, through its National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, had made a first-year grant of $461,267 toward the two-year study.
Wolf said head injuries will be emphasized in the study as they now account for 70 percent of traffic fatalities, or about 35,000 of the 50,000 vehicular deaths a year.
Dr. Brackett will direct work in the clinical investigation of circulatory, ventilatory, microbiological and neuropharmacological changes in patients with head injuries. Laboratory investigation to clarify clinical data and test proposed methods of treatment is planned.
The head injury study unit will begin research into pre- and postinjury personality factors with stress on cost and consequences of injury and availability of rehabilitation facilities.
Wolf said, "We hope that the head injury study unit will serve as an information resource center for training of medical and allied health professionals, and as a stimulus for education in the causes and consequences of head injuries."
Dr. Stanley Nelson, instructor in surgery and pharmacology, has been named research coordinator for the project. Dr. Joseph Cauthen, instructor in surgery, is clinical research coordinator. Collaborators include faculty members from these School of Medicine sections: general surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, infectious diseases, neurology, internal medicine, preventive medicine and community health, radiology, and pharmacology.
Old bones, pottery yield discoveries
Old bones and bits of broken pottery are yielding discoveries for KU anthropologists and archeologists this summer on digging sites in Kansas, South Dakota, and France.
Alfred E. Johnson, assistant professor of anthropology, heads a group of students working near White Cloud, in Doniphan County. The students are unearthing artifacts of the Hopewell Indian culture, which existed in the Missouri Basin about 1,500 years ago.
Robert J. Squier, associate professor of anthropology, dug a similar site in Kansas City on the Missouri River, in 1964. "Dr. Johnson and the students are trying to find out exactly what Hopewell is in Kansas," Squier said.
He explains that no one is sure if Hopewell is an entire culture, or merely a distinct set of religious practices that were superimposed on an established plains Indian culture.
The Indians had very plain objects along with the fancy pottery, so we are not sure if they had a separate Hopewell culture or if it was a religion right in the native culture," he says.
Because all of the sites are close to rivers, the diggers have been delayed by recent flooding. They have had to spend time working over high grounds, looking for possible sites to dig. In their diggings they have found pottery, pipes, figurines, and all kinds of art objects.
The project is called the KU Archeological Field School. The 17 students earn eight hours of University credit for their ten weeks of work.
Johnson is also in charge of projects in which students are surveying areas in Kansas that will soon be inundated from lakes made by flood control dams. The project is sponsored jointly by the National Park Service and KU.
Aerospace is made new department
Rapidly growing enrollments in aerospace engineering at KU have brought about its return to separate departmental status in the School of Engineering and Architecture.
William P. Smith, dean of the Engineering school, said the trend is such that in five years aerospace engineering may be the largest undergraduate program in the school. Engineering mechanics, with which aerospace has been combined for several years, will be merged in the department of civil engineering, Dean Smith explained, because of the former's close alliance with the structures and fluids groups in the latter.
David L. Kohlman, a "with highest distinction" alumnus of KU and with a Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be chairman of the reconstituted aerospace department.
8 Summer Kansan Tuesday, July 11, 1967
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