User talk:Mcurtisj

Welcome to Wikipedia from the Anatomy Wikiproject!
Welcome to Wikipedia from Wikiproject Anatomy! We're a group of editors who strive to improve the quality of anatomy articles here on Wikipedia. One of our members has noticed that you are involved in editing anatomy articles; it's great to have a new interested editor on board. In your wiki-voyages, a few things that may be relevant to editing wikipedia articles are:
 * Thanks for coming aboard! We always appreciate a new editor. Feel free to leave us a message at any time on the WikiProkect Anatomy talk page. If you are interested in joining the project yourself, there is a participant list where you can sign up. Please leave a message on the talk page if you have any problems, suggestions, would like review of an article, need suggestions for articles to edit, or would like some collaboration when editing!
 * You will make a big difference to the quality of information by adding reliable sources. Sourcing anatomy articles is essential and makes a big difference to the quality of articles. And, while you're at it, why not use a book to source information, which can source multiple articles at once!
 * We try and use a standard way of arranging the content in each article. That layout is here. These headings let us have a standard way of presenting the information in anatomical articles, indicate what information may have been forgotten, and save angst when trying to decide how to organise an article. That said, this might not suit every article. If in doubt, be bold!
 * Lastly, why not try and strive to create a good article! Anatomical articles are often small in scope, have available sources, and only a limited amount of research available that is readily presentable!

Feel free to contact us on the WikiProkect Anatomy talk page if you have any problems, or wish to join us. I wish you all the best on your wiki-voyages! --LT910001 (talk) 11:47, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Request for comment
Hi Mcurisj, I noticed you've been making edits with this explanation " (removed unsubstantiated racist claim originally made by Karl Vogt and cited by Charles Darwin in "The Descent of Man" about black people having a more primitive eye structure)". If this is truly the case, I was wondering if you'd be able to elaborate a little more on this? I have also recently started editing many anatomy articles (not inserting this content though), and if you have some good rationale to back up your claims, I will also keep an eye out for this kind of rubbish and remove it. Kind regards, --LT910001 (talk) 11:50, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Hi. I'm new to Wikipedia, any haven't quite figured out how the talk pages work yet, so forgive me. The line I took out was a claim that the plica semilunaris is larger in black Africans and Indigenous Australians than in other races of people. I noticed that the only source was Charles Darwin, which I thought was odd. I looked up the source, and it turned out to be merely a footnote in a book by Darwin (The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex) where he cited a speech by Karl Vogt (Lectures On Man: His Place In Creation and the History of the Earth). I looked up the text of that speech, and Vogt makes this claim without any evidence (as is not unusual in 19th century scientific racism) merely saying that the difference is obvious. Whats more, he claims that this larger vestigial organ means that the races that possess it "approach the animal type", among other outdated scientific ideas such as the idea that different races of people all evolved from different species of ape. I was astonished to see him cited as a medical source. Thanks for your interest in making sure this kind of inaccuracy isn't perpetuated!