The ‘philosophical grasp of the appearances’ and experimental microscopy: Johannes Müller’s microscopical research, 1824–1832

Romantic Naturphilosophie has been at the centre of almost every account of early nineteenth-century sciences, be it as an obstacle or as an aid for scientific advancement. The following paper suggests a change of perspective. I seek to read Naturphilosophie as one manifestation among others of a more general concern with the question of how experience enables the subject to acquire knowledge about objects. To illustrate such an approach, I focus on Johannes Müller’s early work. Here one finds two contrasting images of microscopical observation, its set-up, and the observer: the embryological study of 1830 demands a ‘philosophical grasp’ of the appearances. In contrast, the investigations of blood of 1832 are presented as a series of controlled experiments. I argue that an interpretation of this contrast in terms of an appropriation and casting aside of Naturphilosophie is not altogether convincing. Instead, both images of microscopy are manifestations of a more general problem, namely, the problem of exactly how subject and object came together in experience. I show how this concern not only shaped the methodological sensibilities particular to Müller’s embryology and the investigation of bodily liquids but also provided the epistemological principles and the target for his sense-physiological experiments. It bound Müller’s work together with Naturphilosophie and linked Naturphilosophie with other contemporaneous projects in philosophy. All of these enterprises sought to contribute to ongoing debates about how experience allowed the subject to acquire knowledge about the world.     

Stimulation of afferent vagal endings in the intrapulmonary airways by prostaglandin endoperoxide analogues

Two cyclic ether (CE) analogues of the prostaglandin endoperoxide PGH₂, CE I and CE II, have been found to exert powerful stimulant effects on lung ‘irritant’ receptors and bronchial C-fiber endings after intravascular or aerosol administration in open-chest dogs under Dial-pentobarbital anesthesia. ‘Irritant’ receptors responded to a dose as small as 0.1 μg/kg CE II, injected into the right atrium. CE II was twice as effective as CE I and 10–20 times more potent than PGF_2α. As an aerosol, it exceeded histamine in potency by more than 800 times. ‘Irritant’ receptor stimulation was always associated with decrease in lung compliance and increase in lung resistance. Isoproterenol which reduced the latter effects also diminished the response of ‘irritant’ receptors. Left atrial injection of GE_S had only weak and delayed effects. CE-induced ‘irritant’ receptor firing declined or ceased during ventilatory arrest in expiration and following hyperinflation of the lungs. In contrast to ‘irritant’ receptors, C-fibers responded more effectively and more rapidly, and in the absence of mechanical changes, when the drugs were injected into the left atrium as compared to right atrial injection. These findings suggest that CE-induced ‘irritant’ receptor stimulation is secondary to changes in lung mechanics, whereas C-fiber stimulation is a direct effect upon the nerve ending.     

Eugenics, politics and the state: social democracy and the Swiss ‘gardening state’

This article explores the connections between eugenics, politics and the state, taking the Swiss case as a particular focus. It is argued that Switzerland provides a historical example of what Bauman [Bauman, Z. (1989). Modernity and the Holocaust. Cambridge: Polity Press.] describes as ‘gardening states’: states that are concerned with eliminating the ‘bad weeds’ from the national garden and thereby constructing sharply exclusionary national identities. The Swiss experiments with eugenics (1920s–1960s) can be seen as an example of an ongoing struggle against ‘difference’. Against this backdrop I will examine, first, the ways in which state regulation of reproductive sexuality, and other eugenic measures, became central mechanisms for dealing with cultural and other ‘differences’ in the Swiss nation. Second, I will analyse the gendered nature of such mechanisms, as well as the preoccupation with racial ‘difference’ exemplified by eugenic policies towards ‘Gypsies’. To conclude, I will examine the impact of political institutions and political ideology, in particular, social democracy, on these eugenic gardening efforts.     

Candidatus Monilibacter spp., common bulking filaments in activated sludge, are members of Cluster III Defluviicoccus

Two alphaproteobacterial Neisser negative ‘Nostocoida limicola’ morphotypes differing slightly in their trichome diameter and filament regularity were dominant populations in the Bendigo, Victoria, Australia activated sludge community removing phosphorus (P). Neither responded to the FISH probes available for any of the other alphaproteobacterial ‘N. limicola’ morphotypes. Instead both fluoresced with the DF988 FISH probe designed originally to target alphaproteobacterial cluster II Defluviicoccus tetrad forming organisms. A 16S rRNA based clone library from this biomass revealed that the alphaproteobacterial clones grouped closely with Candidatus ‘Monilibacter batavus’ and Defluviicoccus clones in a cluster separate from the existing cluster I and II Defluviicoccus. When a FISH probe was designed against these, it only hybridized to the thinner and less abundant ‘N. limicola’ morphotype. Micromanipulation–RT-PCR was used to selectively recover the main ‘N. limicola’ morphotype and a FISH probe designed against the 16S rRNA clones generated from it showed only this filament fluoresced. From FISH based surveys, both ‘N. limicola’ variants occurred frequently in phosphorus removal activated sludge systems in Australia treating domestic waste. The data suggest that they represent two new strains of Candidatus ‘Monilibacter’, which on this evidence are filamentous members of the genus Defluviicoccus, a potential competitor for the polyphosphate accumulating organisms in these communities.     

Naturalising purpose: From comparative anatomy to the ‘adventure of reason’

Kant’s analysis of the concept of natural purpose in the Critique of judgment captured several features of organisms that he argued warranted making them the objects of a special field of study, in need of a special regulative teleological principle. By showing that organisms have to be conceived as self-organizing wholes, epigenetically built according to the idea of a whole that we must presuppose, Kant accounted for three features of organisms conflated in the biological sciences of the period: adaptation, functionality and conservation of forms. Kant’s unitary concept of natural purpose was subsequently split in two directions: first by Cuvier’s comparative anatomy, that would draw on the idea of adaptative functions as a regulative principle for understanding in reconstituting and classifying organisms; and then by Goethe’s and Geoffroy’s morphology, a science of the general transformations of living forms. However, such general transformations in nature, objects of an alleged ‘archaeology of nature’, were thought impossible by Kant in §80 of the Critique of judgment. Goethe made this ‘adventure of reason’ possible by changing the sense of ‘explanation’: scientific explanation was shifted from the investigation of the mechanical processes of generation of individual organisms to the unveiling of some ideal transformations of types instantiated by those organisms.     

The ghost of a recent invasion in the reduced feeding rates of spitting cobras during the dry season in a rainforest region of tropical Africa?

Two species of cobras (Naja melanoleuca and Naja nigricollis) are known to occur in south eastern Nigeria, where much of the pristine rainforest surface has been felled in the last thirty years, and where the actual landscape is generally constituted by a mosaic of farmlands, plantations, suburban areas, with a few remnant forest fragments. In this region, Naja nigricollis is currently extending its range, especially by exploiting recently deforested areas. Based on the known general distribution range of this species and on the available literature data, it appears that Naja nigricollis has been colonizing the forested region of south eastern Nigeria, starting from the relatively arid savannas of central Nigeria, where this species aestivates during the driest months. In the forest region, however, snakes do not need to aestivate during the dry season. Nevertheless, whereas Naja melanoleuca has a foraging activity extended all-the-year round, Naja nigricollis reduces feeding rates during the dry months, although it does not suspend above-ground activity in these months. I suggest that rainforest spitting cobras suspend feeding during the dry months because their behaviour is just a ‘ghost’ of their recent past, when they were ‘normal’ spitting cobras of dry savana regions, which were thus constrained to aestivate during the dry season as it is the rule in this species in central and northern Nigeria. The ‘gost-of-the-past hypothesis’ seems to fit well with the ‘invading’ presence of Naja nigricollis in Nigerian areas where they were reported as rare or, even, absent, up to a few decades ago. Other hypotheses are discussed, and rejected.     

The prisoner as model organism: malaria research at Stateville Penitentiary

In a military-sponsored research project begun during the Second World War, inmates of the Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois were infected with malaria and treated with experimental drugs that sometimes had vicious side effects. They were made into reservoirs for the disease and they provided a food supply for the mosquito cultures. They acted as secretaries and technicians, recording data on one another, administering malarious mosquito bites and experimental drugs to one another, and helping decide who was admitted to the project and who became eligible for early parole as a result of his participation. Thus, the prisoners were not simply research subjects; they were deeply constitutive of the research project. Because a prisoner’s time on the project was counted as part of his sentence, and because serving on the project could shorten one’s sentence, the project must be seen as simultaneously serving the functions of research and punishment. Michel Foucault wrote about such ‘mixed mechanisms’ in his Discipline and punish. His shining example of such a ‘transparent’ and subtle style of punishment was the panopticon, Jeremy Bentham’s architectural invention of prison cellblocks arrayed around a central guard tower. Stateville prison was designed on Bentham’s model; Foucault featured it in his own discussion. This paper, then, explores the power relations in this highly idiosyncratic experimental system, in which the various roles of model organism, reagent, and technician are all occupied by sentient beings who move among them fluidly. This, I argue, created an environment in the Stateville hospital wing more panoptic than that in the cellblocks. Research and punishment were completely interpenetrating, and mutually reinforcing.     

Instability helps virtual flies to mate

In this paper we perform a bifurcation analysis for a discrete time dynamical system, describing the behavior of a virtual fly, developed by Böddeker and Egelhaaf (2003). Like real blowflies, the virtual counterparts exhibit a dichotomous behavior: they catch small targets but follow big objects at a constant distance. We consider this model for targets on linear and on circular trajectories. Then we transform the system into a ‘‘frozen’’ form, such that the position of the target is fixed. It turns out that the loss of stability of a fixed point in the frozen system due to a Neimark-Sacker bifurcation, explains the dichotomous behavior of the virtual fly.     

Cytogenetic stability of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Centaurea ragusina</Emphasis> long-term culture

Centaurea ragusina L. (Asteraceae) is an endemic Croatian plant species, which developed xeromorphic characteristics as a consequence of its natural environment – vertical limestone cliffs above the Adriatic sea. Cytogenetic status of C. ragusina long-term culture (94th subculture) and C. ragusina seedlings was analysed and compared after 4 weeks of growth. Cytogenetic stability was investigated in root meristem cells of C. ragusina cultured plants originated from Pen đa (cliffs near Dubrovnik) and seedlings originated from three different localities in south Adriatic (Penđa, Pasjača – cliffs near Dubrovnik and island of Komiža) using mitotic index and mitotic and chromosomal abnormalities as parameters. Mitotic indices of cultured plants and ‘Penđa’ seedlings were similar and showed significant increase compared to mitotic indices of ‘Komiža’ and ‘Pasjača’ seedlings. Although the highest number of mitotic abnormalities was recorded in root meristem cells of cultured plants, it was only a bit higher than in root tips of ‘Pasjača’ and ‘Penđa’ seedlings, while that of ‘Komiža’ was two times lower compared to cultured plants. Pattern of analysed mitotic abnormalities was very similar in root tips of cultured plants and ‘Pasjača’ and ‘Penđa’ seedlings, with exception of ‘Komiža’ seedlings. Presented results suggest that long-term cultivation of C. ragusina has almost no effect on culture ageing considering similar distribution of scored mitotic abnormalities as in ‘Penđa’ and ‘Pasjača’ seedlings.     

Shifting values partly explain the debate over group selection

I argue that images of the notion of group, in correspondence with their social and political values, shape the debate over the evolution of altruism by group selection. Important aspects of this debate are empirical, and criteria can decide among a variety of selection processes. However, leading researchers undermine or reinterpret such tests, explaining the evolution of altruism on the basis of a single extreme metaphor of ‘group’ and a single inclusive selection process. I shall argue that the extreme images for the notion of group are associated with ideologies that these researchers support or fear. Hence, the history of social and political uses of ‘group’ and ‘group selection’ can explain, at least in part, some of the empirical deficiencies of the debate, and why it has continued without resolution or dissolution.     

Oxidative stress,antioxidant activity and Fe(III)-chelate reductase activity of five <Emphasis Type="Italic">Prunus</Emphasis> rootstocks explants in response to Fe deficiency

The aim of this work was to investigate whether Fe reduction and antioxidant mechanisms were expressed differently in five Prunus rootstocks (‘Peach seedling,’ ‘Barrier,’ ‘Cadaman,’ ‘Saint Julien 655/2’ and ‘GF-677’). These rootstocks differ in their tolerance to Fe deficiency when grown in the absence of Fe (−Fe) or in presence of bicarbonate (supplied as 5 or 10 mM NaHCO₃). Fe deficiency conditions, especially bicarbonate, were shown to decrease Fe and total chlorophyll (CHL) concentration. In the (−Fe)-treated roots of all rootstocks and in the 5 mM NaHCO₃-treated ones of the tolerant ‘GF-677’ the Fe(III)-chelate reductase (FCR) activity was stimulated. On the contrary, apart from the ‘GF-677,’ FCR activity was greatly inhibited by the 10 mM NaHCO₃. From the results obtained with decapitated rootstocks, it is not entirely clear whether or not the presence of shoot apex was a prerequisite to induce FCR function in all rootstocks tested. In the leaves of rootstocks exposed to the (−Fe) treatment, superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) activities were enhanced whereas the levels of the non-enzymatic antioxidants (FRAP values) were increased in the Fe-deprived leaves, irrespective of the rootstock. Except for ‘Peach seedling,’ foliar SOD activity was stimulated by the presence of NaHCO₃. Furthermore, POD activity was increased in the ‘Saint Julien 655/2’ and ‘GF-677,’ but was depressed in the ‘Barrier’ rootstocks exposed to 10 mM NaHCO₃. As a result of 10 mM NaHCO₃, the expression of a Cu/Zn-SOD and a POD isoform was diminished in the leaves of ‘Peach seedling’ and ‘Barrier,’ respectively. By contrast, an additional isoform of both POD and Mn–SOD were expressed in the leaves of ‘GF-677’ exposed to 10 mM NaHCO₃ suggesting that the tolerance of rootstocks to Fe deficiency is associated with induction of an antioxidant defense mechanism. Although CAT activity was increased in the 5 mM NaHCO₃-treated leaves of ‘GF-677,’ specifically the 10 mM NaHCO₃ treatment resulted in a decrease of CAT activity and an accumulation of H₂O₂, indicating that bicarbonate-induced Fe deficiency may cause more severe oxidative stress in the rootstocks, than the absence of Fe. A general link between Fe deficiency-induced oxidative stress and Fe reduction-sensing mechanism is also discussed.     

The effect of the functional attributes of objects within the caged environment on interaction time in laboratory rats

Determining rat preferences for, and behaviour towards, environmental enrichment objects allows us to provide evidence-based information about how the caged environment may be enriched. In recent years there have been many studies investigating the preferences of laboratory rodents for a wide variety of environmental enrichment objects and materials. While these have provided important information regarding the animals’ perception of the items, very few studies have attempted to systematically investigate the precise attributes that constitute a preferred object and the behaviour that these objects afford. We have designed a research program to systematically study rats’ motivation to interact with enrichment objects. Here we present the results from two experiments which examined the time rats spent with objects that only differed in size. This showed that rats spent longer with large objects rather than small ones, even though objects were presented individually. We also investigated the rats’ behaviour with the objects in an open field and found that rats spent longer climbing on top of the large object. This behaviour continued when the large objects were laid on their sides instead of placed upright in the arena, suggesting that the rats were not simply climbing on the objects to investigate the top of the arena and thus an escape route, but instead were genuinely motivated to climb. This suggests that rat welfare could be enhanced by the addition to their cages of objects that permit climbing.     

Cryptobiosis--a peculiar state of biological organization

David Keilin (Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B, 150, 1959, 149–191) coined the term ‘cryptobiosis’ (hidden life) and defined it as ‘the state of an organism when it shows no visible signs of life and when its metabolic activity becomes hardly measurable, or comes reversibly to a standstill.’ I consider selected aspects of the 300 year history of research on this unusual state of biological organization. Cryptobiosis is peculiar in the sense that organisms capable of achieving it exhibit characteristics that differ dramatically from those of living ones, yet they are not dead either, so one may propose that cryptobiosis is a unique state of biological organization. I focus chiefly on animal anhydrobiosis, achieved by the reversible loss of almost all the organism's water. The adaptive biochemical and biophysical mechanisms allowing this to take place involve the participation of large concentrations of polyhydroxy compounds, chiefly the disaccharides trehalose or sucrose. Stress (heat shock) proteins might also be involved, although the details are poorly understood and seem to be organism-specific. Whether the removal of molecular oxygen (anoxybiosis) results in the reversible cessation of metabolism in adapted organisms is considered, with the result being ‘yes and no’, depending on how one defines metabolism. Basic research on cryptobiosis has resulted in unpredicted applications that are of substantial benefit to the human condition and a few of these are described briefly.     

Foraminiferal zonation of late Paleozoic depositional sequences

From the later part of the Devonian through the Permian, calcareous foraminifers became abundant and evolved rapidly. This rapid evolution of taxa forms the basis of a detailed zonation through the Carboniferous and Permian. Comparison of this evolutionary history of foraminifers, their biostratigraphic zonation, and the depositional sequences in which they occur suggests that sea-level events in late Paleozoic depositional history contributed significantly in subdividing a fairly continuous evolutionary record into a succession of about 75 identifiable foraminiferal zones during a 100–125 Myr time span. Although variable in terms of duration and vertical occurrences, the more completely recorded high-stand intervals give brief histories of the foraminiferal evolutionary record and are sandwiched between the poorly recorded or unrecorded low-stand intervals. Many of the individual foraminiferal zones are confined to a single depositional sequence.The late Paleozoic carbonate foraminiferal fossil record, as with the rest of the fossil record, is strongly affected by sediment deposition-nondeposition as a result of major changes in sea level. This incomplete fossil record is the result of repeated depositional breaks because of the way that depositional sequences form. It is not possible to ascribe macromutations, ‘punctuated’ evolution or ‘punctuated gradualism’ as the cause of this evolutionary pattern of the shelf-carbonate fossil record. This pattern is distinctive and we refer to it as ‘sequence evolution’ and ‘sequence extinction’. In the later part of the Middle Permian and in the Late Permian, the fossil record clearly illustrates that a series of faunal losses through ‘sequence extinctions’ progressively exceeded faunal replacements and new species through ‘sequence evolution’, but not a ‘mass extinction’ as is commonly ascribed to the end of the Permian Period. Most Permian faunas became extinct in the interval of 8 to 4 million years before the end of the Late Permian.     

Generalization of Dexterous Manipulation Is Sensitive to the Frame of Reference in Which It Is Learned

Studies have shown that internal representations of manipulations of objects with asymmetric mass distributions that are generated within a specific orientation are not generalizable to novel orientations, i.e., subjects fail to prevent object roll on their first grasp-lift attempt of the object following 180° object rotation. This suggests that representations of these manipulations are specific to the reference frame in which they are formed. However, it is unknown whether that reference frame is specific to the hand, the body, or both, because rotating the object 180° modifies the relation between object and body as well as object and hand. An alternative, untested explanation for the above failure to generalize learned manipulations is that any rotation will disrupt grasp performance, regardless if the reference frame in which the manipulation was learned is maintained or modified. We examined the effect of rotations that (1) maintain and (2) modify relations between object and body, and object and hand, on the generalizability of learned two-digit manipulation of an object with an asymmetric mass distribution. Following rotations that maintained the relation between object and body and object and hand (e.g., rotating the object and subject 180°), subjects continued to use appropriate digit placement and load force distributions, thus generating sufficient compensatory moments to minimize object roll. In contrast, following rotations that modified the relation between (1) object and hand (e.g. rotating the hand around to the opposite object side), (2) object and body (e.g. rotating subject and hand 180°), or (3) both (e.g. rotating the subject 180°), subjects used the same, yet inappropriate digit placement and load force distribution, as those used prior to the rotation. Consequently, the compensatory moments were insufficient to prevent large object rolls. These findings suggest that representations of learned manipulation of objects with asymmetric mass distributions are specific to the body- and hand-reference frames in which they were learned.     

Interactions of cardiac glycosides with cells and membranes Properties and structural aspects of two receptor sites for ouabain in erythrocytes

The existence of two types of binding sites for ouabain in human erythrocyte membranes is described. Receptor sites designated as ‘type I’, which may be identical to the K⁺-insensitive sites of intact cells, were detected at concentrations of ouabain as low as 10⁻⁷ M. The ‘type II’ receptor sites require the inclusion of Mg²⁺ + P_i to form complexes with ouabain; they may be identical to the K⁺-sensitive sites of intact cells. These sites were saturated at approx. 5 · 10⁻⁷ M ouabain but could not be detected at higher concentrations. The range of ouabain concentrations at which ‘type I’ receptors start to predominate (i.e. 5 · 10⁻⁸–5 · 10⁻⁷ M) was termed ‘critical digitalis concentrations’. The process of binding reached equilibrium within 1 and 4 h for ‘type I’ and ‘type II’ sites, respectively. The dissociation constant for ‘type II’ receptor-ouabain complexes was 7.6 · 10⁻⁹ M.Under similar experimental conditions, rat erythrocyte membranes exhibited only non-saturable sites.Alterations in the proportions of the two types of receptors were demonstrated by preincubation of the membranes, in the presence or absence of Mg²⁺ + P_i, prior to the addition of ouabain. In the first case, ‘type II receptor-ouabain’ complexes were stabilized at about 50% of the untreated membranes and ‘type I-ouabain’ complexes slowly approached equilibrium over a period of 24 h. In the latter instance, ‘type I’ receptors were not detected, and only ‘type II-ouabain’ complexes prevailed.     

The effect of feeder type and change of feeder type on growing and finishing pig performance and behaviour

Reduced feed intake and hence lower growth rates commonly occur when the environment of the pig changes, e.g. at weaning and when pigs are moved from growing accommodation to finishing accommodation. It is hypothesised that if environmental factors, such as feeder type, remain the same in the weaning and finishing accommodation this ‘growth check’ may be reduced. A total of 640 pigs in 32 pens of 20 pigs per pen were used to investigate the effects of two feeder types and changing or not changing the feeder type at 10 weeks of age on growth performance and behaviour in the periods from 4 to 10, 10 to finish (22) and from 4 to finish (22) weeks of age, respectively. The two feeder types tested were a ‘wet and dry’ single-space (S) feeder and a ‘dry’ multi-space feeder (M).In the period 4–10 weeks of age feeder type had no significant effect on growth performance though pigs on the ‘dry’ multi-space feeder tended to exhibit significantly better feed efficiency from 4 to 7 weeks of age. In the first week after changing accommodation the growth rate of pigs on all treatments was depressed (compared to the last 3 weeks of the grower period) and was reduced a further 60 g/day when the feeder type was changed. However, the “feeder” effect was transitory and had no effect on overall finisher performance except for pigs changed from a ‘dry’ multi-space feeder to ‘wet and dry’ single-spaced feeder. These animals had significantly faster growth rate over the finisher phase (P<0.05, 886 g/day) and between 4 weeks of age and finish (P<0.05, 730 g/day) than pigs on all other treatments. Feeder treatment had no significant effect on feed intake or feed efficiency in the finisher period or overall from wean to finish. Similarly, the treatments had no effect on the variation in growth rate. Behavioural observations showed that the average number of pigs at the feeder during the finishing period was significantly higher when feed was offered from treatment M–S (1.19 (freq/30 s), P<0.001). In conclusion, the present results suggest that, a change in feeder type, from a ‘dry’ multi-space feeder in growing accommodation to a ‘wet and dry’ single-space feeder in finishing accommodation appears to stimulate improved growth performance in the early finishing period and overall from weaning to finish.     

Mechanical explanation of nature and its limits in Kant’s Critique of judgment

In this paper I discuss two questions. What does Kant understand by mechanical explanation in the Critique of judgment? And why does he think that mechanical explanation is the only type of the explanation of nature available to us? According to the interpretation proposed, mechanical explanations in the Critique of judgment refer to a particular species of empirical causal laws. Mechanical laws aim to explain nature by reference to the causal interaction between the forces of the parts of matter and the way in which they form into complex material wholes. Just like any other empirical causal law, however, mechanical laws can never be known with full certainty. The conception according to which we can explain all of nature by means of mechanical laws, it turns out, is based on what Kant calls ‘regulative’ or ‘reflective’ considerations about nature. Nothing in Kant’s Critique of judgment suggests that these considerations can ever be justified by reference to how the natural world really is. I suggest that what, upon first consideration, appears to be a thoroughly mechanistic conception of nature in Kant is much more limited than one might have expected.     

“Infant Mortality in Armenia 1992–2003”: A comment

The purpose of this comment is to counsel caution in some of the conclusions drawn in an otherwise fine article recently published in Economics and Human Biology on infant mortality in Armenia by Hakobyan, Mkrtchyan and Yepiskoposyan. These relate first, to the reliability of estimates and trends in infant mortality estimated from DHS data; second, to the interpretation of what the authors consider to be a ‘low’ infant mortality rate in former communist countries given their level of economic development; and third, to the role of the health care infrastructure in countries of the former Soviet Union in producing these ‘low’ infant mortality levels. This comment argues that trends in infant mortality in Armenia and other CIS countries, although probably declining, are perhaps less certain than the authors allow, that existing evidence does not suggest that they are uniformly low by global standards, or that the health care systems in CIS countries are uniformly effective in reducing infant deaths.