Osler and the Jewish people

In his writings and actions, Sir William Osler betrayed no evidence of anti-Semitism. In his era, this trait was unusual. Two of his articles, "Letter from Berlin" and "Israel and medicine," dealt directly with his thoughts on the Jewish people. In both he spoke out against anti-Semitism. Osler had friendships with Jewish colleagues--an example is the great regard in which he held US pediatrician Dr. Abraham Jacobi. Osler was not a saint, and he had his "rough side," but in his relationships with Jewish colleagues his example remains relevant.     

Donald J. Reis, MD: Research Mentor Extraordinaire

Donald J. Reis, M.D., the late internationally reknowned neuroscientist, had a special talent for mentoring researchers early in their academic careers. His hands-on approach to laboratory investigation, his extraoridinary patience with novice researchers, his commitment to the scientific method, and his enthusiastic approach to the art of neuroscience all combined to make him the ideal mentor for many budding academics over the past four decades. The beauty of his scientific legacy is that he loved to each research. The following tribute is personal from one whose career was changed by a great mentor.     

The excluded philosophy of evo-devo? Revisiting C.H. Waddington's failed attempt to embed Alfred North Whitehead's "organicism" in evolutionary biology

Though a prominent British developmental biologist in his day, a close friend of Theodosius Dobzhansky, and a frequent correspondent with Ernst Mayr, C.H. Waddington did not enter the ranks of "architect" of the Modern Synthesis. By the end of his career, in fact, he recognized that other biologists reacted to his work "as though they feel obscurely uneasy"; and that the best that some philosophers of biology could say of his work was that he was not "wholly orthodox" (Waddington 1975c, 11). In this essay, I take Waddington's self-assessments at face value and explore three potential reasons why his work did not have more of a direct impact: Waddington's explicit support for the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead; a lack of institutional support; and Waddington's occasional marginalization from the core network of American neo-Darwinians. Though excluded from the Modern Synthesis in the mid-20th century, it now appears that Waddington's work does undergird the emerging evo-devo synthesis. Whether this indicates concomitant, if implicit, support for Whiteheadian philosophy is an interesting question not explored here.     

Expression of Klebsiella nif and his genes in Salmonella typhimurium.

Derivatives of Salmonella typhimurium carrying F prime or P prime plasmids with Klebsiella nif and his genes had specific nitrogenase activities similar to Klebsiella in selective conditions, even to showing "hyperinduction" under argon. No evidence was obtained for catabolite repression of normal nif expression but dibutyl cyclic AMP often augmented "hyperinduction". In non-selective conditions the Klebsiella his nif determinants were rapidly lost from the plasmids; the low levels of nif expression and temperature-sensitive his expression previously reported were probably due to ready loss of his nif in the test conditions used.     

To breathe or not to breathe; the newt's problem

In a number of experiments designed to investigate the interaction between sexual behaviour and breathing, male newts were presented with females whose behaviour was controlled by the experimenter. In some experiments the male received sufficient positive feedback from the female to enable him to complete his sexual sequence; in others he did not. The results are interpreted in terms of McFarland's (1969) hypothesis that the transitions from one activity of another may occur either by competition or by disinhibition. It is suggested that in the absence of sufficient positive stimulation to enable the male to complete his sexual sequence, breathing occurs by competition with sexual behaviour. When the male has sufficient stimulation the temporal patterning of his behaviour becomes more under his control and breathing occurs by disinhibition.     

Known by the society he keeps: an interview with Robert Ruffolo

By his own admission, Robert R. Ruffolo, Head of Research and Development at Wyeth-Ayerst, is a bit of a nerd. Opting to spend seven nights per week with his textbooks at the expense of all else, he earned his pharmacy degree summa cum laude, and his PhD in pharmacology in just over three years. He speaks with unabashed enthusiasm for the pharmaceutical industry, for biomedicine, and particularly for the future of pharmacology. Even if you don't know Ruffolo, you've probably seen him-if not at a science symposium, then surely as the lead "actor" in televised promotions that ran throughout 1999 on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA; scenes reproduced here, with permission). "Actor" belongs in quotation marks, because if there is such a thing as type casting, then Ruffolo is certainly an example in the PhRMA ads: passionate about good drugs and the people who need them; proud of his profession and his contributions; dedicated to science as well as to his colleagues; and grateful for the opportunities he has had to contribute. The commercial's requisite happy ending, where three generations of a coronary-prone farm family ride off into the sunset, reflects Ruffolo's own success story in helping to bring carvedilol to market. In all of this, however, Ruffolo's sincerity transcends the hokey as well as the nerdy. His devotion to science includes a mission to help others, and he would argue that in this and most ways, he is not so different from his academic colleagues.     

L. H. Bailey's citations to Gregor Mendel

L. H. Bailey cited Mendel's 1865 and 1869 papers in the bibliography that accompanied his 1892 paper, Cross-Breeding and Hybridizing, and Mendel is mentioned once in the 1895 edition of Bailey's "Plant-Breeding." Bailey claimed to have copied his 1892 references to Mendel from Focke. It seems, however, that while he may have first encountered references to Mendel's work in Focke, he actually copied them from the Royal Society "Catalogue of Scientific Papers." Bailey also saw a reference to Mendel's 1865 paper in Jackson's "Guide to the Literature of Botany." Bailey's 1895 mention of Mendel occurs in a passage he translated from Focke's "Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge."     

Names and naming: Instances from the ORU-IGBO

Conclusion People have many names. But, changing one's name is no small thing. It can signify a major step in life or an embarrassing story, as in the last case.A person has a complex individual identity. His collective identity is clear from the moment he is conceived. He is one with a body of people, his kinsmen, who share one common ancestor and through him access to land and resources. The continuation of this group and its name is perpetuated through paternal descent.Kingroup membership ensures a person's place in life, his right to exist, eat, live and enjoy. But, who is he, apart from being a kinsman? Which kinsman is he? How are people going to interact with him? His individual identity will become clear through time. He is a re-incarnation of ancestor x. The circumstances of his birth were such. He behaves like this. He has these personal traits. This has happened to him. He has achieved that. There is no permanent role attached to an individual. He is neither bound to class nor caste. He is dynamic and changes constantly. His life is one of achievement, constant striving and upward mobility till death — when it all begins again. His name signals his state of being in time and existence.Sabine Jell-Bahlsen is an anthropologist and filmmaker.     

Bacterial carotenoids

Zeaxanthin dirhamnoside is the major carotenoid of Corynebacterium autotrophicum. The absolute configuration 3R,3R followed from CD-properties of its hexaacetate, -L-assignment and ¹C₄ conformation were concluded from ¹H NMR data by comparison with model compounds.No. XLIX: Acta chem. scand. (in press)Dedicated to Professor R. Y. Stanier on his 60th birthday in appreciation of his studies on the function and biosynthesis of carotenoids and influence on the scientific development of his co-workers     

Looking back on the discovery of α-bungarotoxin

This review is a personal narration by a retiring pharmacologist from Taiwan who looks back at his discovery of -bungarotoxin from the historical perspective of Taiwan during the last 50 years, with accounts of his experiences and his efforts to overcome hardship. How the -toxin was isolated and characterized as an irreversible specific nicotinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptor antagonist,and how it subsequently became a useful experimental probe are presented here. The dilemma of differentiating the actions of tubocurarine and -bungarotoxin is analyzed. The author also outlines findings based on work done in his laboratory using -bungarotoxin as a tool on particular aspects of synaptic transmission. These include presynaptic receptor for positive feedback of transmitter release, explosive release of ACh, up- and down-regulation of ACh receptors after chronic drug treatment, autodesensitization of junctional ACh receptors, differences in action between natural transmitter and exogenous agonists and that between junctional and extra-junctional ACh receptors. Some experimental pitfalls, in which biomedical scientists are frequently trapped, are raised. Finally, some anecdotes are appended from which the reader may further understand scientific life in the 20th century, including its joys and regrets.     

Ten-year stability of EEG biofeedback results for a hyperactive boy who failed fourth grade perceptually impaired class

Ten years ago, the first successful application of a clinical,private-practice based, EEG 14-Hz biofeedback training regimen for the treatment of learning disorders was performed by the author. After the 10-year-old boy, with presenting symptomology including a developmental reading disorder, hyperactivity, and an educational classification of perceptually impaired, continued symptom free for a period oftwo years, his case was submitted for publication. Ten years after his termination from successful treatment, his ongoingly normal social and academic functioning is noted and his EEG brainwave signature examined and compared with a population of 24 used-to-be learning disabled, one-half of which had a pretreatment state including the educational classification of perceptually impaired. This 10-year follow-up confirms the long-term stability of the results of this EEG 14-Hz biofeedback regimen. Current findings on recent medical research identifying a major cerebral locus of dysfunction for hyperkinesis and how it supports the electrode placements of this clinical office setting regimen is also discussed.     

The Wistar rat as a right choice: Establishing mammalian standards and the ideal of a standardized mammal

Conclusion In summary, the creation and maintenance of the Wistar Rats as standardized animals can be attributed to the breeding work of Helen Dean King, coupled with the management and husbandry methods of Milton Greenman and Louise Duhring, and with supporting documentation provided by Henry Donaldson. The widespread use of the Wistar Rats, however, is a function of the ingenuity of Milton Greenman who saw in them a way for a small institution to provide service to science. Greenman's rhetoric, as captured in his Director's Reports, prepared annually from 1905 until his death in 1937, shows that he was unusually sensitive to his times and to the economics of science and of society. In the era when biology was being defined, he recognized in the rat the potential to be a living analog to the pure chemicals that legitimated experimental science. From management literature he extracted the ideals of uniformity of product, standards of quality, and efficiency of production, applying them to scientific practice to generate an animal model that thrives as standard equipment in laboratories throughout the world today.I will close with a quote from Frederick W. Taylor that is a cogent statement of the contribution to science and scientific progress made by standardized tools and their creators. Equating the surgeon and the workman, Taylor wrote: [He is given] the finest implements, each one of which has been the subject of special study and development ... [and] the very best knowledge of his predecessors; and, provided with standard implements and methods which represent the best knowledge of the world up to date, he is able to use his own originality and ingenuity to make real additions to the world's knowledge, instead of reinventing things which are old.Standardized tools, whether surgeons' implements or laboratory-bred rats, are one of the vehicles for carrying scientific knowledge forward from generation to generation. In this sense, Greenman's Wistar Rats have done their job, in his words, of providing service to science.Based on a paper presented at the meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, Session on The Right Organism for the Job, Northwestern University, July 14, 1991.     

Evolved ethics re-examined: The theory of Robert J. Richards

Conclusion Richards's theory, then, fails on three counts. By illegitimately importing a premise from outside of the theory of evolution in order to construct a valid argument, Richards has failed to achieve his objective of deriving a moral theory exclusively from biological facts. By sliding from a causal use of ought to a moral one, Richards commits the fallacy of ambiguity. And by insisting that action from the motive of altruism is moral while claiming that an ethical theory which justifies Hitler's camps must be judged false, Richards has falsified his own ethical theory.     

Prison became second home for psychiatrist (George Scott).

Retired prison psychiatrist George Scott recalls his career working in Canada''s penal system, including his peacemaking role in a hostage-taking incident and his work with Steven Truscott. Life "inside" is dangerous for guards, inmates, staff and psychiatrists, he says, but he never regretted his decision to devote his career to studying criminal behaviour.     

Darwin's use of the analogy between artificial and natural selection

Conclusion The central role played by Darwin's analogy between selection under domestication and that under nature has been adequately appreciated, but I have indicated how important the domesticated organisms also were to other elements of Darwin's theory of evolution-his recognition of the constant principle of change, for instance, of the imperfection of adaptation, and of the extent of variation in nature. The further development of his theory and its presentation to the public likewise hinged on frequent reference to domesticates.We have seen that Darwin's reliance on the analogy between domesticated varieties and wild species was a bold and original step, in light of contemporary views on the nature of domesticates. However, as Darwin undoubtedly foresaw, his reliance on the analogy created difficulties as well as solving problems, and these began with his Malthusian codiscoverer of the principle of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace's paper On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type, presented to the Linnean Scoiety along with the first public unveiling of Darwin's theory, states: We see, then, that no inferences as to varieties in a state of nature can be deduced from the observation of those occurring among domestic animals. The two are so much opposed to each other in every circumstance of their existence, that what applies to the one is almost sure not to apply to the other. Domestic animals are abnormal, irregular, artificial; they are subject to varieties which never occur and never can occur in a state of nature.⁶² Much has been made of the similarity of views of Darwin and Wallace, but this quotation surely reveals how utterly different their views were on what to Darwin was an important matter. Several critics of the Origin saw Darwin's reliance on the domesticates as his Achilles heel. As Young has pointed out, Samuel Wilberforce included the following passage in his attack on the Origin: Nor must we pass over unnoticed the transference of the argument from the domesticated to the untamed animals. Assuming that man as the selector can do much in a limited time, Mr. Darwin argues that Nature, a more powerful, a more continuous power, working over vastly extended ranges of time, can do more. But why should Nature, so uniform and persistent in all her operations, tend in this instance to change? Why should she become a selector of varieties?⁶³ Another critic, Fleeming Jenkin, found the analogy a weakness in Darwin's theory because of the limited extent of variation in any one direction in domestic animals and plants.⁶⁴ We have already seen that Darwin had confided a similar view to his notebook thirty years earlier, but changed his mind as a result of his profound study of domesticates. De Beer's reference to an English country gentleman's knowledge of domestic plants and animals and their breeding⁶⁵ fails totally to recognize the originality and depth of Darwin's knowledge of domesticates.Why did Darwin, against the currents of his time, rely so heavily on mankind's experience with domesticated organisms to shape his theory about species in nature? On reason is that only with domesticates was an approach that came close to experimental verification possible. Darwin fully realized the inadequacies of the experiment, as is emphasized by his repeated contrasting of selection under nature and selection by man. Yet the extensive experience and data of plant and animal breeders offered the only reliable base against which Darwin could continually challenge his views. As he wrote in the introduction to Variation, with domestication, man ... may be said to have been trying an experiment on a gigantic scale.⁶⁶ Given Darwin's high opinion of the quantitative work of Malthus and Quetelet (as emphasized by Schweber),⁶⁷ and his unremitting efforts to secure data by which to test his theories, it was inevitable that he should attach high significance to domesticated varieties. John Tyndall, in his Belfast address of 1874, said: The strength of the doctrine of Evolution consists, not in experimental demonstration (for the subject is hardly accessible to this mode of proof), but in its general harmony with scientific thought.⁶⁸ Darwin would have agreed with the latter thought, but I think he would have challenged the preceding one on the grounds that long experience with domesticated varieties did provide an element of experimental demonstration. It gave him confidence in his theory, and he used his vast knowledge of artificial selection boldly and creatively.     

Garland Allen,Thomas Hunt Morgan,and Development

Garland E. Allen’s 1978 biography of the Nobel Prize winning biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan provides an excellent study of the man and his science. Allen presents Morgan as an opportunistic scientist who follows where his observations take him, leading him to his foundational work in Drosophila genetics. The book was rightfully hailed as an important achievement and it introduced generations of readers to Morgan. Yet, in hindsight, Allen’s book largely misses an equally important part of Morgan’s work – his study of development and regeneration. It is worth returning to this part of Morgan, exploring what Morgan contributed and also why he has been seen by contemporaries and historians such as Allen as having set aside some of the most important developmental problems. A closer look shows how Morgan’s view of cells and development that was different from that of his most noted contemporaries led to interpretation of his important contributions in favor of genetics. This essay is part of a special issue, revisiting Garland Allen's views on the history of life sciences in the twentieth century.     

Uncertain legislator: Georges Cuvier's laws of nature in their intellectual context

Conclusion We should now be able to come to some general conclusions about the main lines of Cuvier's development as a naturalist after his departure from Normandy. We have seen that Cuvier arrived in Paris aware of the importance of physiology in classification, yet without a fully worked out idea of how such an approach could organize a whole natural order. He was freshly receptive to the ideas of the new physiology developed by Xavier Bichat.Cuvier arrived in a Paris also torn by many overlapping debates on the nature of classification, and in particular that between the natural and artificial systems. The very validity of the enterprise of classification was questioned in many quarters. Cuvier's achievement on his entry into the Parisian world of science was not simply to establish himself as a highly competent anatomist: far more important, he also began to use ideas from many different specialties to change completely the notion of what was involved in natural history.¹²⁴ At the same time that he himself swung away from the guiding image of the field naturalist as the ideal of the specialty, he took ideas from the new physiology to answer questions about the order of the animal world, and from comparative anatomy to resurrect extinct creation — and to come to conclusions from that creation about the history of the forms of life and the manner of their succession. He showed himself able to alter the relationships between natural history and many other fields of study in a way that implied, rightly or wrongly, his own complete mastery over such a movement. Partly he was able to do this because the ideas he borrowed were not themselves logically articulated and thus could be easily adapted and refocused for many different specific purposes. The value of the heuristic possibilities inherent in the idea of life, for example, far outweighed its inability to generate full systems of classification. Cuvier also consistently refused to consider in science matters relating to the first causes of events. Freed from the consideration of first-order phenomena, he was able to use second-order explanations across a far wider field of applicability. Personal doubts about the validity of a theology that had used science in order to bolster its own claims were combined here with the strong influence of the Kantian critique of the limits of human reason.¹²⁵ Cuvier's characteristic mode of procedure was that of intellectual appropriation and a bold capacity for altering the relationships between different fields of knowledge, rather than, with the exception of taxonomy, the technique of expanding their subject matter. His claims to originality came, first, from this reappropriation and reorientation and, second, from the sheer scope of his work, which aimed at nothing less than the cataloging and classification of all animate objects.¹²⁶ They rested also on his acute use of his assertion of a certain relationship with the past of his subject. Very often he would present this history in such a way as to obscure his own intellectual genealogy, and often too he would give differing accounts of the priority of use of an idea in order to distract attention from the questionable exactitude of his own claims to originality. Cuvier came to Paris at precisely the time when society and institutions were most profitably malleable for a newcomer; it was also a time when many scientific disciplines had reached a stage advanced in terms of their factual content, yet relatively inadequate in conceptual organization. They were ripe for takeover by large-scale organizing ideas such as the animal economy and the subordination of characteristics. Paleontology is a particularly good example of a specialty in this particular form of underdevelopment in 1795.Cuvier paid a high price for his initial success. His electic applications of large-scale organizing ideas tended to mean that little of his own work had complete coherence at all levels. Ideas, as we have seen, that proved capable of providing a complete reform of the larger groups of the animal kingdom were incapable of producing its detailed working-out in the taxonomy of smaller groups, which had to be supplied from observed analogical correlations. Further, his physiological approach to classification involved the breakdown of strict correspondence between organs and functions, which left the way open for workers such as Geoffroy St. Hilaire gradually to tilt the balance away from the study of the correlations of hierarchies of functions, and toward morphology as the basis of the order of nature. Cuvier's brilliant appropriations from physiology from the beginning, therefore, contained the seeds of conflict with Geoffroy.Cuvier's eclectic approach made it very nearly impossible for him to present a clear idea of the ways in which the life sciences could be said to be lawful. In spite of his efforts to assimilate them to the position of the physical sciences in this respect, he was forced in the end to accord only an ambiguous status as laws to observational correlations. From this area of failure came much of the attempt to give his own two laws — the correlation of parts and the subordination of characteristics — predictive qualities, particularly in relation to paleontological research.It is not surprising that Cuvier's title as the legislator of natural history should represent more a claim than a reality. How, then, was he able to emerge as the leading French naturalist of his day? First of all must be adduced the sheer scale of his undertakings. Then comes his expertise as a practical anatomist, and the range of different topics toward which he turned his interest. His collaborators cannot be given credit for his output nor, as we have seen, for slavish adherence to his ideas. Cuvier was able to successfully claim to have dominated the underdeveloped specialties, such as paleontology, and turned them into a major heuristic input into both geology and comparative anatomy; but in other fields, such as physiology, he appropriated concepts and encouraged research but made little impact on the field himself. His attempts in 1812 to head off, or neutralize and absorb the growth of morphological studies landed him in a dangerously rigid position, which despite his encouragement of the new physiological research under the Restoration made further elaboration of his own conceptual underpinnings almost impossible.Cuvier's authority in the scientific world would in any case have been great because of his substantive achievement in taxonomy, but the rest of his work had enough ambiguities and dislocations for it to need the support of his political and social power. Cuvier's detractors seized on a vital fragment of the truth when they accused him of finding the political dimension all-important: it obscured the disjunctions in his theories and at the same time gave him the authority to make new claims for the status of the observational sciences - and for their relations of power with their surrounding specialties. Cuvier's science both thrived on and was halted by the power games of intellectual appropriation, manipulation of the past to confirm the present, and continual claims for hegemony.     

Postcolonial Ecologies of Parasite and Host: Making Parasitism Cosmopolitan

The interest of F. Macfarlane Burnet in host–parasite interactions grew through the 1920s and 1930s, culminating in his book, Biological Aspects of Infectious Disease (1940), often regarded as the founding text of disease ecology. Our knowledge of the influences on Burnet’s ecological thinking is still incomplete. Burnet later attributed much of his conceptual development to his reading of British theoretical biology, especially the work of Julian Huxley and Charles Elton, and regretted he did not study Theobald Smith’s Parasitism and Disease (1934) until after he had formulated his ideas. Scholars also have adduced Burnet’s fascination with natural history and the clinical and public health demands on his research effort, among other influences. I want to consider here additional contributions to Burnet’s ecological thinking, focusing on his intellectual milieu, placing his research in a settler society with exceptional expertise in environmental studies and pest management. In part, an ‘‘ecological turn’’ in Australian science in the 1930s, derived to a degree from British colonial scientific investments, shaped Burnet’s conceptual development. This raises the question of whether we might characterize, in postcolonial fashion, disease ecology, and other studies of parasitism, as successful settler colonial or dominion science.