Thanks for the comment Vivian, later on in the series we will meet the sanitarians. We will also delve a bit on Edmund Parkes, a close colleague of Nightingale. His Manual of Practical Hygiene lists all the principles that they both re-leaners at Scutari and Rankiol in Turkey. I bought a copy of the Manual for 5 GBP off a market stall and am thinking of serialising in a synthetic format for TTE.
"I bought a copy of the Manual for 5 GBP off a market stall and am thinking of serialising in a synthetic format for TTE.
Any thoughts?
Best, Tom."
we just can't get enough of this sort of stuff Tom; please do if you have time; to go back to the original is marvellous; a good friend has a 2nd edition Cunningham's Anatomy; he feels honoured to still have that, 55yrs on.
Interesting coincidence of Dr Snow mentioning cleanliness and light: at the time of writing his book (1855) the Crimean war (1853-56) was in full swing and we recall Florence Nightingale's endeavours regarding the treatment of soldiers in the Scutari hospital ...
when I see Snow write "Deficiency of light" my mind leaps to Vit D deficiency; in the early months of the Great Madness, I read much on Vit D; none of which I knew then; I remain a bit of a Vit D zealot; and Vit D made from cholesterol in our skin seems crucial; (as opposed to supplements); so my musing is just how depleted of Vit D were these people that Snow saw fall ill; (I drank deeply of folks researching VDR: vitamin D Receptor circa 2009 and describing its crucial role in each cell; much from Portland by memory): it is alleged; that Vit D supplements largely come from China; that wool from NZ and Oz is processed to extract the Vit D that the sheep secrete into their wool; friends tell of shearing their alpacas in early summer; the alpacas "sunbathe" their now bare skin; lying on the grass; and the shearers inject them with fat-soluble vits at shearing time; Vit A, D, E .. trying to give some Vit D before the skin is covered and no Vit D can be made .....
Doc's in the 40's and on, that were supplementing in the US, used fish liver oil (Cod based) as opposed to Cholecalciferol which was considered a food fortifier rather than the best clinically applied portion of a protocol.. Cholecalciferol tended to have toxicity issues that could be avoided with fish liver based oil. Calcium Lactate was always added if the fish oil was used as Vit D was considered a substitute for parathyroid hormone in it's action especially at the kidney.
Cholecalciferol was considered a poor stepchild especially when uptake is considered not to mention toxicity. It was considered a winter supplement but was given year round especially for osteoporosis but an additional fatty acid supplement was given in summer to balance out calcium delivery to the dermis as well as stabilizing blood calcium levels.
Certainly, in 1831, the British medical establishment favoured the contagion theory as evidenced by the RCP of London statement:
"We are of opinion that the disease called cholera morbus in Russia is of an infectious nature."
Report of the Royal College of Physicians of London, June 18 1831, provided in appendix of Hawkins (1831) ibid. p 260
Perhaps the establishment changed between then and 1855?
Hawkins characterises the situation quite well in general terms (totally relevant to recent years concerning COVID-19):
"We must recollect, however, that the spirit of partisanship exists with almost as much strength on medical topics as on political ones; they who have once taken up a particular line of argument are not easily induced to abandon it, and opposition only tends to convert into a fixed principle an opinion which may have been originally formed at random or in haste."
History Of The Epidemic Spasmodic Cholera Of Russia
Dear Peter, unlike today’s extremists the main figures of each “side” went from one to the other in their lifetimes and back again. This depended on their experience, knowledge and study of what we now call communicable disease. You will see this as the story unfolds. Parkes for example was a contagionist, but after observing cholera in India as an Army surgeon he veered to miasma. Towards the end of his life he had moved to contingency. The amazing reverend Whitehead did something similar as we shall see in the 19th and last episode. Dr Gavin Milroy and Parkes raised objections to Snow’s theory which are still unanswered. The only black and white thing in all this are the writing and background to this reply.
"Dr Gavin Milroy and Parkes raised objections to Snow’s theory which are still unanswered."
we look forward to this; not sure if this involves folks drinking glasses of vibrio cholera and seemingly doing ok; but great to hear;
in the mad world of "cholesterol", when some fact did not agree with the narrative being pushed by Ancel Keys and others; the fact; that clashed with the narrative; was called a "paradox": so it will be interesting to hear what 'paradoxes' emerge in the cholera story; surely "paradoxes" allow us to think a little more deeply: a narrative can be "logical, compelling" and of course "competely wrong" ......
folks will know that the trite "answer" to a "parodox" is to have a "consensus", particularly that highly revered form of consensus; the pinnacle; the "scientific consensus"; to some, the height of absurdity ........
.. consensus; nonsensus as a cardiologist in the 1990s said; (one of the last daring to call out the nonsense that was the cholesterol fairy story ......); they are all submerged beneath the waves now; all bought by big farmer
Following the 1829-31 outbreak in Europe they did try a few things, such as wearing the clothes of the diseased or deceased, and bathing with those infected - with negative results. It was also puzzling that communities up river were catching it, apearing to discount the possibility that infected water was responsible (of course it was spread by travellers who presumably contaminated the drinking water supply). There were so many discordant observations. Some villages were completely unaffected - only making sense when the source of contaminated water was considered - something we have to thank John Snow for.
Thanks for the comment Vivian, later on in the series we will meet the sanitarians. We will also delve a bit on Edmund Parkes, a close colleague of Nightingale. His Manual of Practical Hygiene lists all the principles that they both re-leaners at Scutari and Rankiol in Turkey. I bought a copy of the Manual for 5 GBP off a market stall and am thinking of serialising in a synthetic format for TTE.
Any thoughts?
Best, Tom.
"I bought a copy of the Manual for 5 GBP off a market stall and am thinking of serialising in a synthetic format for TTE.
Any thoughts?
Best, Tom."
we just can't get enough of this sort of stuff Tom; please do if you have time; to go back to the original is marvellous; a good friend has a 2nd edition Cunningham's Anatomy; he feels honoured to still have that, 55yrs on.
Thanks James, I’ll see what I can do. BTW the Manual went through several updates until after the Boer War when it was no longer used.
Best, Tom.
Interesting coincidence of Dr Snow mentioning cleanliness and light: at the time of writing his book (1855) the Crimean war (1853-56) was in full swing and we recall Florence Nightingale's endeavours regarding the treatment of soldiers in the Scutari hospital ...
when I see Snow write "Deficiency of light" my mind leaps to Vit D deficiency; in the early months of the Great Madness, I read much on Vit D; none of which I knew then; I remain a bit of a Vit D zealot; and Vit D made from cholesterol in our skin seems crucial; (as opposed to supplements); so my musing is just how depleted of Vit D were these people that Snow saw fall ill; (I drank deeply of folks researching VDR: vitamin D Receptor circa 2009 and describing its crucial role in each cell; much from Portland by memory): it is alleged; that Vit D supplements largely come from China; that wool from NZ and Oz is processed to extract the Vit D that the sheep secrete into their wool; friends tell of shearing their alpacas in early summer; the alpacas "sunbathe" their now bare skin; lying on the grass; and the shearers inject them with fat-soluble vits at shearing time; Vit A, D, E .. trying to give some Vit D before the skin is covered and no Vit D can be made .....
Doc's in the 40's and on, that were supplementing in the US, used fish liver oil (Cod based) as opposed to Cholecalciferol which was considered a food fortifier rather than the best clinically applied portion of a protocol.. Cholecalciferol tended to have toxicity issues that could be avoided with fish liver based oil. Calcium Lactate was always added if the fish oil was used as Vit D was considered a substitute for parathyroid hormone in it's action especially at the kidney.
Cholecalciferol was considered a poor stepchild especially when uptake is considered not to mention toxicity. It was considered a winter supplement but was given year round especially for osteoporosis but an additional fatty acid supplement was given in summer to balance out calcium delivery to the dermis as well as stabilizing blood calcium levels.
Certainly, in 1831, the British medical establishment favoured the contagion theory as evidenced by the RCP of London statement:
"We are of opinion that the disease called cholera morbus in Russia is of an infectious nature."
Report of the Royal College of Physicians of London, June 18 1831, provided in appendix of Hawkins (1831) ibid. p 260
Perhaps the establishment changed between then and 1855?
Hawkins characterises the situation quite well in general terms (totally relevant to recent years concerning COVID-19):
"We must recollect, however, that the spirit of partisanship exists with almost as much strength on medical topics as on political ones; they who have once taken up a particular line of argument are not easily induced to abandon it, and opposition only tends to convert into a fixed principle an opinion which may have been originally formed at random or in haste."
History Of The Epidemic Spasmodic Cholera Of Russia
Hawkins, Bisset (1831) p 154
Dear Peter, unlike today’s extremists the main figures of each “side” went from one to the other in their lifetimes and back again. This depended on their experience, knowledge and study of what we now call communicable disease. You will see this as the story unfolds. Parkes for example was a contagionist, but after observing cholera in India as an Army surgeon he veered to miasma. Towards the end of his life he had moved to contingency. The amazing reverend Whitehead did something similar as we shall see in the 19th and last episode. Dr Gavin Milroy and Parkes raised objections to Snow’s theory which are still unanswered. The only black and white thing in all this are the writing and background to this reply.
Best, Tom
"Dr Gavin Milroy and Parkes raised objections to Snow’s theory which are still unanswered."
we look forward to this; not sure if this involves folks drinking glasses of vibrio cholera and seemingly doing ok; but great to hear;
in the mad world of "cholesterol", when some fact did not agree with the narrative being pushed by Ancel Keys and others; the fact; that clashed with the narrative; was called a "paradox": so it will be interesting to hear what 'paradoxes' emerge in the cholera story; surely "paradoxes" allow us to think a little more deeply: a narrative can be "logical, compelling" and of course "competely wrong" ......
folks will know that the trite "answer" to a "parodox" is to have a "consensus", particularly that highly revered form of consensus; the pinnacle; the "scientific consensus"; to some, the height of absurdity ........
.. consensus; nonsensus as a cardiologist in the 1990s said; (one of the last daring to call out the nonsense that was the cholesterol fairy story ......); they are all submerged beneath the waves now; all bought by big farmer
Following the 1829-31 outbreak in Europe they did try a few things, such as wearing the clothes of the diseased or deceased, and bathing with those infected - with negative results. It was also puzzling that communities up river were catching it, apearing to discount the possibility that infected water was responsible (of course it was spread by travellers who presumably contaminated the drinking water supply). There were so many discordant observations. Some villages were completely unaffected - only making sense when the source of contaminated water was considered - something we have to thank John Snow for.