Bonnet, Charles (1720–93)

Author(s):  
F.C.T. Moore

In his youth, Bonnet made a meticulous and creative study of insects, which won him international fame for his discoveries, as well as his methods. He turned to psychology and offered a detailed, but speculative, account of the physiology of mental states. His empirical work was overtaken by speculative ambition. In later life, he developed (from elements already present in his early studies) a comprehensive view of the universe, of its history and its natural history, of theology and of moral philosophy. Christianity was proved, the great chain of being was mapped over time towards an ultimate perfection, and human morality, based on self-love, formed part of the Creator’s scheme. The Creator, at the moment of creation, brought into being all the elements from which this vast unfolding would occur, without further intervention.

2003 ◽  
Vol 149 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Lombardo ◽  
F De Luca ◽  
M Rosano ◽  
C Sferlazzas ◽  
C Lucanto ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVE: The loss of pancreatic beta-cells is thought to be one of the principal causes of diabetes mellitus (DM) in cystic fibrosis (CF), but the role of peripheral insulin resistance (IR) in the pathogenesis of DM in CF remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether eventual changes of glucose tolerance (GT) over time were associated with modifications of insulin secretion or sensitivity. METHODS: Plasma glucose and insulin responses to an oral GT test (OGTT) were investigated and reinvestigated 13 Years later in 14 CF patients with initial and persistent fasting euglycemia and no history of insulin treatment. Insulin sensitivity (IS) at both tests was assessed on the basis of insulin and glucose levels both in the fasting state and during OGTTs. RESULTS: From the 1st to the 2nd OGTT: (a) the prevalence of DM responses significantly increased; (b) the areas beneath the respective glucose and insulin curves significantly increased and decreased respectively; (c) IR and IS indices decreased and increased respectively, even in the patients who developed DM; (d) pulmonary function significantly worsened in the entire series, especially in the patients who developed DM. CONCLUSIONS: (i) the natural history of glyco-metabolic status in CF is characterized by deteriorating GT over time; (ii) insulinopenia plays a prominent role in the pathogenesis of GT worsening; (iii) IR does not play any significant part in the pathogenesis of DM development; (iv) deterioration of lung function tests is more severe in the subjects who develop DM over time.


2018 ◽  
pp. 187-232
Author(s):  
Alison E. Martin

This chapter is devoted to Humboldt’s last, great work Cosmos. This multi-volume ‘Sketch of a Physical Description of the World’ ranged encyclopaedically from the darkest corners of space to the smallest forms of terrestrial life, describing the larger systems at work in the natural world. But, as British reviewers were swift to query, where was God in Humboldt’s mapping of the universe? Appearing on the market in 1846, just a year after Robert Chambers’ controversial Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Humboldt’s Cosmos unavoidably underwent close scrutiny. Hitherto overlooked correspondence between Humboldt and Edward Sabine shows how the Sabines deliberately reoriented the second volume of the English translation for Longman/Murray explicitly to include references to the ‘Creator’ and thus restore Humboldt’s reputation. The fourth volume of the Longman edition on terrestrial magnetism – Edward Sabine’s specialism – included additions endorsed by Humboldt which made Sabine appear as co-writer alongside the great Prussian scientist, and Cosmos a more obviously ‘English’ product. Otté, who produced the rival translation for Bohn, was initially under pressure herself to generate ‘original’ work that differed from its rival, producing a version of a work that would remain central to scientific thought well up to the end of the nineteenth century.


2002 ◽  
Vol 181 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. McCreadie ◽  
R. Padmavati ◽  
R. Thara ◽  
T. N. Srinivasan

BackgroundSpontaneous dyskinesia and parkinsonism have been reported in never-medicated patients with schizophrenia but there has been no previous study of the natural history of these conditions.AimsTo determine the prevalence of spontaneous dyskinesia and parkinsonism in a group of never-medicated, chronically ill patients with schizophrenia on two occasions separated by an 18-month interval.MethodDyskinesia was assessed by the Abnormal Involuntary Movements Scale using Schooler and Kane criteria for its presence; parkinsonism by the Simpson and Angus scale; and mental state by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for schizophrenia.ResultsThirty-seven patients were examined on two occasions. Nine (24%) had dyskinesia on both occasions, 12 (33%) on one occasion and 16 (43%) on neither occasion. Twenty-one (57%) had dyskinesia on at least one occasion. Thirteen patients (35%) had parkinsonism on at least one occasion.ConclusionsSpontaneous dyskinesia and parkinsonism fluctuate over time. The former was found on at least one occasion in the majority of patients. It is an integral part ofthe schizophrenic disease process.


Humanities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Mario Vrbancic ◽  
Senka Bozic-Vrbancic

In this article we focus on the analysis of a 2014 Austrian–French documentary We come as friends (110 min), written, directed, and produced by Hubert Sauper. We come as friends is a documentary about a corporate, polycentric, contemporary colonization of South Sudan. It is described by Sauper as “a modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the heart of Africa”. It is about Sudan, the continent’s biggest country, at the moment when it was divided into two nations in a 2011 referendum. It documents, according to Sauper, much more than the separation of the predominantly Christian south from the mostly “Muslim Arabs” of the rest of the Sudan; it shows how “an old ‘civilizing’ pathology reemerges—that of colonialism, clash of empires, and yet new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources”. Inspired by Eric Santner’s concept of “creaturely life” we analyze a natural history of the present and creaturely expressions in We come as friends.


2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 578-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wajd N. Al-Holou ◽  
Andrew Y. Yew ◽  
Zackary E. Boomsaad ◽  
Hugh J. L. Garton ◽  
Karin M. Muraszko ◽  
...  

Object Arachnoid cysts are a frequent finding on intracranial imaging in children. The prevalence and natural history of these cysts are not well defined. The authors studied a large consecutive series of children undergoing MR imaging to better define both the MR imaging–demonstrated prevalence and behavior of these lesions over time. Methods The authors reviewed a consecutive series of 11,738 patients who were 18 years of age or younger and had undergone brain MR imaging at a single institution during an 11-year period. In the patients in whom intracranial arachnoid cysts were identified, clinical and demographic information was recorded and imaging characteristics, such as cyst size and location, were evaluated. Prevalence data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression, linear regression, and ANOVA. All patients with sufficient data (repeat MR imaging studies as well as repeated clinical evaluation over at least 5 months) for a natural history analysis were identified. This group was assessed for any change in symptoms or imaging appearance during the follow-up interval. Results Three hundred nine arachnoid cysts (2.6% prevalence rate) were identified. There was an increased prevalence of arachnoid cysts in males (p < 0.000001). One hundred eleven patients met all criteria for inclusion in the natural history analysis. After a mean follow-up of 3.5 years, 11 arachnoid cysts increased in size, 13 decreased, and 87 remained stable. A younger age at presentation was significantly associated with cyst enlargement (p = 0.001) and the need for surgery (p = 0.05). No patient older than 4 years of age at the time of initial diagnosis had cyst enlargement, demonstrated new symptoms, or underwent surgical treatment. Conclusions Arachnoid cysts are a common incidental finding on intracranial imaging in pediatric patients. An older age at the time of presentation is associated with a lack of clinical or imaging changes over time.


2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. E13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ash Singhal ◽  
Tim Bowen-Roberts ◽  
Paul Steinbok ◽  
Doug Cochrane ◽  
Angela T. Byrne ◽  
...  

Object The natural history of syringomyelia in pediatric patients remains uncertain. Although symptomatic and operative cases of syringomyelia are well studied, there are fewer articles in the literature on the nonoperative syrinx and its clinical and radiological course. The purpose of this research was to analyze the natural history of untreated syringomyelia in pediatric patients presenting with minimal neurological symptoms. Methods A review of the neurosurgery database at British Columbia's Children's Hospital identified all pediatric patients (< 18 years of age) with syringes identified on MR imaging. Patients were included in this study if they had at least 2 MR images of the spine, at least 1 year apart, while receiving nonoperative treatment. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine changes in the size of the syrinx over time. Clinic notes were analyzed to establish demographic and clinical features and to determine any clinical changes over time. Results A total of 17 patients were included in the study. Symptoms at presentation were often mild and included limb numbness (3 cases), headaches (2 cases), mild sensory deficits (2 cases), mild motor deficits (3 cases), and intermittent incontinence (7 cases). The consultant neurosurgeon believed that the syrinx was not contributing to the symptoms in these 17 patients. The syrinx either remained unchanged (7 cases) or diminished in size (8 cases) in a total of 15 patients (88%). In the remaining 2 patients the authors noted an increase in syrinx size, in 1 of whom the clinical course also worsened. Both of these patients had a Chiari malformation and subsequently underwent craniocervical decompression. Overall, the mean change was −0.7 mm of maximal axial diameter (range −2.6 to +2.7 mm). Sixteen patients (94%) exhibited no worsening of symptoms over time. Conclusions Syringomyelia often remains stable in patients receiving nonoperative treatment. However, given that 2 (12%) of 17 syringes in this series enlarged, it is likely appropriate to include periodic imaging in the follow-up of these cases.


The author states that this communication to the Royal Society is part of a series of investigations on development, on which he has been for some years engaged, and which was commenced in a paper on that of the Myriapoda, published in 1841, in the Philosophical Transactions. The plan followed in these investigations has been to combine observations on the natural history of the animals with others on the conditions which affect their development, as the best mode of arriving at correct conclusions. The history of the discovery of what can now be proved to be the direct agent of impregnation, the spermatozoon, is then traced; and it is shown, that although within the last few years an opinion has been gaining ground that the spermatozoon, and not the liquor seminis , as formerly supposed, is the means of impregnation, no acknowledged proof has hitherto been given of the correctness of this opinion, and no refutation afforded to the theory that the liquor seminis is the part of the seminal fluid immediately concerned. The question of the agency of the spermatozoon has thus remained open; and it is to this question, with a view first to supply proof from direct experiments of the fact of the agency of this body, as well as to examine into the circumstances under which this agency is exerted, influenced or impeded, that the present communication is especially devoted. The author then traces the changes in the ovum within the body of the Amphibia, from a short time before the disappearance of the germinal vesicle to the period when the ovum is expelled before impregnation. The structure of the germinal vesicle in the ovarian ovum is shown to be an involution of cells, as stated by Wagner and Barry; but the author differs entirely from the latter respecting the mode of disappearance of the vesicle, and also respecting the part played by its constituents in the production of the embryo. He believes the included cells are liberated by the diffluence of the membrane of the germinal vesicle in the interior of the yelk, not in the centre of the yelk, but much nearer to the upper or dark surface than to the white or inferior, and at the bottom of a short canal, the entrance to which is in the middle of the upper or black surface at a point already noticed by Prevost and Dumas, Rusconi and Boa; and he thinks that it is due to the diffluence of the envelope of the vesicle in this situation that the moment of disappearance has not yet been observed. The germinal vesicle in the Amphibia always disappears before the ovum leaves the ovary, and escapes into the cavity of the abdomen. The mode in which the ovum, after leaving the ovary, is believed to arrive at the entrance of the oviduct is then stated, and the structure of the entrance in the intermedial space, as shown by Swammerdam, described.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document