“But man is not made for defeat”: insights into Ernest Hemingway’s dementia

ABSTRACT Ernest Hemingway is widely regarded as one of the greatest fiction writers of all time. During his life, he demonstrated several signs of psychological suffering with gradual worsening and presentation of cognitive issues over his late years. Some of his symptoms and the course of his disease suggest that he might have suffered from an organic neurodegenerative condition that contributed to his decline, which culminated in his suicide in 1961. In this historical note, we discuss diagnostic hypotheses compatible with Hemingway’s illness, in light of biographical reports.

A Historical Note on the Treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia, otherwise known under the French denomination of tic douloureux, is a chronic painful condition of a particular severity. Its descriptions are numerous and date back to centuries before. Although the anatomy of the trigeminal nerve has been well known, the pathophysiology and hence the treatment of this disease has been largely fortuitous. Disparate pharmacological and surgical approaches have been tried, some of them heralding a much-required therapeutic success. The authors make a brief description of the first sources that have systematized the disease, along with all therapies documented in a written form, especially from indexed journals of the two last centuries. Very few remnants of the previous therapies, actually considered obsolete, have survived to the proof of time; one of them relies on the possible role of the autonomic nervous system and anticholinergic therapies, later replaced from modern conservative and interventional approaches. Anticonvulsants have been, since 1940, the mainstay of the therapy, however, progressions in neurosurgery and mini-invasive procedures have substantially improved the quality of life and the prognosis of an otherwise very painful and chronic condition.

Formation of Tobolsk Classical Hymnasium in First Decade of 19th Century

The article is devoted to the study of material, financial, personnel problems that accompanied the process of restructuring the system of Russian secondary education in Western Siberia in the first decade after the beginning of reforms in the field of education in 1803—1804. Based on the specific historical material of the history of the Tobolsk classical gymnasium, the first in Western Siberia, the author considers ways to overcome these problems during the period of the reform of the Main Public School and the formation of a male classical gymnasium on its basis. Special attention is paid to the issues of administrative and financial support of the first Western Siberian classical gymnasium by the trustee of the Kazan educational district S. Ya. Rumovsky, Minister of Education P. V. Zavadovsky, administrative and economic activities of the first director of the gymnasium A. Kh. Eiben, issues of charity of Russian and local entrepreneurs. The research was carried out on the basis of published and unpublished archival materials. The first group should include a historical note about the Tobolsk gymnasium, compiled by teachers S. I. Zamakhaev and G. A. Tsvetaev in 1889 on the basis of the archive of the gymnasium, now lost. Specific historical, systemic, comparative historical methods have become the main methods for researching sources.

A Note by K. L. Johnson on the History of the JKR Theory

The history of the following note is as follows. In 2003, I invited Kenneth Johnson to Berlin to give a talk on adhesion in a seminar at the Institute of Mechanics. His lecture on the topic "Mechanics of adhesion of spherical surfaces" took place on Monday, January 26, 2004. In the run-up to the seminar, Professor Johnson sent me a historical note dated November 18, 2003. In my opinion, this note, which was written in the form of a paper, may be of interest for experts in contact mechanics and tribology. Prof. Johnson did not publish it, so it remained a private communication. For a publication he might have made a revision and would possibly have credited other important contributions. But this we can only guess at, and therefore the note is published below in the form I received it from Kenneth L. Johnson, with only a few misprints corrected. It is interesting as a historical document from Ken Johnson, who played a key role in development of theory of adhesive contacts.

The path of the first female surgeon to open-heart surgery - Nina Starr Braunwald

Nina Starr Braunwald - first female heart surgeon, a pioneer in cardio-thoracic surgery, certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and the first elected to the American Thoracic Surgery Association, a wonderful wife and mother of three daughters, teacher and mentor of several generations of doctors. We will tell everyone about this in more detail in our historical note Key words: female, heart surgeon; Braunwald-Morrow mitral valve, Braunwald-Cutter valve, mitral valve replacement

Modulation of Vestibular Microphonics; a Historical Note

Modulation of microphonics has recently been used to investigate the sensitivity of the utricle in the vestibular organ of the guinea pig. The same technique was used more than 30 years ago to obtain information on the processing of rotational stimuli in the horizontal semicircular canals of the pigeon. Data from that time were reanalysed to give a relation that describes the mechano-electrical transduction (MET) process in vestibular hair cells.

Prosper Menière: the man who located vertigo in the inner ear

ABSTRACT Since the Greek Aellus Galenum (129 AD - c.200/c.216), vertigo was considered a problem attributed to a cerebral disorder, diagnosed as the manifestation of apoplectiform cerebral congestion. In the mid-19th century, the Frenchman Prosper Menière changed this concept by placing the origin of this symptom in the inner ear. The main objective of this historical note is to highlight who Menière was, his work, and some aspects of the disease that bears his name.