Sanskrit Mahākāvyas based on the Mahābhārata

“The Mahābhārata, like the Ramayana, is among the greatest, and the earliest epics in the world. In length, it is reportedly, seven times longer than Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad put together. What distinguishes it from other such accounts is the fact that it is not just one straightforward story but a collection of discourses, episodes and anecdotes collected from far and wide, spanning aeons, woven around the main story which is short and simple enough. It is about the struggle to the succession of the loyal throne of Hastinapura. When the rightful claimant, Yudhisthira, is denied his inheritance by the incumbent ruler, also his paternal uncle, the blind King Dhritrashtra, at the behest of his greedy and arrogant son Duryodhana and his accomplices, the two cousins engage in battle at Kurukshetra”.1

FOUR DIFFERENT PRESENTATIONS OF WILSON’S DISEASE IN ONE FAMILY

Wilson’s disease (WD) is an important differential to consider in any child presenting with hepatic, neurological or ophthalmological manifestations of the disease. We report here 4 individuals of the same family: 2 paediatric and 2 adult patients with a spectrum of manifestations of the disease presenting to Pak Emirates Military Hospital and Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi, from January 2019 and September 2020. The index case had neuro-wilson; the brother was diagnosed preemptively during screening; the father being completely asymptomatic despite markedly raised 24 hours urinary copper levels; and the paternal uncle being diagnosed after many years of manifesting hepatic symptoms. The purpose of this publication is to sensitize the readers to the usage of scoring tools such as the Leipzig score, the importance of regular follow-up and family screening of hereditary diseases. We would also like to highlight the possibility of missed diagnosis with serum Copper levels (S.Copper) which were within normal limits (WNL) in all 4 of our patients; and Serumceruloplasmin (S.ceruloplasmin) levels which were within normal limits in 3\4 of these patients, that are often used as screening tools for WD.

Did the Justinianic Plague Truly Reach Frankish Europe around 543 AD?

This article focuses on the episodes of bubonic plague recorded around 543 AD in Frankish Europe which on re-reading appear doubtful. Beginning in 541 and for two centuries, the Justinianic plague ravaged the Mediterranean area over several successive waves. The first mentions concern Egypt; the plague then spreads northward to Constantinople and almost concomitantly or shortly afterward moves westward until it reaches Western Europe. For this last region, the main source is Bishop Gregory of Tours, who in both his historical and his hagiographic writings, provides numerous data on the first outbreaks that raged in Frankish Europe, episodes to which he was a contemporary (even if for the first, he was still in early childhood). According to Gregory, around 543, bubonic plague ravaged several areas under Frankish rule. However, among others, intertextual, contextualized and chronological analyses strongly suggest that these events were in fact fictional. Gregory seems to have wanted to balance during epidemics of plague, the behavior of two bishops of Clermont that were totally opposed. In the episode of 571, when plague struck the episcopal city, the unworthy Bishop Cautinus, to escape disease, had fled the city in cowardice. In the other episode, through the intercession of Gregory's paternal uncle, the virtuous Gallus, the immediate predecessor of Cautinus and that of a saint specific of the paternal branch, the city, including the diocese, was spared from the plague. Other references to similar events in which, through saints, the plague is driven out, or territories are protected from it are also dated arbitrarily from this period. Furthermore, unlike the episode of 571, the plague of 543 is never considered a punishment for sin; moreover, no miraculous healing of plague patients is recorded. Contemporary texts from other authors of Frankish Europe, although they are rare, do not mention any epidemic around 543 - especially the Vita of Caesarius of Arles, written shortly after the death of this bishop (from 542 to 547-9) by several hagiographers - while two of Gregory’s texts, which are repeated almost verbatim, indicate that the province of Arles was the region most affected. This fact underscores the decisive contribution that hagiographic texts can make in the analysis of facts considered to be historical. Finally, the dramatic deteriorations in the health situation described in Gregory’s reports could have a background of truth and be the consequence of the climatic cooling observed from 536, likely due to volcanic eruptions, but did not involve the bubonic plague.

Metastatic Lobular Breast Cancer Mimicking Colitis

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer diagnosed in women in the world regardless of race or ethnicity. About 10% of invasive breast carcinomas are lobular subtype. The loss of the E-caderin expression that occurs in lobular carcinoma leads to a higher risk of metastases in membranes (meningeal, pleural, peritoneum) and gastrointestinal and/or endobronchial mucous, which may lead to several odd symptomatology. We report a 79 years old female patient with lobular breast cancer associated to CDH1 germline mutation. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2016 after noticing a right-armpit nodule whose pathological examination demonstrated an immunohistochemistry profile compatible with lobular breast carcinoma metastasis and had estrogen receptors 98%, progesterone receptors < 1%, ki67 25%, negative her2 score. Family history of only one paternal uncle with stomach cancer. After two lines of hormone therapy, she had disease progression and started oral chemotherapy with capecitabine. In a few weeks, the patient had refractory diarrhea. At the beginning, it was defined like colitis chemotherapy related. However, the clinical features showed necessity of further investigation. Then, she was diagnosed with CDH1 germline mutation after massive progression at gastrointestinal mucous. This case made possible to inform the family about risk of germline mutation and necessity of genetic counseling.

Asymptomatic Right Ventricular Hypoplasia in Twin Siblings: A Normal Variant or Cause of Early Mortality?

Right ventricular (RV) hypoplasia may develop secondary to pulmonary or tricuspid valve atresia. These patients are usually symptomatic early in life and need prompt intervention. Isolated RV hypoplasia is a rare congenital heart disease. We report a case of 23-year-old twins who have been monitored for the last 14 years for isolated right ventricular hypoplasia. ECHO and MRI studies showed a small, heavily trabeculated, nonapex-forming RV and mild tricuspid valve insufficiency. The girl has a patent foramen ovale (PFO). Otherwise, the cardiac anatomy and function was normal. They have both been completely asymptomatic from the cardiac standpoint. The family history is remarkable for death of father at the age of 30 years with autopsy suggestive of a hypoplastic RV. The paternal uncle also died at the age of 46 years, and his son has an unidentified congenital heart disease. The family history appears to suggest an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance with variable expressivity. However, the chromosome microarray analysis of the twins did not identify any variations of clinical significance.

Charles Butler and the English Jesuits, 1770–1823

Charles Butler's mother, née de Blandecque (anglice Blandyke), of a family established in Saint-Omer, was enthusiastically devoted to the Society of Jesus. His much-loved paternal uncle, Alban Butler, the hagiographer, had perhaps his own reasons for some measure of alienation from the regular clergy. In 1762, the French government expelled the Jesuits from France, and in 1766, when Charles was 16 years old, this uncle was put in charge of the English Jesuits’ college of St Omers, thus earning (I think it is not too much to say) a degree of obloquy amounting almost to the scale of vendetta, among a section of the recently-professed English Fathers.

John Kenyon Netherton Jones, 28 January 1912 - 13 April 1977

J. K. N. Jones was born in Birmingham, England, on 28 January 1912 and died in Kingston, Ontario, Canada on 13 April 1977. He was the eldest son of George Edward Netherton Jones and Florence Jones Goodchild). His family had long been established in the Midlands, his paternal grandfather James Jones, being a well known ironmaster in Walsall, a town which prospered during the Industrial Revolution. His maternal grandparents (the Goodchilds) lived in Swansea, Wales, and his mother was the eldest of their seven children. His father, who also was one of seven children, was for most of his career a shipping agent for the Elder Dempster line. Unhappily he was badly gassed in the World War I; this left him in poor health and he died in the early 1920s from tuberculosis. During the next few years Jones’s mother (who was well known as an athlete) was left to struggle on and she had to fight bitterly to secure a pension for herself and her seven children. Life was very hard for the family for the pension was not granted until 1926 and shortly afterwards his mother died from blood poisoning. The family was now separated, the six eldest children were made Wards of the Ministry of Pensions and were split up among five families. The youngest, who was born after the war ended in 1918, was not supported by the Ministry of Pensions and was sent to an orphanage. Jones had a particular affection for this brother, Geoffrey David, and suffered great grief when the boy who was a bomber pilot in World War II, was shot down with his crew in June 1944 and was killed. Jones lived with several aunts and uncles in Birmingham during his school days and was very well looked after. He recalled happy summer days when he was able to cycle out to the home of a paternal uncle, Jack Jones, who, with his wife Lucy, lived in the country near Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. He Spent his holidays with them and these visits sparked off his great love of plants and flowers and lifelong interest in gardening.

Abū Lahab and Sūra cxi

The studies of Sūra CXI 1 have not yet arrived at satisfactory results, hence the meaning of this sūra is still obscure. The present study tries to present a better basis for its understanding.1. The date and background of the sῡraSūra CXI deals with Abū Lahab, whom all the Muslim sources identify as Muḥammad's paternal uncle, 'Abd al-'Uzzā b. 'Abd al-Muṭṭalib of the clan of Hāshim.

Max Leonard Rosenheim, Baron Rosenheim of Camden, 1908-1972

Max Leonard Rosenheim, Baron Rosenheim of Camden, became a Fellow of the Royal Society by Special Election under Statute 12 a few months before he died. He was a distinguished clinician and medical scientist but his outstanding success was in persuading organized medicine in this country to face constructively the issues of the contemporary world. This he achieved through his immense vitality and through his remarkable capacity for making friends all over the world. He was born in Hampstead on 15 March 1908. His parents were both nonpractising Jews and members of the Ethical Society. Max received no formal Jewish religious instruction and never regularly attended any place of religious worship. His father, Ludwig Rosenheim (1869-1915), was the son of a wine merchant in Wurzburg. He left Germany as a young man and became a naturalized British subject. He was a member of the Stock Exchange on which he made enough money to leave his family comfortably off. He had wide interests and, as a young man, attended evening classes in London on chemistry, mineralogy, geology, etc. Max’s paternal uncle was Sigmund Otto Rosenheim (1871— 1955) (see Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal , vol. 2, November 1956).