Ivane Beritashvili: Founder of Physiology and Neuroscience in Georgia

This paper is dedicated to one of the outstanding scientists of the twentieth century—Ivane Beritashvili. He was a Georgian physiologist who graduated from St. Petersburg University and worked under the supervision of N. Wedensky. He founded the Department of Physiology and the Institute of Physiology at the University of Tbilisi, Georgia. Among his numerous contributions was the discovery of the rhythmical course of reciprocal inhibition in spinal reflexes, the first demonstration of the excitatory and inhibitory reactions in the brain stem neuropil. But Beritashvili's most significant contribution was the discovery of the mediation of animal psychoneural behavior by image-driven memory.     

Ivane Beritashvili: founder of physiology and neuroscience in Georgia

This paper is dedicated to one of the outstanding scientists of the twentieth century--Ivane Beritashvili. He was a Georgian physiologist who graduated from St. Petersburg University and worked under the supervision of N. Wedensky. He founded the Department of Physiology and the Institute of Physiology at the University of Tbilisi, Georgia. Among his numerous contributions was the discovery of the rhythmical course of reciprocal inhibition in spinal reflexes, the first demonstration of the excitatory and inhibitory reactions in the brain stem neuropil. But Beritashvili's most significant contribution was the discovery of the mediation of animal psychoneural behavior by image-driven memory.     

Henry Herbert Donaldson’s (1857–1938) contribution to an organized approach to the experimental study of the mammalian central nervous system

ABSTRACT

This article shows that the academic and research careers of Henry Herbert Donaldson (1857–1938) were directed to provide basic information about the growth of the vertebrate nervous system and to provide standards and the means to make such research efficient. He earned the reputation of making the albino rat a standard laboratory animal. His academic career began when he was an undergraduate at Yale University in 1875 and concluded with his death as Professor and Head of the Department of Neurology at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology of the University of Pennsylvania in 1938. During that period, pivotal experiences occurred, including research in physiological chemistry with Chittenden at the Sheffield School at Yale, graduate study at Johns Hopkins University, postgraduate study in Europe, and professorial positions at Clark University and the University of Chicago. It was at Johns Hopkins University that Donaldson learned about the need for physiological, anatomical, and psychophysical research and about the techniques to allow such research. It was at Clark University that he had first-hand and detailed experience with the anatomy of the brain of a deaf-blind-mute woman, as he attempted to correlate her sensory deficits with her brain development. It was at Clark University that he clearly recognized the need for standardization in neurological research. At the University of Chicago, he developed administrative skills and began a coordinated research effort to delimit the growth of the nervous system. It was at Chicago that he learned that the albino rat could be a reasonable subject for such research. It was also at Chicago that he was able to formulate ideas about the future organizational needs of human neuroanatomy. It was at the Wistar Institute that his research program and his professional career matured. He organized a research effort to elucidate the growth of the nervous system. He contributed to the coordination of neurological research in the United States and Europe. It was while at the Wistar Institute that he became well-known for making the albino rat a standard laboratory mammal—a convenient living material for research.     

Interview with Paul Sweet

Paul R. Sweet is a retired Foreign Service Officer and professor emeritus of the Department of History at Michigan State University. Dr. Sweet received his B.A. degree from DePauw University in 1929 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1934. He has taught at Birmingham-Southern College, Bates College, the University of Chicago, Colby College, and Michigan State University. From 1948 to 1959 he served with the U.S. Department of State and from 1953 to 1963 at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn; from 1963 to 1967 he was U.S. Consul General at Stuttgart. He co-authored The Tragedy of Austria (1948), and is the author of Friedrich von Gentz: Defender of the Old Order (1941), and Wilhelm von Humboldt: a Biography 1767–1808 (1978). He and his wife live in East Lansing, Michigan, where this interview was conducted by Linda Cooke Johnson in October 1996.     

Interview with Gilbert C. Fite

Born in 1918, reared and educated in South Dakota, Gilbert C. Fite took his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri. He is a historian of U.S. agriculture, particularly the impact of technology, economics, and politics on midwestern and southern farming since the late nineteenth century. He has written nine books, co-authored seven more, edited three volumes, and published over sixty articles. Former president of Eastern Illinois University, the Agricultural History Society and the Southern and Western Historical Associations, Fite has long been very active in Phi Alpha Theta and served as its president from 1981–1983. He taught at the University of Oklahoma for twenty-six years and held the Richard B. Russell Professorship of American History at the University of Georgia for a decade. He and his wife, June, were married in 1941, have two sons, and live in Bella Vista, Arkansas, where this interview was conducted by Roger Adelson in August 1993.     

Cortical epileptogenesis and David Ferrier

There was an increasing medical interest in the localization of representation of function in the cerebral cortex after Broca in 1861 identified a cortical area that appeared responsible for expressive speech. By the late 1860s, John Hughlings Jackson—based on clinico-pathological correlations mainly in persons with focal motor seizures—had reasoned that contralateral somatic motor function was represented in another area of the cortex. This localization was supported by Fritsch and Hitzig (1870) in experimental cortical stimulation studies in dogs. These authors also reported producing events resembling contralateral motor convulsing in their animals. Their work, and Jackson’s ideas, prompted David Ferrier, in Great Britain, to begin a program of cerebral cortical stimulation studies in various vertebrate species, trying to locate cortical sites of representation of functions other than expressive speech and motor activity. In his initial report of his investigations (1873), he noted that appropriately sited Faradic stimulation evoked immediate or delayed contralateral focal motor seizures, some of which evolved into generalized convulsions. On this basis he reasoned that focal motor and generalized seizures were expressions of the same disorder; that nearly all epilepsies originated in the cerebral cortex and not in the lower brain stem, as hitherto thought; and that the clinical pattern of epileptic seizure phenomenology depended on the function of the cortical site of origin and the extent and direction of spread of seizure activity in the brain. He not only provided experimental verification for Jackson’s reasoning about epileptic seizure mechanisms but expressed the ideas a good deal more clearly than Jackson ever managed to do. Ferrier’s achievement in this regard has tended to escape notice, lost sight of because of the great importance of his investigations into localization of cerebral function.     

Cajal's Views on the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (October 1904)

In this report we present and discuss an unpublished letter written by Santiago Ramón y Cajal in October 1904 in relation to his possible nomination for the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. This letter shows that Cajal was aware of his previous nominations for the Prize. He was convinced that these nominations had not been successful because neither anatomy nor histology were among the sciences included in the Nobel Statutes' definition of Physiology or Medicine. He gives a list of the merits he thought might be used for a new nomination, which included only works concluded during the previous five years.     

Giuseppe Levi: mentor of three Nobel laureates

Giuseppe Levi (1872-1965), Professor of Anatomy at the University of Turin, had broad research interests and was a pioneer of in vitro studies on cultured cells. He provided a number of contributions on the nervous system, especially on the plasticity of sensory ganglion cells. An influential and magnetic teacher and mentor, he gathered around him a large group of brilliant students. He has the peculiar primate to count among his students three Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine: Salvador Luria, Renato Dulbecco, and Rita Levi-Montalcini. For all three of them, the internship in Levi's laboratory provided an exceptional initial stimulus. They remained in close contact with each other and with Levi even after the 1940s when they migrated to the United States for political and racial reasons, engaging in different fields of research. Rita Levi-Montalcini, who was awarded the Nobel Prize (1986) for the discovery of Nerve Growth Factor, was stimulated and assisted in her work by Giuseppe Levi during the difficult years of World War II. With Giuseppe Levi, she pursued early studies on the relationships between neural centers and their peripheral target of innervation, and she has witnessed in her writings the enthusiasm of her mentor.     

Cajal's views on the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine (October 1904)

In this report we present and discuss an unpublished letter written by Santiago Ramon y Cajal in October 1904 in relation to his possible nomination for the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. This letter shows that Cajal was aware of his previous nominations for the Prize. He was convinced that these nominations had not been successful because neither anatomy nor histology were among the sciences included in the Nobel Statutes' definition of Physiology or Medicine. He gives a list of the merits he thought might be used for a new nomination, which included only works concluded during the previous five years.     

Sir Edward Appleton and Joseph Priestley: two giants of electrical science

The life of Sir Edward Appleton is reviewed, in commemoration of the recent centenary of his birth. Appleton discovered the ionosphere and devoted much of his life to investigations of its properties, receiving the Nobel Prize for physics as a result. He became a senior government scientist in World War II and afterwards was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh University. The influence of his roots in the city of Bradford is emphasized and compared with the case of Joseph Priestley, also born near Bradford some 160 yr earlier. Priestley was a major early investigator of electrical phenomena and compiled a comprehensive treatise on the electrical knowledge of his day. He was the first person to present an experimental proof of the inverse-square law of electrostatic force, although he is usually better remembered as the discoverer of oxygen.     

Camillo Golgi's Scientific Biography

Born in Corteno, a tiny village in the province of Brescia, Camillo Golgi studied at the University of Pavia where he graduated in medicine in 1865 under the guidance of the psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso who sparked his vocation to study the brain. Golgi then began to learn histological techniques under the direction of the pathologist Giulio Bizzozero. In 1872 he moved to Abbiategrasso as chief of a hospital for chronic diseases. In a rudimentary laboratory he developed the silver-bichromate staining technique, the ‘black reaction’, which was a breakthrough for nervous tissue structure research. While in Abbiategrasso Golgi demonstrated the branching of the axons, and observed striatal and cortical lesions in a case of chorea. He returned to Pavia as Professor of Histology and General Pathology, and made a series of important discoveries that still bear his name: the Golgi tendon organ, the Golgi-Mazzoni corpuscles, another Golgi method to stain nerve cells based on the use of potassium dichromate and mercuric chloride, the canaliculi of the parietal cells of the gastric glands (Müller-Golgi tubules), the Golgi-Rezzonico myelin's annular apparatus (or Golgi-Rezzonico horny funnels), the cycle of malarian parasites (Golgi cycle), the relationship between recurrent malarian fever bouts and the multiplication of the Plasmodium in the blood (Golgi law), the relationship between the vascular pole of the Malpighian glomerulus and the distal tubule, the Golgi's pericellular nets and finally, and most importantly, the cytoplasmic ‘internal reticular apparatus’ (Golgi apparatus). In 1906 Golgi was awarded the Nobel prize for Medicine or Physiology. He died in Pavia on 21 January 1921.     

阿道夫·埃尔曼的埃及学研究

德国埃及学家阿道夫·埃尔曼是国际埃及学界一位大师级学者,他著述宏富、门生众多,在国际埃及学研究领域享有极高的声誉和地位。埃尔曼最早对古埃及语的不同阶段进行了细致的划分,确立了一些重要的古埃及语语法规则,最终构建了对古埃及语文学研究的历史语言学方法,从而将埃及学研究推进到一个新的高度。正是由于埃尔曼的努力,使得埃及学发展成为一门科学,同时也奠定了德国学者在国际埃及学研究领域中的领导地位。     

Kinetic Art

ABSTRACT

From 1962 to 1966 the author was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge. During this period awareness of Kinetic Art grew nationally and internationally. Two student-run magazines – Granta and Image – became important platforms for dissemination of information and critical discourse about Kinetic Art in the context of other avant-garde developments. Having met several pioneers in the field in Paris before University, the author soon made contact with Professor Richard Gregory in the Experimental Psychology Department of the Cambridge Psychology Laboratory with whom he then collaborated. He worked closely also with Mike Weaver, an academic in the English Literature faculty, who initiated the First International Exhibition of Concrete, Kinetic and Phonetic Poetry at St Catharine’s College in November 1964. They infused the Cambridge context with influences in Concrete Poetry and Kinetic Art from elsewhere. This article describes this period of early experimentation and reflects briefly on its legacy.     

Centenary of the Department of Geography,University of Aberdeen

ABSTRACT

Prior to the amalgamation of Aberdeen’s two medieval universities in 1860, Geography had been taught to undergraduate students at both King’s and Marischal Colleges since at least the late 16th Century. First mooted in the early 1900s, it was not until 1919 that a lectureship in Geography at Aberdeen was created and a ‘Department of Geography’ came into being. In this contribution we chronicle how, over a century, the Geography department has evolved, highlighting developments in the curriculum and research-related activities. The early decades of the Department were shaped by John McFarlane, the first and only full-time appointee in Geography until his retirement in 1945. The post-World War II period, led by Andrew O’Dell, saw Geography develop into a large and influential Department. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Department (and University) experienced unprecedented levels of growth. Student numbers, research output and income accelerated apace. In the recent past national assessments of research and teaching quality and institutional restructuring have prompted further change. As the Department enters a second century it remains committed to delivering a high quality education to undergraduate and postgraduate students and to the pursuit of excellent geographical research.     

The Tulane Electrical Brain Stimulation Program a historical case study in medical ethics

In 1950 physicians at Tulane University School of Medicine began a program of research on the use of electrical brain stimulation that would span three decades and involve approximately 100 patients. Initially, electrical brain stimulation was used to treat of schizophrenia, but later it was applied to a variety of other conditions. Throughout its history the Tulane research was well publicized in both the professional and lay literature, and for almost twenty years, with rare exception, these accounts were laudatory. However, in the early 1970s this work began to draw sharp public criticism. Despite its public and controversial nature, the Tulane electrical brain stimulation program has received relatively little attention from historians. This review recounts the history of the Tulane program with particular emphasis on the ethical propriety of the work. Factors that shaped the historical context in which the Tulane experiments were conducted are discussed.     

Camillo Golgi's scientific biography

Born in Corteno, a tiny village in the province of Brescia, Camillo Golgi studied at the University of Pavia where he graduated in medicine in 1865 under the guidance of the psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso who sparked his vocation to study the brain. Golgi then began to learn histological techniques under the direction of the pathologist Giulio Bizzozero. In 1872 he moved to Abbiategrasso as chief of a hospital for chronic diseases. In a rudimentary laboratory he developed the silver-bichromate staining technique, the 'black reaction', which was a breakthrough for nervous tissue structure research. While in Abbiategrasso Golgi demonstrated the branching of the axons, and observed striatal and cortical lesions in a case of chorea. He returned to Pavia as Professor of Histology and General Pathology, and made a series of important discoveries that still bear his name: the Golgi tendon organ, the Golgi-Mazzoni corpuscles, another Golgi method to stain nerve cells based on the use of potassium dichromate and mercuric chloride, the canaliculi of the parietal cells of the gastric glands (Muller-Golgi tubules), the Golgi-Rezzonico myelin's annular apparatus (or Golgi-Rezzonico horny funnels), the cycle of malarian parasites (Golgi cycle), the relationship between recurrent malarian fever bouts and the multiplication of the Plasmodium in the blood (Golgi law), the relationship between the vascular pole of the Malpighian glomerulus and the distal tubule, the Golgi's pericellular nets and finally, and most importantly, the cytoplasmic 'internal reticular apparatus' (Golgi apparatus). In 1906 Golgi was awarded the Nobel prize for Medicine or Physiology. He died in Pavia on 21 January 1921.     

The cybernetic moment: Roy Ascott and the British cybernetic pioneers, 1955–1965

ABSTRACT

Professor Roy Ascott developed the Ground Course at Ealing College of Art, drawing on his experience of Basic Design under Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton at Newcastle University. Through his reading of Ross Ashby and his friendship with Gordon Pask, Ascott introduced cybernetic theory into his art practice and pedagogy. This essay explores the degree to which Ascott embodied a distinctly British approach to cybernetics.     

Virtual Forum: Archaeology and Decolonization

In this forum, patiently achieved through months of cyber-work, participants Nayanjot Lahiri (India), Nick Shepherd (South Africa), Joe Watkins (USA) and Larry Zimmerman (USA), plus the two editors of Arqueología Suramericana, Alejandro Haber (Argentina) and Cristóbal Gnecco (Colombia), discuss the topic of archaeology and decolonization. Nayanjot Lahiri teaches archaeology in her capacity as Professor at the Department of History, University of Delhi. Her books include Finding Forgotten Cities: How the Indus Civilization was Discovered (2005) and The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes (1992). She has edited The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization (2000) and an issue of World Archaeology entitled The Archaeology of Hinduism (2004). Nick Shepherd is a senior lecturer in the Center for African Studies at the University of Cape Town, where he convenes the program in public culture in Africa. He sits on the executive committee of the World Archaeological Congress, and is co-editor of the journal Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress. In 2004 he was based at Harvard University as a Mandela Fellow. He has published widely on issues of archaeology and society in Africa, and on issues of public history and heritage. Joe Watkins is Choctaw Indian and archaeologist Joe Watkins is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. He is 1/2 Choctaw Indian by blood, and has been involved in archaeology for more than thirty-five years. He received his Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma and his Master’s of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Anthropology from Southern Methodist University, where his doctorate examined archaeologists’ responses to questionnaire scenarios concerning their perceptions of American Indian issues. His current study interests include the ethical practice of anthropology and the study of anthropology’s relationships with descendant communities and Aboriginal populations, and he has published numerous articles on these topics. His first book Indigenous Archaeology: American Indian Values and Scientific Practice (AltaMira Press, 2000) examined the relationships between American Indians and archaeologists and is in its second printing His latest book, Reclaiming Physical Heritage: Repatriation and Sacred Sites (Chelsea House Publishers 2005) is aimed toward creating an awareness of Native American issues among high school students. Larry J. Zimmerman is Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies and Public Scholar of Native American Representation at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. He is Vice President of the World Archaeological Congress. He also has served WAC as its Executive Secretary and as the organizer of the first WAC Inter-Congress on Archaeological Ethics and the Treatment of the Dead. His research interests include the archaeology of the North American Plains, contemporary American Indian issues, and his current project examining the archaeology of homelessness. Originally published in Spanish in Arqueología Suramericana 3(1), 2007