Serendipity and the Cerebral Localization of Pleasure

Most accounts of the discovery of “pleasure” circuits in the brain begin with the observation by James Olds and Peter Milner in 1953 that electrical brain stimulation can condition operant responses in rats. Less well-known, pleasurable brain stimulation was previously observed in schizophrenic patients by Robert Heath. However, Heath failed to recognize the significance of this observation, at least in part, because of preconceived notions he held about the etiology of schizophrenia. This episode in the history of neuroscience illustrates the importance of sagacity in serendipitous scientific discoveries. It also shows that “mental preparedness” can be an obstacle to progress.     

The Heath Government and British Defence Policy in Southeast Asia at the End of Empire (1970-71)

This article examines the rationale behind the Heath government's1970 decision to negotiate a Five Power Defence agreement withAustralia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia and to maintaina small British military contingent in Southeast Asia as a partof this new politico-military framework. It argues that whileits overriding foreign policy concern was to end Britain's problematicrelationship with the European Economic Community and to makemembership of this grouping the cornerstone of its foreign policy,the Heath government was careful not to cast Britain's post-imperialfuture in purely European terms. The successful negotiationof the Five Power Defence Arrangements in 1970–71 wasinstrumental in achieving this by ensuring that London wouldmaintain close links with key Commonwealth partners in the Asianregion. In what was not only an attempt to neutralize potentialdomestic opposition to Britain's entry into the EEC, but alsoa lingering reluctance to do away with the rhetoric of Britainas a leading power with extra-European interests, Heath waseager to show that by making a contribution to the stabilityof Southeast Asia, Britain still had a role to play outsideEurope.     

The search for an endogenous schizogen: the strange case of taraxein

In 1956, Dr. Robert Galbraith Heath, Chair of Psychiatry and Neurology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, announced that he and colleagues had discovered a protein they called taraxein in the blood of schizophrenic patients that caused symptoms of schizophrenia when injected into healthy volunteers. Heath's claim received wide public and professional attention. Researchers quickly tried to confirm the discovery. These efforts, which were rigorous and in some cases conducted in consultation with the Tulane researchers, failed. Nevertheless, for the next four decades Heath continued to defend his claim. This article recounts the scientific developments that led up to Heath's putative discovery and it explores the scientific findings for and against the taraxein theory of schizophrenia.     

Adolf Beck: A Forgotten Pioneer in Electroencephalography

Adolf Beck, born in 1863 at Cracow (Poland), joined the Department of Physiology of the Jagiellonian University in 1880 to work directly under the supervision of the prominent physiology professor, Napoleon Cybulski. Following his suggestion, Beck started experimental studies on the electrical brain activity of animals, especially in response to sensory stimulation. Beck placed electrodes directly on the surface of brain to localize brain potentials that were evoked by sensory stimuli. He observed spontaneous fluctuations in the electrical brain activity and noted that these oscillations ceased after sensory stimulation. He published these findings concerning the electrical brain activity, such as spontaneous fluctuations, evoked potentials, and desynchronization of brain waves, in 1890 in the German language Centralblatt für Physiologie. Moreover, an intense polemic arose between physiologists of that era on the question of who should claim being the founder of electroencephalography. Ultimately, Richard Caton from Liverpool showed that he had performed similar experiments in monkeys years earlier. Nevertheless, Beck added new elements to the nature of electrical brain activity. In retrospect, next to Richard Caton, Adolf Beck can be regarded, together with Hans Berger who later introduced the method to humans, as one of the founders of electroencephalography. Soon after his success, Beck got a chair at the Department of Physiology of the University at Lemberg, now Lviv National Medical University.     

Pessimism and Optimism in Judicial Reform

Book Reviewed in this article
Philip L. Dubois (editor) The Analysis of Judicial Reform (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books; D.C. Heath and Company, 1982); 221 pp.; ISBN 0-669-04480-6; $23.95.
Philip L. Dubois (editor) The Politics of Judicial Reform (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books; D.C. Heath and Company, 1982); 187 pp.; ISBN 0-669-04478-4; $24.95 cloth.     

Speaking of Books: Bonfire of the Humanities

Book reviewed in this article:
Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath, Bruce S. Thornton, Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age     

Speaking of Books: Bonfire of the Humanities

Book reviewed in this article:
Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath, Bruce S. Thornton, Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age     

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.     

'Walking a Real Tight-rope of Difficulties': Sir Edward Heath and the Search for Stability in Northern Ireland, June 1970-March 1971

Since we know Sir Edward Heath was forced to impose direct ruleover Northern Ireland in March 1972, before launching his governmentinto a series of highly constructive (if unsuccessful) initiativesthat led to the Sunningdale Agreement, his policy and approachtowards the province during the first 18 months of his premiershiphas rarely been seen as anything other than a tale of miscalculation,poor judgement and political ignorance. However, with the openingup of various official papers over the past few years, it isnow possible to offer a more sympathetic assessment of Heath'searly attempts to deal with the situation in Northern Ireland.This assessment suggests that his policy, far from being barrenand directionless, was beginning to evolve in quite innovativeand radical directions as it sought to stabilize and reformNorthern Ireland, directions that, significantly, pre-figurethe various policy initiatives Heath took after 1972. Theseincluded the pursuit of active cooperation between London andDublin, and between Dublin and Belfast, major political changein Northern Ireland, with the full involvement of the minorityin the governance of the region, and a consideration of futureconstitutional relationships between London, Belfast and Dublin.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Kenneth Olwig , Nature's Ideological Landscape: A Literary and Geographic Perspective on its Development and Perservation on Denmark's Jutland Heath.
P. O'Keefe , (ed.) Regional Restructuring Under Advanced Capitalism .
A. J. Christopher , Colonial Africa     

The Hayworth: A Lowland Vaccary Site in South-East England

REMAINS OF AN 11th–13th-century farmstead were revealed during excavations within part of ‘The Hayworth’, an early enclosure on the ‘lost’ manor of Trubwick, (West Sussex).²² This work was undertaken by Archaeology South-East (UCL Institute of Archaeology), on behalf of their client Crest Nicholson (South) Ltd, as a condition of planning in advance of a residential development linked to the new ‘Bolnore Village’ close to Haywards Heath, West Sussex.View all notesHistorical, landscape and toponymic evidence has been utilised to set the archaeological activity in context. It seems probable that the excavated site, and the Hayworth enclosure more broadly, relate to a specialised cattle rearing or vaccary farm. The site represents the most completely excavated vaccary complex yet known, and is the first recognisable example from the Wealden region in south-east England. The discovery has important implications for our current understanding of medieval Wealden economy and environment, as well as patterns of settlement evolution. Evidence suggests this site can be linked with the traditions of Anglo-Saxon outpasture and transhumance. This article explores the evidence from this site for the transition from a seasonal pasture to a permanent 12th-century manorial establishment held in severalty. The likely form of a vaccary complex is established and the potential for the existence of these specialised cattle ‘ranches’ and dairies is explored.     

Oliver Cromwell and the Cambridge Elections of 1640

Oliver Cromwell's many biographers have been puzzled by his elections as MP for Cambridge in 1640. His connections with the town at this time were slight. Historians have, therefore, fallen back on his supposed opposition to the draining of the fens or, more recently, on possible aristocratic patronage. This article proposes a new theory, based on a rehabilitation of a very old source, James Heath's Flagellum, one of the earliest Cromwell biographies. Heath claimed that Cromwell had been elected with the support of a group of minor members of the corporation. Although very garbled, the Flagellum account probably records genuine details about the election and the men it identified as Cromwell's key supporters can be shown to have opposed the religious policies of the local bishop, Matthew Wren of Ely. Cromwell was probably elected as a critic of Wren.     

Vehicle Writings in an Iranian Context: The Interplay of Habitus and Field

The main objective of this paper is to problematize writings on vehicles in an Iranian context. Previous studies have indicated that vehicle stickers can be employed to express emotions and social status, political views, ideology and identity, and religious beliefs. However, very little has been done on this discursive practice in Iran. This study is the result of the content analysis of 122 vehicle writings collected from April 2011 to March 2012. This paper will draw on six of the most frequent themes: religion, humor, playing pessimism, didactic expressions, ethnic-geographic identification, and love. Employing Bourdieu's conceptual frameworks of “habitus,” “field,” and “doxa,” and Heath and Street's social practice perspective on literacy, it will be argued that vehicle writings in this study can be regarded as situated literacy practices reflecting the dominant undisputed discourses in the context, but at the same time displaying the dynamic interplay of power relations, the relationship of cultural structures and individual customized versions of those structures in vehicle writings.     

The origin of the term plasticity in the neurosciences: Ernesto Lugaro and chemical synaptic transmission

The Italian psychiatrist Ernesto Lugaro can be regarded as responsible for introducing the term plasticity into the neurosciences as early as 1906. By this term he meant that throughout life the anatomo-functional relations between neurons can change in an adaptive fashion to enable psychic maturation, learning, and even functional recovery after brain damage. Lugaro's concept of plasticity was strongly inspired by a neural hypothesis of learning and memory put forward in 1893 by his teacher Eugenio Tanzi. Tanzi postulated that practice and experience promote neuronal growth and shorten the minute spatial gaps between functionally associated neurons, thus facilitating their interactions. In addition to discovering the cerebellar cells known by his name and advancing profound speculations about the functions of the glia, Lugaro lucidly foresaw the chemical nature of synaptic transmission in the central nervous system, and was the first to propose the usage of the terms "nervous conduction" and "nervous transmission" in their currently accepted meaning.     

论河图洛书与八卦起源

河图洛书,按原始涵义应为龙图出河、龟书出洛,乃伏羲画八卦、夏禹订九畴之象征性原料,非北宋图书学派之所谓黑白点数和异论伪作。伏羲是一种图腾族徽,是在由渔猎时代向农耕时代过渡发展的一个漫长时代的氏族长的总代表和总象征。结合文物考古中发现的“龙”,足以说明“河图”即是图腾,河图和洛书皆为中华民族的崇拜物。八卦的诞生是先民们经过长期“仰观俯察”的结果。     

The anthropology of Latin America

Dwight B. Heath, ed. Contemporary Cultures and Societies of Latin America: A Reader in the Social Anthropology of Middle and South America [Second ed.]. New York: Random House, 1974. xvii + 572 pp. Charts, tables, figures, and bibliography. $11.95 (cloth).     

Neuropathological research at the "Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Psychiatrie" (German Institute for Psychiatric Research) in Munich (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute). Scientific utilization of children's organs from the "Kinderfachabteilungen" (Children's Special Departments) at Bavarian State Hospitals

During National Socialism, the politically motivated interest in psychiatric genetic research lead to the founding of research departments specialized in pathological-anatomical brain research, the two Kaiser Wilhelm-Institutes (KWI) in Berlin and Munich. The latter was indirectly provided with brain material by Bavarian State Hospitals, to three of which "Kinderfachabteilungen" (Special Pediatric Units) were affiliated. As children became victims of the systematically conducted child "euthanasia" in these Special Pediatric Units, this paper will address the question whether and to which extent the organs from victims of child "euthanasia" were used for (neuro-) pathological research at the KWI in Munich. By means of case studies and medical histories (with focus on the situation in Kaufbeuren-Irsee), I will argue that pediatric departments on a regular base delivered slide preparations, that the child "euthanasia" conduced in these departments systematically contributed to neuropathological research and that slide preparations from victims of child "euthanasia" were used in scientific publications after 1945.     

Reviews/Comptes rendus

Book reviewed in this article:
Managing Canada's Renewable Resources , edited by R alph R. K rueger and B ruce M itchell
Canada's Natural Environment: Essays in Applied Geography , by G.R. M c B oyle and E. S ommerville
Muskeg and the Northern Environment in Canada , edited by N.W. R adforth and CO. B rawner
Natural Resource Revenues: A Test of Federalism , edited by A nthony S cott
The Practical Application of Economic Incentives to the Control of Pollution: The Case of British Columbia , edited by J ames B. S tephenson
Public Land Ownership: Frameworks for Evaluation , edited by D alton K ehoe et al., D.C. Heath     

试论霍山戴家院西周圜丘遗迹

霍山戴家院西周遗址发现圜丘遗迹,可能与文献记载中的"冬至奏丘"、"祭天燔柴"等有关。实地模拟观测,表明该遗迹与冬至祭天迎日以及观象授时等活动有关;由于遗址规模较小,可能属于乡村公社祭祀土谷神以及民间祭祀天神活动的场所。