Some Aspects of the History of the Law of Dynamic Polarization of the Neuron. From William James to Sherrington,from Cajal and Van Gehuchten to Golgi

William James was the first to suggest that propagation of impulses in the nervous system proceeds in one direction, from sensory to motor neurons, but not viceversa. His law of forward direction preceded the formulation of the law of dynamic polarization of van Gehuchten and Cajal, which assumed that nerve impulses are conducted cellulipetally along dendrites and cellulifugally along axons, based on different anatomo-functional properties of these neuronal components. Golgi did not accept the law of dynamic polarization because he believed that dendrites are involved in the nutrition of the neuron rather than in impulse propagation, and that impulses can travel in any direction in the axonal components of the diffuse nerve network. Sherrington in turn experimentally demonstrated that intraneuronic conduction is reversible, whereas, in accord with James's law, propagation of impulses along neuronal chains is irreversible, due to the valve-like action of synapses. The story of the law of dynamic polarization shows that neither Golgi nor Cajal paid much heed to Sherrington's findings and to neurophysiological studies in general, probably because they felt that histology alone could provide the key for understanding the general functioning of the nervous system. It is argued here that this attitude was detrimental to the progress of the neurosciences, because a multidisciplinary approach based on different techniques is inevitably called for in order to develop a plausible theory of the nervous system.     

Revisiting the 1981 Nobel Prize to Roger Sperry, David Hubel, and Torsten Wiesel on the occasion of the centennial of the Prize to Golgi and Cajal

In 1981 the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology was awarded to Roger Sperry for his work on the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres, and to David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel for their work on information processing in the visual system. The present paper points to some important links between the work of Sperry and that of Hubel and Wiesel and to their influences on neuroscience in the best tradition going back to Cajal.     

The agrarian history of Byzantium,from the origins to the twelfth century. The sources and problems

The relationship between conquerors and conquered in the Latin Empire of Constantinople has traditionally been understood as a relentlessly hostile one, particularly on the religious level. Whatever its merits, the dominance of this view has sometimes resulted in the gross misinterpretation of important pieces of evidence. This article examines two unusual liturgical texts that were treated by their discoverers as products of a Latin campaign of liturgical proselytism. The texts themselves are bilingual presentations of the Western rite of mass, with Greek and Latin text presented in an interlinear format. Most unusually, the Latin text is written in Greek characters. This article makes the case, due to internal evidence as well as the broader context of ecclesiastical relations in the Latin Empire, that these texts were created by Greek clerics rather than by Latin authorities, and that their purpose was entirely different from that imagined by their discoverers.     

Aspects of the history of the nerves: Bell's theory, the Bell-Magendie law and controversy, and two forgotten works by P.W. Lund and D.F. Eschricht

The French physiologist Fran?ois Magendie showed, in 1822, that the anterior roots of the spinal nerves are motor and the posterior sensory. The English anatomist Charles Bell claimed the discovery, but his claim was based on republications of papers in which the wording had been altered to be consistent with Magendie's findings. Bell also appropriated Herbert Mayo's discoveries of the functions of the fifth and seventh cranial nerves. Bell repeated his claims in a number of influential publications, supported by his brothers-in-law John and Alexander Shaw. And for a century and a half, Bell figured as the discoverer in most references to the subject. During this period, several reviewers did go back to Bell's original papers, disclosing Bell's falsifications in the republished texts. But Magendie was not definitely acknowledged as the discoverer of the function of the spinal nerve roots until Cranefield's (1974) treatise. Cranefield, as did all other reviewers, overlooked accounts from 1825 by P.W. Lund and F.D. Eschricht. They critically reviewed Bell's early publications and reached conclusions similar to those of Cranefield concerning the roles of Bell and Magendie in the discovery of the function of the spinal nerve roots.     

从“无讼”到“好讼”:明清时期的法律观念及其司法实践

明清两代正处于一个社会的变迁时期。若以法律诉讼为视角,社会史层面确乎发生了巨大的转向,亦即从"乡土社会"逐渐向"好讼"社会转变。于是,"无讼"的理想与"好讼"的现实必然产生冲突。其冲突的结果,则使明清两代的学者与官员对"无讼"重新进行理性的思考,认定"无讼"并非是一种无为而治的理想世界,而是通过具体的"听讼"过程而达到司法公正。随之而来的则是"息讼"观念的流行,以及"息供"、"省词讼"一类司法实践行为的普遍化。     

A cripple from the medieval hospital of Sts James and Mary Magdalen,Chichester

The skeletal remains of a medieval leper from the hospital of Sts James and Mary Magdalene, Chichester, demonstrate osseous alterations in possible response to altered posture and crutch-aided locomotion. This individual provides further insight into the possible identification of osseous changes commensurate with maintained abnormal posture and strenuous use of one limb to aid locomotion. In this regard, it allows an appreciation and assessment of skeletal plasticity as a possible response to trauma and disease processes.     

From Brandt to Brundtland and beyond: Hegemonic-ideological aspects of the north-south dialogue in the 1990s

Ideological analysis is… a critic's weapon and one most effectively used against the prevailing orthodoxies which, when stripped of their putative universality, become seen as special pleading for historically transient but presently entrenched interests (Cox 1979:257)