Magendie and the chemists: the earliest chemical analyses of the cerebrospinal fluid

Having described the spinal fluid, Fran?ois Magendie (1783-1855) called upon a number of chemists in Paris to analyze the material, in the effort to decide if it was a special secretion of the nervous system or simply a filtrate of the blood. J.L. Lassaigne (1800-1859) and J.P. Couerbe (1805-1867) responded. Their results, and those of some earlier investigators, are described. In the ensuing years of the nineteenth century, other investigators similarly conducted analyses of spinal fluid, but these were usually of single constituents in poorly defined diagnostic conditions. In 1909-1912, William Mestrezat (1883-1928) took advantage of the recently introduced technique of lumbar puncture, which by now had become hospital routine, and introduced the modern era of systematic analysis of many components of the spinal fluid, correlated with specific disease states.     

Liberal internationalism revisited: Grotius,Vattel, and the International order of states1

This essay offers a philosophical critique of modern accounts of liberal internationalism in light of two early modern European formulations of international order developed by Hugo Grotius and Emmerich de Vattel. The major problem in theories of international relations has been the straightforward extension of principles of domestic order to relations between states to achieve a peaceful co-existence. Conventional theories see “international order” in terms either of a hierarchical order in which states pursue a common interest and interact strategically, or an anarchical order in which common purposes are lacking and warfare is paramount. Elements of both views are found in Grotius and Vattel and this allows us to understand the failure of modern accounts of liberal internationalism in order to grasp the global transformation of power between states that is underway at present.     

PANEL ON THE SOVIET UNION IN THE YEAR 2000

A panel of geographers debates possible future developments in the Soviet Union in regional and environmental policy, water resource management, agriculture, industry, energy, population, urban growth and planning, transportation, and foreign trade. The present emphasis on modernization of existing plant capacity in cities of the western, more heavily settled regions of the USSR seems destined to continue, although it will be constrained by a growing shortage of industrial labor, declining terms of trade and resource oversupply in increasingly competitive export markets, and the continued resistance of Central Asian populations to urbanization and industrial employment.     

News Notes

The settling of the Russians in Siberia is considered in the framework of three periods: (1) the 17th century, when the initial nucleus of the Russian population contingent was formed; (2) the 18th century and first half of the 19th, when in-migration declined and natural increase assumed a greater role in population growth; (3) the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, when Eastern Siberia's population grew at about the same rate as that of Russia as a whole, mainly through natural increase. Differences in natural increase, migration, economic activity and ethnic composition accounted for a wide diversification of the settling process within the region, and a number of distinctive settlement areas are described and mapped for the last two periods. Except for the initial intensive migration flow that gave rise to the nucleus of Russian population, Eastern Siberia's population growth before the 1917 Revolution derived mainly from natural increase, with migration playing a subordinate role.