Using microscopy to improve a diagnosis: an isolated case of tuberculosis‐induced hypertrophic osteopathy in archaeological dog remains

The use of histology to estimate age, understand taphonomic history and diagnose disease in human skeletal and mummified remains is a well‐known method. Even though non‐human animals experience stress and disease similar to humans, microscopy is rarely applied to faunal remains to obtain a diagnosis. Histological results from a 16^th‐century Iroquoian dog which had previously been diagnosed by macroscopic and molecular methods with tuberculosis‐induced hypertrophic osteopathy (HPO) are presented here. Comparisons indicate that canid microscopic skeletal manifestations of HPO are reminiscent of human alterations caused by this condition. In addition, the microscopy reveals an aggressive form of HPO that was chronic in nature which could not be identified by either macroscopic or molecular methods. By providing an extension to the original diagnosis, the impact of a chronic case of tuberculosis is discussed. This study helps to emphasise the utility of palaeohistopathology in both biological anthropology and zooarchaeology, as it allows for a deeper discussion of the manifestation of HPO and the impact of tuberculosis on both dogs and humans. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Microscopy in Camillo Golgi's Times

The research performed by Camillo Golgi in histology and pathology dates from 1865, the year in which he obtained his MD degree, to 1923, when his last scientific article was published. Beginning in the mid-1855s, microscope manufacturers in Europe started producing objectives based on the principle of immersion introduced in 1847 by Giovan Battista Amici. The immersion objectives greatly improved the resolution of microscopic observations at high magnifications. From 1860 to 1872, technological improvements in microscope optics and the practicality of their use provided a larger community of investigators effective tools needed to study the structure of the nervous system. This progress in microscopy was associated with the application of new histological techniques, mastered by the chromoargentic reaction introduced by Golgi in 1873. In 1872, further progress in microscopy stemmed from the application of notions of applied physics to the production of microscope optics. These developments in microscopy will be briefly reviewed here.     

A case study of possible differential diagnoses of a medieval skeleton from Denmark: leprosy,ergotism, treponematosis,sarcoidosis or smallpox?

This paper uses macroscopic and radiological examinations to provide differential diagnoses of pathological lesions in the skeleton of a young woman, 20–25 years of age, which triggered the Danish palaeopathologist Vilhelm Møller‐Christensen's interest in leprosy. The skeleton was incomplete, but the majority of bones of the upper body, as well as the skull, were present. The pathological changes consisted of medullary and cortical lytic foci, periosteal reaction and enhanced cortical density. The lesions were most extensive on the left side, especially around the elbow, wrist and scapula. Treponematosis, leprosy, smallpox, ergotism, rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis and sarcoidosis are all reviewed with regard to bone and joint pathology and their likelihood of being the correct diagnosis. We concluded that the most plausible diagnosis is treponematosis, but neither sarcoidosis nor smallpox can be completely excluded. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Approaches to violent death: a case study from early medieval Cambridge

This paper examines one of a number of weapon‐injury victims from the cemetery at Church End in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge (Hertfordshire Archaeological Trust/Archaeological Solutions site HAT358), which was in use from the late Anglo‐Saxon period until after the Norman Conquest. Drawing on precedents set by forensic studies, palaeopathology and more traditional spatial cemetery analysis, assertions are made about the nature of the attack and its context. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thomas Graham Brown (1882–1965): Behind the Scenes at the Cardiff Institute of Physiology

Thomas Graham Brown undertook seminal experiments on the neural control of locomotion between 1910 and 1915. Although elected to the Royal Society in 1927, his locomotion research was largely ignored until the 1960s when it was championed and extended by the distinguished neuroscientist, Anders Lundberg. Puzzlingly, Graham Brown's published research stopped in the 1920s and he became renowned as a mountaineer. In this article, we review his life and multifaceted career, including his active neurological service in WWI. We outline events behind the scenes during his tenure at Cardiff's Institute of Physiology in Wales, UK, including an interview with his technician, Terrence J. Surman, who worked in this institute for over half a century.     

Life on horseback: palaeopathology of two Scythian skeletons from Alexandropol,Ukraine

In 2006, two skeletons were analysed that were previously excavated from the periphery of a Scythian burial mound, near the village of Alexandropol in southern Ukraine. Dated to ca. 325 BC, both remains are male. The first is that of a youth in his late teens who exhibits indications of biological stress and degenerative changes to the spine in the form of a Schmorl's node. The second is a middle‐aged individual with extensive healed lesions due to trauma to the right humerus and clavicle with associated bony changes of the elbow and spine. Stable isotope analyses indicate a diet based on C3 plants. Their skeletons suggest a rigorous life on horseback. Both may have served as sacrificial victims. Historical records document the strangulation of attendants and their placement around the periphery of royal burial mounds. Grave goods suggest that both were warriors, although the youth lacks the traumatic injuries exhibited by the older male. The individuals from Alexandropol may have served a Scythian king in life and in death. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A FAREWELL TO ‘RURAL BLISS’

The article discusses health policies towards school children in Norway from 1900 until the Second World War. It is concerned with dominant definitions of health threats against children and the variables used in defining the groups conceived as most vulnerable to poor health. A distinct change took place in the period. Whereas in the early 1900s poor and working‐class children in urban surroundings were considered to be under severe threats, in the 1920s a less specific category of ‘children’ were conceived as threatened. Eventually rural children were singled out as the important target group for health measures. The shifts had medical as well as political motivations. Another prominent feature in the period was that poverty took on a new meaning in the dominant medical discourse on children: from having been conceived as a material reality impinging upon health, it came to be considered mainly a cultural problem. Especially medical officers within the social democratic camp contested this argument although they did not rule out education and cultural transformation as a means to promote children's health. Despite the conceptual shift, however, social benefits and equal access to health services – measures that lay at the heart of the post‐war welfare state – remained in the 1930s an essential part of promoting children's health.