The determination of denying "miasmism" led modern epidemiology to deny aerosol transmission of respiratory diseases. Causing millions of deaths while we were washing our grocery bags.
That's a very interesting, worthwhile take on what happened in our own time. As my piece noted, "Miasmists perceptively noticed that outbreaks of disease often occurred where there was stench in the air. They concluded, however, that the stench itself—“bad air”—was the cause of disease." We went from ascribing EVERYTHING to miasma to denying ANY logic from that era. Once again, etiological absolutism. Thanks for the comment.
I am also a retired physician and have written, for my medical students, a history of medicine. It and I agree with your points. When I went to medical school, a devoted pathologist provided lectures on medical history. Fifty years later, there was no such program.
Nov 2, 2022·edited Jan 18, 2023Liked by Robert F. Graboyes
I am reminded of the paradigm shift in treatment of peptic ulcer disease that has occurred in my own professional lifetime, beautifully chronicled in the book, The Great Ulcer War by Dr. William Hughes, a gastroenterologist. When I began my career as a surgeon, peptic ulcers were "known" to be caused by hyper-acid secretion in the stomach. Surgical treatment included various degrees of removal of the stomach, including total removal- a horrible operation with severe, permanent side effects- to various operations to cut the nerves that stimulate acid secretion (as well as control other stomach functions such as moving food into the duodenum). Medical treatment included drugs to reduce acid secretion, Cimetidine and Famotidine, which quickly became the most profitable, most prescribed drugs in the world. The theory that peptic ulcers were caused by a bacteria, helicobacter pylori, was considered blasphemous and unsicientifc, and those who suggested this, based on evidence were subjected to ridicule and cancellation, until it was proven. Today, surgery for ulcers is almost non-existent and ulcers are successfully treated with antibiotics for the most part. The same has occurred in the Covid pandemic response where those who have questioned the wisdom and effectiveness of measures such a societal lockdowns, business and school closures, universal masking, mandated vaccination with novel vaccines under experimental use authorization, vaccination of young children, endless boosters, and institution of vaccine passports to engage in normal life have been subjected to villification_ "devastating public take-downs,' by such as Francis Collins, smear campaigns to insure their voices are either not heard or taken seriously, and full blown censorship by big tech.
FWIW, in psychology classes in the 1980s, peptic ulcers were called psychosomatic. My Mom had one, she as a fiery Irish red head. But her Mom was a saint, and she developed an ulcer too. I got made fun of by my psychology professor for asking how a kindly woman who never got angry, and who was too deaf to hear anyone yell got one. I wasn't smart enough to discover it was bacterial, I had no clue what caused it, but I saw that my Mom and her mother didn't fit the psychosomatic explanation.
Years later, when it was determined to be bacterial, I wrote my old professor, asking if she had updated her slides yet....
I am a 88 year old retired Physician and I welcome the forthcoming issues of Bastiat's Window. This is very timely as in this age of"medical science" and conformity not only do we have conformity of medical treatment by practitioners, some good, and a lot bad, but the State and Pharmaceutical Companies as well. G Best M.D.
Another excellent article. I have followed the Twitter files closely and am dismayed, but not surprised, at the level of cancellation and misinformation promulgated by bit tech at the behest of the Federal government, and its own woke managers. I loved that you added the example of peptic ulcer disease to the list of major medical controversies, which I consider an inside nod to me. I am living through one now, which I hope to write about in the future. I am going to return the favor by finding a use for Robert's Rule of Rhetorical Rattles. Best, Rick
FWIW, my (now deceased) wife in 1993 was diagnosed with leukemia, the treatment was a bone marrow transplant (BMT). they matched her with 214 donors. They selected one. I seriously annoyed the attending doctor, when I asked why Graft vs Host Disease (GVHD) was so high if it was a "perfect match". He blathered on, so I interpreted "so perfect means you can't tell a difference but in 30-40% of the patients their bodies can"? He was annoyed, but conceded the point.
It turns out her donor was a male, so they doctors could track the XY through her body. Yup, you guessed it, she had a bout of GVHD. The doctor later mentioned casually it was a male donor, so I asked if that had caused the GVHD, and he dismissed it. Years later on google scholar, I looked it up--they had published evidence that opposite sex donors had higher GVHD...
BTW, with GVHD they lower the body's immune system, thus making the patient more vulnerable to a virus, which is what killed her two months later.
I suppose there is a moral there. But I can imagine the good doctor saying "NAAAAAAAAHHHHH"!
Dear Robert, Thanks for a wonderful collection of musings. I'll comment here and there. As you and your readers are clearly curious, and therefore generally well-informed, I'll engage in a bit of self-promotion if I may, please. Unlike you, I'm not writing a book as I've little confidence in that medium at the moment.
Instead, I publish a tiny online magazine in which I present and discuss all manner of archival evidence relating to Théodore Géricault; the Musée français; plantation life in Saint Domingue; and tobacco, balls, guillotines, messageries, culture and media at the Hôtel de Longueville in Paris. Plus the Louvre, and English translations of key 19th century Géricault biographies. - Here's the magazine main page: https://gericaultlife.com/
A selection of articles from 2022 include: bals des victimes in post-revolutionary Paris; tobacco production and sales during the window of de-monopolization; plantation life in Saint Domingue in 1791, etc. Plus lots and lots on Géricault available nowhere else. Find direct links at Substack by clicking my id, or visit the magazine portal and use the magazine search function.
Readable research to tickle the fancy of just about everyone with plenty of large, high-quality images.
Thanks for your patience! All comments and feedback are very welcome.
Thanks! I don't disagree about books. I've many discussions with editors over the past decade. I wrote this manuscript 9 years ago. Editors went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back forth. Publishers hemmed and hawed. A friend who wrote a seminal book for a major league publisher told me to get my writings out by any means possible; he said the publisher contributed very little in editing and even less in marketing.
I look forward to looking at your works. That a subject of great interest. A little while back, my wife and son and I read two wonderful contemporary novels based around Caribbean slavery: The first was a book from Martinique: “Washington Black.” About a Caribbean slave who makes his way across several continents between 1830 and 1836. Very much like a Jules Verne novel, and written by a Ghanaian-Canadian. Involves aviation, photography, marine biology, pre-Victorian culture. The second was called “Slave Old Man.” By a writer from Martinique. Hypnotic. Poetic. Mystical. Well worth the effort. Much shorter than “Washington Black,” but takes twice as long to read.
Dear Robert, thanks for the prompt and informative reply, and the kind words. Agreed, on all points. Had I pursued more traditional academic route, I might be better positioned to publish in academic journals. I've had immense support along my own journey from a large number of very accomplished scholars, one of whom, in late 2018, suggested I simply put my research online. That's what I did. As I work with visual material I'm fairly fussy about the aesthetic experience for the reader, I hope that shows. Hence, my decision to set up my own platform which affords me the broadest range of editorial and formatting options. Inside baseball, I know. I applaud your work and you write beautifully. Best regards, Paul. (On my way out the door!)
I meant to add that the reason I'm doing to publishing/editing online is that I'm in control of getting it out there. Not waiting for some tiresome editor. If it becomes a book, so be it. If not, the material will have been read.
The determination of denying "miasmism" led modern epidemiology to deny aerosol transmission of respiratory diseases. Causing millions of deaths while we were washing our grocery bags.
That's a very interesting, worthwhile take on what happened in our own time. As my piece noted, "Miasmists perceptively noticed that outbreaks of disease often occurred where there was stench in the air. They concluded, however, that the stench itself—“bad air”—was the cause of disease." We went from ascribing EVERYTHING to miasma to denying ANY logic from that era. Once again, etiological absolutism. Thanks for the comment.
I am also a retired physician and have written, for my medical students, a history of medicine. It and I agree with your points. When I went to medical school, a devoted pathologist provided lectures on medical history. Fifty years later, there was no such program.
I'm not surprised. We have the same problem in economics. The history portion is ignored.
I am reminded of the paradigm shift in treatment of peptic ulcer disease that has occurred in my own professional lifetime, beautifully chronicled in the book, The Great Ulcer War by Dr. William Hughes, a gastroenterologist. When I began my career as a surgeon, peptic ulcers were "known" to be caused by hyper-acid secretion in the stomach. Surgical treatment included various degrees of removal of the stomach, including total removal- a horrible operation with severe, permanent side effects- to various operations to cut the nerves that stimulate acid secretion (as well as control other stomach functions such as moving food into the duodenum). Medical treatment included drugs to reduce acid secretion, Cimetidine and Famotidine, which quickly became the most profitable, most prescribed drugs in the world. The theory that peptic ulcers were caused by a bacteria, helicobacter pylori, was considered blasphemous and unsicientifc, and those who suggested this, based on evidence were subjected to ridicule and cancellation, until it was proven. Today, surgery for ulcers is almost non-existent and ulcers are successfully treated with antibiotics for the most part. The same has occurred in the Covid pandemic response where those who have questioned the wisdom and effectiveness of measures such a societal lockdowns, business and school closures, universal masking, mandated vaccination with novel vaccines under experimental use authorization, vaccination of young children, endless boosters, and institution of vaccine passports to engage in normal life have been subjected to villification_ "devastating public take-downs,' by such as Francis Collins, smear campaigns to insure their voices are either not heard or taken seriously, and full blown censorship by big tech.
Great example! I remember that controversy well and will use it in my writings sometime soon.
FWIW, in psychology classes in the 1980s, peptic ulcers were called psychosomatic. My Mom had one, she as a fiery Irish red head. But her Mom was a saint, and she developed an ulcer too. I got made fun of by my psychology professor for asking how a kindly woman who never got angry, and who was too deaf to hear anyone yell got one. I wasn't smart enough to discover it was bacterial, I had no clue what caused it, but I saw that my Mom and her mother didn't fit the psychosomatic explanation.
Years later, when it was determined to be bacterial, I wrote my old professor, asking if she had updated her slides yet....
Nice to be able to ask that kind of a question to an old prof. :)
I am a 88 year old retired Physician and I welcome the forthcoming issues of Bastiat's Window. This is very timely as in this age of"medical science" and conformity not only do we have conformity of medical treatment by practitioners, some good, and a lot bad, but the State and Pharmaceutical Companies as well. G Best M.D.
That’s thrilling for me to read. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. I’ll try hard to justify your enthusiasm.
Another excellent article. I have followed the Twitter files closely and am dismayed, but not surprised, at the level of cancellation and misinformation promulgated by bit tech at the behest of the Federal government, and its own woke managers. I loved that you added the example of peptic ulcer disease to the list of major medical controversies, which I consider an inside nod to me. I am living through one now, which I hope to write about in the future. I am going to return the favor by finding a use for Robert's Rule of Rhetorical Rattles. Best, Rick
FWIW, my (now deceased) wife in 1993 was diagnosed with leukemia, the treatment was a bone marrow transplant (BMT). they matched her with 214 donors. They selected one. I seriously annoyed the attending doctor, when I asked why Graft vs Host Disease (GVHD) was so high if it was a "perfect match". He blathered on, so I interpreted "so perfect means you can't tell a difference but in 30-40% of the patients their bodies can"? He was annoyed, but conceded the point.
It turns out her donor was a male, so they doctors could track the XY through her body. Yup, you guessed it, she had a bout of GVHD. The doctor later mentioned casually it was a male donor, so I asked if that had caused the GVHD, and he dismissed it. Years later on google scholar, I looked it up--they had published evidence that opposite sex donors had higher GVHD...
BTW, with GVHD they lower the body's immune system, thus making the patient more vulnerable to a virus, which is what killed her two months later.
I suppose there is a moral there. But I can imagine the good doctor saying "NAAAAAAAAHHHHH"!
Thanks for sharing that very personal story. Very interesting.
Dear Robert, Thanks for a wonderful collection of musings. I'll comment here and there. As you and your readers are clearly curious, and therefore generally well-informed, I'll engage in a bit of self-promotion if I may, please. Unlike you, I'm not writing a book as I've little confidence in that medium at the moment.
Instead, I publish a tiny online magazine in which I present and discuss all manner of archival evidence relating to Théodore Géricault; the Musée français; plantation life in Saint Domingue; and tobacco, balls, guillotines, messageries, culture and media at the Hôtel de Longueville in Paris. Plus the Louvre, and English translations of key 19th century Géricault biographies. - Here's the magazine main page: https://gericaultlife.com/
A selection of articles from 2022 include: bals des victimes in post-revolutionary Paris; tobacco production and sales during the window of de-monopolization; plantation life in Saint Domingue in 1791, etc. Plus lots and lots on Géricault available nowhere else. Find direct links at Substack by clicking my id, or visit the magazine portal and use the magazine search function.
Readable research to tickle the fancy of just about everyone with plenty of large, high-quality images.
Thanks for your patience! All comments and feedback are very welcome.
Thanks! I don't disagree about books. I've many discussions with editors over the past decade. I wrote this manuscript 9 years ago. Editors went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back forth. Publishers hemmed and hawed. A friend who wrote a seminal book for a major league publisher told me to get my writings out by any means possible; he said the publisher contributed very little in editing and even less in marketing.
I look forward to looking at your works. That a subject of great interest. A little while back, my wife and son and I read two wonderful contemporary novels based around Caribbean slavery: The first was a book from Martinique: “Washington Black.” About a Caribbean slave who makes his way across several continents between 1830 and 1836. Very much like a Jules Verne novel, and written by a Ghanaian-Canadian. Involves aviation, photography, marine biology, pre-Victorian culture. The second was called “Slave Old Man.” By a writer from Martinique. Hypnotic. Poetic. Mystical. Well worth the effort. Much shorter than “Washington Black,” but takes twice as long to read.
Dear Robert, thanks for the prompt and informative reply, and the kind words. Agreed, on all points. Had I pursued more traditional academic route, I might be better positioned to publish in academic journals. I've had immense support along my own journey from a large number of very accomplished scholars, one of whom, in late 2018, suggested I simply put my research online. That's what I did. As I work with visual material I'm fairly fussy about the aesthetic experience for the reader, I hope that shows. Hence, my decision to set up my own platform which affords me the broadest range of editorial and formatting options. Inside baseball, I know. I applaud your work and you write beautifully. Best regards, Paul. (On my way out the door!)
Delighted. I glanced through your stuff. Beautifully produced. I'll look in greater detail later on.
Many thanks!
I meant to add that the reason I'm doing to publishing/editing online is that I'm in control of getting it out there. Not waiting for some tiresome editor. If it becomes a book, so be it. If not, the material will have been read.