Category: Bad Medicine
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Mithridatism
Mithridatism is the practice of protecting oneself against a poison by gradually self-administering non-lethal amounts. The word is derived from Mithridates VI, the King of Pontus, who so feared being poisoned that he regularly ingested small doses, aiming to develop immunity. Not to be confused with Mithraism. Background Mithridates VI‘s father, Mithridates V, was assassinated by poisoning by a conspiracy among his attendants. After…
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Mithridate
Mithridate, also known as mithridatium, mithridatum, or mithridaticum, is a semi-mythical remedy with as many as 65 ingredients, used as an antidote for poisoning, and said to have been created by Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus in the 1st century BC. It was one of the most complex and highly sought-after drugs during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, particularly in Italy and France, where…
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Theriac or theriaca (medical concoction)
Theriac or theriaca is a medical concoction originally labelled by the Greeks in the 1st century AD and widely adopted in the ancient world as far away as Persia, China and India via the trading links of the Silk Route.[1] It was an alexipharmic, or antidote, considered a panacea,[2] for which it could serve as a synonym: in the 16th century Adam Lonicer wrote that garlic was the rustic’s theriac or Heal-All.[3] The word theriac comes from…
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Karl Landsteiner – discovered poliovirus, the rhesus factor, described as the father of transfusion medicine
Karl Landsteiner ForMemRS (14 June 1868 – 26 June 1943) was an Austrian-born American biologist, physician, and immunologist. He distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the blood, and in 1937 identified, with Alexander S. Wiener, the Rhesus factor, thus enabling physicians to transfuse blood without endangering the patient’s…
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Sugar-coat (etymology)
also sugarcoat, 1870, originally of medicine; figuratively, “make more palatable,” from 1910; from sugar (n.) + coat (v.). Related: Sugarcoated; sugarcoating. sugar (n.) late 13c., sugre, from Old French sucre “sugar” (12c.), from Medieval Latin succarum, from Arabic sukkar, from Persian shakar, from Sanskrit sharkara “ground or candied sugar,” originally “grit, gravel” (cognate with Greek kroke “pebble”). The Arabic word also was borrowed in Italian (zucchero), Spanish (azucar, with the Arabic article), and…
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Poison (etymology)
poison (n.) c. 1200, poisoun, “a deadly potion or substance,” also figuratively, “spiritually corrupting ideas; evil intentions,” from Old French poison, puison (12c., Modern French poison) “a drink,” especially a medical drink, later “a (magic) potion, poisonous drink” (14c.), from Latin potionem (nominative potio) “a drinking, a drink,” also “poisonous drink” (Cicero), from potare “to drink” (from PIE root *po(i)- “to drink”). A doublet of potion. For similar form…
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The mental illness where former slaves say get off my lawn
Picture this: It’s 1851, and Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright, fresh off his groundbreaking discovery of drapetomania, has stumbled upon another “totally legit” medical condition. Behold, Dysaesthesia aethiopica – the malady that explains why those pesky slaves just won’t work hard enough! Cartwright, armed with his medical degree and a PhD in creative oppression, described this…
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the mental illness of refusing to submit to slavery
In the annals of medical history, there are few tales as delightfully absurd as drapetomania, the “mental illness” that made running away from slavery a diagnosable condition. Because, you know, wanting to escape a life of forced labor and brutal oppression is clearly a sign of insanity… or so thought Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright in…
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Samuel Adolphus Cartwright (“the most prominent physician, surgeon, and medical scientist in antebellum Mississippi”)
Samuel Adolphus Cartwright (November 3, 1793 – May 2, 1863) was an American physician who practiced in Mississippi and Louisiana in the antebellum United States. Cartwright is best known as the inventor of the ‘mental illness’ of drapetomania, the desire of a slave for freedom, and an outspoken critic of germ theory.[1][2] Biography Cartwright married Mary Wren of Natchez, Mississippi, in 1825.[3] During the American Civil…
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T helper cells (Th cells), also known as CD4+ cells or CD4-positive cells
The T helper cells (Th cells), also known as CD4+ cells or CD4-positive cells, are a type of T cell that play an important role in the adaptive immune system. They aid the activity of other immune cells by releasing cytokines. They are considered essential in B cellantibody class switching, breaking cross-tolerance in dendritic cells, in the activation and growth of cytotoxic T cells, and in maximizing bactericidal activity of phagocytes such as macrophages and neutrophils. CD4+ cells…
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Cochineal Etymology
cochineal (n.) “brilliant crimson dyestuff consisting of the dried bodies of a species of insect,” 1580s, from French cochenille (16c.), probably from Spanish cochinilla, from a diminutive of Latin coccinus (adj.) “scarlet-colored,” from coccum “berry (actually an insect) yielding scarlet dye” (see kermes). But some sources identify the Spanish source word as cochinilla “wood louse” (a diminutive form related to French cochon “pig”). The insect (Coccus Cacti) was…
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Surfeit human gene cluster
Surfeit is a human gene cluster that consists of a group of very tightly linked genes on chromosome 9 that do not share sequence similarity. Genes in this cluster are numbered 1 through 6: SURF1, SURF2, SURF3, SURF4, SURF5, and SURF6. Surfeit locus protein 1 (SURF1) Surfeit locus protein 1 (SURF1) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SURF1gene. The protein encoded by SURF1 is a component of the mitochondrial…
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List of human clusters of differentiation (OR CD) MOLECULES
* = group; ** = not listed on hcdm CD1* MHC-like molecule that presents lipid molecules CD1a CD1a (Cluster of Differentiation 1a), or T-cell surface glycoprotein CD1a, is a human protein encoded by the CD1A gene. An antigen-presenting protein that binds self and non-self lipid and glycolipid antigens and presents them to T-cell receptors on natural killer T-cells. CD1b T-cell surface glycoprotein CD1b. Expressed on cortical thymocytes, certain T-cell leukemias…
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Anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG)
Anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is an infusion of horse or rabbit-derived antibodies against human T cells and their precursors (thymocytes), which is used in the prevention and treatment of acute rejection in organ transplantation and therapy of aplastic anemia due to bone marrow insufficiency. Uses Two antithymocyte globulin (ATG) agents licensed for clinical use in the United States are Thymoglobulin (rabbit ATG, rATG, Genzyme) and…
