This article proposes autobiography as a productive lens through which to examine concepts of immunology, as the self-oriented conceptual focus of autobiography shares key affinities with theories of immune selfhood that have underpinned much of the work in modern immunology. British and French autobiographies written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries-a period at the crossroads of older humoral theory and new scientific and medical knowledge-describe early symptom-and experience-based conceptualizations of immunity, as well as subjectively defined and value-laden conceptualizations of health. Notably, while the autobiographical accounts precede the late 19th-century work that established the foundations of modern immunology, authors' accounts of health maintenance, disease prevention, and disease elimination resonate with present-day immunological concepts and nonspecialist constructions of immunity. In analyzing how the authors conceptualize and assign meaning to what we now understand as immunity-related processes and practices, the article brings to light theoretical parallels between the autobiographical accounts and concepts in modern immunology.
Abandoned mines are among the main sources of long-term soil contamination, often leaving behind persistent concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTE) that pose environmental and health risks. Ribeiro da Serra Sb-Au mine, in Portugal, active from 1858 to 1890, has left a significant environmental legacy. This study mapped the spatial distribution of mine processing residues, elemental characterisation distinguishing between anthropogenic and natural enrichment by determining soil sample concentrations of PTE, Hg mobility, and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) quantification. Multivariate analysis, spatial interpolation and comparison with Enrichment Factor were employed with the aim of understanding the distributions and sources of PTEs in the soils. Mercury is still present at the site, revealing high mobile (18.72 mg kg-1) and semi-mobile (3.58 mg kg-1) concentrations accumulated in waste piles, a remnant of Au amalgamation processes. High Hg concentrations (20.75 mg kg-1) pose significant environmental risks, even after more than a century, such as bioaccumulation potential and soil toxicity. Also, there are high concentrations of Pb (449.03 mg kg-1) in the waste piles from the Sb processing. This study highlights the critical importance of interpreting natural enrichment values of elements of Hg (EF = 267) and Pb (EF = 18) to discern pollution pathways resulting from mining and processing activities. Interpretation of natural enrichment values leads to a more accurate evaluation of environmental contamination and its sources. The Enrichment Factor shows that Sb (EF = 133) and Hg (EF = 267) are the elements that present extremely high enrichment (EF > 40).
Leprosy (Hansen's disease) care in late 19th-century Hawai'i involved complex interactions between Western medicine, traditional practices, and diverse patient experiences. This study re-evaluates the contributions of Dr. Masanao Goto, a Japanese physician whose treatment gained significant patient popularity, by focusing on its health and social welfare implications. Utilizing previously under-examined Japanese sources-including family records and hospital documents-alongside Hawaiian and English archives, this historical research analyzes Goto's work in Hawai'i (1885-1895) and the dynamics of cross-cultural medical encounters. The analysis reveals a three-way dynamic between patients seeking relief, a non-Western practitioner offering a holistic paradigm, and a shifting medical establishment that increasingly prioritized bacteriological cures. Dr. Goto's holistic regimen, centered on chaulmoogra oil integrated with Kampō (a system of traditional Japanese medicine adapted from classical Chinese medicine) principles and medicated baths, provided tangible symptomatic relief and profound hope. While initially supported by the Kalākaua administration, his work later clashed with the "reformist" Board of Health following the political upheaval of 1887. Patient support, however, was a powerful force, culminating in an 1894 petition from 861 Kalaupapa residents to appoint him their permanent physician. Dr. Goto's work, embraced by patients, highlights the critical importance of patient-centered perspectives and the agency of non-Western practitioners. The organized patient movement for his care serves as a historical precedent for medical sovereignty, offering valuable insights into integrating diverse medical traditions pertinent to achieving health equity in contemporary Hawai'i.
Space launch costs have fallen dramatically over the past six decades, opening new economic and scientific frontiers. Yet precise, long-term estimates of these cost reductions remain sparse, and the underlying rate of technological learning is poorly understood. We introduce the largest standardized dataset of rocket launches to date, covering more than 4,400 launches (1960 to 2025) across 16 spacefaring geographical entities and show that the average cost of sending a kilogram to orbit has dropped from 87,023 USD in 1960 to 3,868 USD in 2025. Using a Wright's Law framework, we estimate that for each doubling of cumulative payload to orbit, the average cost of sending a kilogram to orbit decreases by 21.2%, revealing an exceptionally steep experience curve, outpacing that of other transformative technologies, including 19th-century steamship freight and modern solar photovoltaics. We leverage our empirical model to produce out-of-sample projections under a set of scenario-based and data-driven approaches. In our central estimate, the average cost is expected to fall to 1,600 USD/kg by 2030 and 300 USD/kg by 2040. Nonetheless, geopolitical shifts, potential monopolistic behavior in commercial launch markets, and the rising challenges of orbital debris may temper these gains. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of continued research and policy focus on launch technology, given that breakthroughs in cost reduction could accelerate the evolution of the space economy and its diverse near-term applications.
The late 19th century witnessed a growing concern about the rising incidence of nervous disorders. Sociologists explained this with reference to the impacts of urbanisation, industrialisation and modernity. Medical practitioners identified psychological and physiological explanations for nervous disorders, focussing on a constellation of symptoms that became known as neurasthenia. While many commentators considered neurasthenia a condition of the middle classes, there was growing evidence that nervous disorders affected a wide range of the social spectrum, including the working class. We explore the prevalence of nervous disorders in the late 19th-century, using the British Post Office as a case study. We identify the significance of nervous disorders as a cause of sickness absence and of retirement, taking note of occupation and gender as key variables. We examine the contrasting explanations offered by management and workers for the incidence of nervous disorders, pointing to the significance of specific labour practices on different groups of workers. We compare our findings with those in other industries in the 20th century and conclude that similar rates of nervous disorders occurred across time and in different kinds of occupations. We conclude by suggesting that different working conditions were a significant factor in explaining the incidence of nervous disorders and that this needs to be taken into account by historians alongside more traditional explanations of nervousness based on social change and the impact of modernity on the human psyche.
Sex estimation is a cornerstone of research and practice in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. However, morphological and metric methods are often hampered by population-specific variation, subjectivity in assessment, and taphonomy. This study compares morphological analysis and ancient DNA (aDNA)-based sex assessment in a 19th-century Portuguese sample to evaluate the accuracy of osteological (anthropological) criteria. This study analysed 37 skeletons from the Venerável Ordem Terceira da Nossa Senhora do Carmo burial grounds in Porto. Sex estimation was based on (1) the bioanthropological assessment of morphological traits of the os coxae and the skull (2) through aDNA analysis using a multi-marker approach, including real-time PCR (qPCR) targeting autosomal loci, the amelogenin locus, a Y-chromosomal INDEL, and Y-STRs. aDNA was extracted via a non-destructive protocol. Whilst anthropological analysis was possible on all 37 individuals, estimation of sex through aDNA analysis was possible for 26 individuals. A 20% discordance rate was found between morphological and aDNA results. Many individuals morphologically classified as "possible female" or "indeterminate" were genetically identified as male. Genetic analysis resolved most cases that biological anthropologists concluded were "indeterminate". The high discordance in the Carmo sub-sample may indicate reduced skeletal sexual dimorphism, with males exhibiting skeletal traits typically associated with females, suggesting a sample-specific reduction in sexual dimorphism likely influenced by environmental, nutritional, and/or genetic stressors. A limitation of this study is its small sample size: only 26 of 37 individuals yielded usable genetic results, and only a portion of these individuals provided sufficient data for a direct comparison between morphological and genetic data. Nevertheless, these findings highlight the risk that applying generalised osteological standards relying solely on morphology can lead to systematic misclassification, emphasising the need for a critical, multidisciplinary approach to sex estimation.
Epistemological opacity designates a recurrent tension within the clinical encounter, the point at which psychiatric categories make experience intelligible while also revealing their own insufficiency. It is not simple ignorance, nor merely a gap awaiting future clarification, but a historically productive relation between clinical experience and the conceptual frameworks designed to organize it. This article argues that such opacity was not peripheral but constitutive of 19th-century descriptive psychopathology. Once we move beyond the opposition between teleological histories of progress and constructivist accounts of psychiatric knowledge, the clinic appears as a theory-laden instrument whose limits were repeatedly encountered in practice. Two exemplary sites make this clear: hallucination and the genesis of delusion. In both cases, descriptive psychopathology advanced not by tightening its definitions, but by confronting what could not be made to fit them; by learning to work with the residue of experience that escaped signification. Thus, this article treats limits of intelligibility not as a threat to psychiatric realism, but as one of its conditions. Methodologically, it draws on historical epistemology to examine how these limits become visible in the textual traces left by alienist clinicians when their categories proved insufficient to stabilize clinical experience. Psychiatric knowledge is not secured by the exhaustive precision of its categories, but by their capacity to remain responsive to what they cannot fully represent.
This paper critically examines Florence Nightingale's legacy and its ongoing relevance to contemporary patient safety. Drawing on Notes on Nursing, the study highlights Nightingale's emphasis on hygiene, cleanliness, environmental factors, and systematic care as foundational to reducing harm and improving patient outcomes. Her insights laid the groundwork for infection prevention and control practices that remain central to modern nursing and healthcare safety protocols. Nightingale's principles align closely with current patient safety frameworks and global initiatives, such as the World Health Organization's Global Action Plan, emphasizing the social responsibility of healthcare professionals. Despite scientific advances and evolving healthcare systems, her legacy continues to influence nursing practices by reinforcing systematized, ethical, and patient-centered care. This enduring relevance underscores the critical role of nursing in safeguarding health and promoting safety in diverse clinical settings. This study advocates for ongoing recognition and integration of Nightingale's principles to enhance patient safety and care quality in modern healthcare. Her legacy remains an epistemological and practical resource for advancing nursing theory, patient-centered care, and critical reflection in healthcare. Trial Registration: Not applicable.
In 1798, Edward Jenner publicized his technique of smallpox vaccination, thus making obsolete what had been for centuries the most effective weapon against smallpox: variolation. News of this sensational breakthrough spread quickly throughout Europe, reaching Italy, and particularly Genoa, then the capital of the Ligurian Republic (1797-1805). Indeed, the first vaccinations in Italy were carried out in Genoa, and several doctors there, first individually and then collectively (within the "Medical Emulation Society"), went on to implement and spread the practice of vaccination. Although it was only with the annexation of Liguria to the French Empire that the practice became more structured and more widely implemented, this period still marked an extremely prolific time for medical science in the Genoa area.
Typhoid fever and malaria co-infection have been documented since the 19th century in addition to its significant impact on global population. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential neurological damages of typhoid fever-malaria co-infection in rats. To perform this, 34 Wistar strain rats were divided into five groups, including a control group which received distilled water, an immunosuppressed group treated only with cyclophosphamide, a group mono-infected with Salmonella typhimurium; a group mono-infected with Plasmodium berghei, and a co-infected one which received both Salmonella typhimurium and Plasmodium berghei. Spatial working memory rats was assessed via T-maze testing 12 days post-infection. Two days after T-maze test, the animals were sacrificed, brain and other organs collected and weighed. A part of the brain was used to prepare homogenates and the other part for histological sections. In the brain, stress markers, GABA and its catabolic enzyme (GABA transaminase) activity were evaluated. It emerges from this work that typhoid fever and malaria infections significantly (p < 0.05) impaired the exploratory behavior of rats with an emphasis on co-infected animals. When co-infected animals succeeded to move, they spent more time in their preferred arm in T-maze compared to the other groups. It was noticed a high level of oxidative stress markers (malondialdehyde, nitrites) as well as GABA transaminase in co-infected animals. Conversely, a low concentration of GABA, reduced glutathione, and a low activity of catalase were registered in the same group. In addition, marked alterations in the structure of the brain were recorded in these co-infected animals. Collectively, these findings indicate that Salmonella and Plasmodium infections exacerbated oxidative stress, disrupted working memory processes and induced neuroinflammation in experimental animals. When both pathogens are present in the same organism, their combined effect is worse than the effect of each pathogen alone. All these show a severe negative effect of Salmonella-Plasmodium co-infection in the nervous system.
The present article aims to understand Ovide Decroly1s intervention in the pedagogical field considering his medical-neurological training. Thus, it shows that, in 1901, Decroly founded an institute of special education and, 6 years later, created the Hermitage School, for disabled and so-called normal children respectively. In these educational endeavors, Decroly used the mental tests of the Binet-Simon scale, but indicating their limits; and in the light of the experience of American psychology, in the 1920s, he developed, with Raymond Buyse, the Decroly-Buyse tests.
Although modern commentators date systematic study of sleep and immunity to the late 1970s, both medical and popular writing from the late 19th and early 20th centuries reveal a much earlier awareness of the immunological effects of sleep and sleep deprivation. This article demonstrates how historical actors conceptualized sleep as integral to bodily defense, thereby revealing a key part of the immune imaginary. The authors map the development of conceptual and experimental linkages between sleep and biological immunity from the late 19th century to the 1920s across the Anglophone tradition, revealing how popular writing reimagined this emerging biological connection, foregrounding representations of sleep as a vital mechanism through which individuals could fortify the body against diverse forms of invasions. The authors then identify a reorientation in popular discourse: a movement from an emphasis on the individual body towards a broader concern with the social body. Through examining this shift, it is possible to trace a reconfiguration of immunity away from the biological towards one concerned increasingly with protection from social, moral, and environmental factors.
Deficiency diseases were first investigated in Brazil in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in response to reports of urban poverty. Beriberi, which is currently understood as resulting from vitamin B1 deficiency in the human body, is one of the diseases most researched by scientists and doctors. This analysis proposes to historicize the disease by revisiting the medical debate, observing its social impacts until the constitution of a medical-scientific fact, when Brazilian doctors, inspired by infection- and nutrition-related theories, engaged intensively in discussions until a thought collective was formed, as conceived by Ludwig Fleck, and they agreed it was a vitamin deficiency. As doenças carenciais começaram a ser investigadas no Brasil na segunda metade do século XIX, sobretudo, com a denúncia da pobreza urbana. Dentre as enfermidades mais pesquisadas pelos cientistas e doutores, destaca-se o beribéri, reconhecido atualmente como deficiência de vitamina B1 no organismo humano. Esta análise se propõe a historicizar a moléstia, revisitando o debate médico, observando os impactos sociais da doença até a constituição de um fato médico-científico, quando médicos brasileiros guiados pelas vertentes teóricas infecciosa e alimentar travaram intensas discussões até a composição de um coletivo de pensamento, conceito elaborado por Ludwig Fleck, admitindo-a como uma avitaminose.
The article offers systematic consideration of epistemology of psychiatry as section of medicine which examination permits to analyze dispositif of science successfully implementing conceptual theoretical constructs in everyday practice. The various versions and trends in this area are considered, from traditional history of medicine with its positive or negative models of development of psychiatry to historical epistemology and history of ideas striving to create conceptualized picture of permanent scientific revolution or explosive evolution of psychiatry. The number of key moments are marked representing crystallization points of epistemology of psychiatry as systematic form of research: 1) the question about area of knowledge that is provide space for research in this direction; 2) creation of space of reflexive thinking where internal problematization of psychiatric theory and practice will be possible, excluding development of general theory of psychiatry that is externally imposed on it as general guidelines; 3) problematization of modus of openness of psychiatry to related areas of knowledge and public practice, minimizing interference of non-professionals in professional activities of psychiatrists. Предложено систематическое рассмотрение эпистемологии психиатрии как раздела медицины, изучение которого позволяет анализировать диспозитив науки, успешно реализующей концептуальные теоретические построения в повседневной практике. Рассмотрены различные версии и тенденции этой области — от традиционной истории медицины с ее позитивными или негативными моделями развития психиатрии до исторической эпистемологии и истории идей, стремящихся к созданию концептуализированной картины перманентной научной революции или взрывной эволюции психиатрии. Автор обозначает ряд ключевых моментов, представляющих собой точки кристаллизации эпистемологии психиатрии как систематической формы исследования: вопрос об области знания, которая должна предоставить пространство для исследований в этом направлении; создание пространства рефлексивного мышления, в котором будет возможна внутренняя проблематизация психиатрических теории и практики, исключающая выработку общей теории психиатрии, которая внешним образом навязывается ей в качестве общего руководства; проблематизация модуса открытости психиатрии смежным областям знания и общественной практике, минимизирующего вмешательство непрофессионалов в профессиональную деятельность психиатров.
This paper explores the role of the "Author of nature" in Charles Lyell's uniformitarianism. I start with a brief explanation of the term "uniformitarianism" and the identification of the fundamental hypotheses of Lyell's theory. Moving forward, I explore his idea of the balance of nature and show that Lyell believes that natural equilibrium represents a state of stability in inorganic and organic nature. As I show, the stability of inorganic nature is achieved through the alternate activity of natural - aqueous and igneous - forces, while the balance of organic nature is established via two processes: migrations of species and struggle for survival. However, the inorganic and organic natures are connected by a unilateral causal relation which enables the first to cause changes within the second. That being the case, the activity of inorganic forces can disturb the balance of organic nature and trigger modifications in the structure of organisms, leading to their evolution. Yet equilibrium can be restored through the interventions of the "Author of nature", who, as the instrument of evolution, equips every organism with useful variations necessary for their survival. Since organic nature represents an essential part of the natural system, the "Author of nature", through his actions, creates and preserves the balance of the whole nature. Thus, it appears that Lyell opts for a specific version of preformationism and that his uniformitarianistic worldview presupposes a significant regulative role for the omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient intelligent being.
The École National Vétérinaire de Toulouse (ENVT) holds the Neumann's collection of parasites. The depository, created by Louis Georges Neumann at the end of the 19th century, contains a large number of ixodid specimens and primary types, all listed in an accession book by Neumann himself. In an effort to enhance the visibility and accessibility of this collection for the scientific community, the curatorial personnel of the collection recently transferred all accession data to an electronic database and began inventorying the specimens that are still available. This offered us with an opportunity to examine all remaining primary types of Ixodidae in the collection and write this catalogue.
Today we are accustomed to the idea that eating certain foods can help to support the immune system. Over the last two decades, this familiar narrative has been bolstered by the rise of microbial science and the growing popularity of biome-led nutrition, which encourages eaters to nourish the flora and fauna of their guts for the sake of better overall health. While our current preoccupation with the microbiome can be dated to the launch of the Human Microbiome Project in 2007, its origin story can be traced much further back. It begins with work undertaken by scientists and physicians around the turn of the 20th century aimed at understanding the significance of microbes in the digestive system. One of those, the Russian zoologist Élie Metchnikoff (1845-1916), is perhaps best remembered as the founder of modern immunology, and his work on phagocytosis-the capacity of certain specialized cells to engulf and eliminate intruders-earned him the Nobel Prize in 1908. According to Metchnikoff, the gut was the "engine of senility," where pathogenic bacteria multiplied and threatened to overwhelm the body's defenses. Transforming the belly into a battleground where good bacteria went to war with bad, Metchnikoff's influential work extended his theorization of organic immunity as a form of intercellular defense to the vexed question of what to eat and created the foundation for Emily Martin's "immunological body," an understanding of the body that likens it to a nation state, defined through the careful maintenance of the boundary between self and non-self, at this intersection of dietetics and immunology.
The article undertakes a historical analysis of the concepts of psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy, assuming that, despite current institutional differences, they share a common interest in the soul or mind. The aim of this paper is to present an alternative path for the development of psychotherapy as a practical continuation of the concept of psychologia anthropologica introduced by Otto Casmann in the late 16th century. The text traces the conceptual evolution from the first appearances of the term Psychologia, Otto Casmann's two-volume treatise (Psychologia anthropologica, 1594, 1596), through the conception of the idea of medical psychology, to the emergence of the term Psychotherapy in the 19th century. Unlike existing studies that analyze the history of these categories separately, this article considers them within a single, coherent developmental process. The analysis is framed within the perspective of the history of ideas and focuses on the intellectual continuity between theoretical psychology and practical medical psychology, thus revealing the long-term transformation of ideas from the 16th to the 19th century.
Fixed poetic forms such as the sonnet, ottava rima, or terza rima are an important feature of European literary traditions, yet large-scale empirical research on their cross-lingual distribution and evolution has been limited so far. This paper introduces a fully language-independent, unsupervised method for identifying recurrent rhyme-based forms using local sequence alignment. Drawing on 187,719 poems from six European traditions (Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Russian) in the PoeTree collection, we encode rhyme schemes in a compact eight-symbol alphabet and apply the Smith-Waterman algorithm via the Metronome package to compute pairwise distances. Dimensionality reduction (UMAP) and density-based clustering (HDBSCAN) yield 61 clusters, many of which align with known fixed forms. Evaluation against existing Czech and Russian annotations shows strong recall, while supervised classification experiments-both within and across languages-demonstrate that form categories are robustly learnable in the induced vector space. We illustrate the potential of such data for literary research in three showcases: cross-tradition influence in 19th-century Czech poetry, topical affinities of selected forms using multilingual topic modeling, and geographic associations revealed through geonym analysis.
The Catholic Church has developed a rich body of social teaching addressing the dignity of work and the protection of workers' health since the late nineteenth century. This article examines the trajectory of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) from Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) to Pope Leo XIV's recent magisterium, including the apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te (2025) and the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (2026) on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on the concept of decent work as articulated by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and its intersection with Occupational Medicine (OM). The analysis highlights that Catholic social thought has consistently advocated for working conditions that safeguard the physical, mental, and social well-being of workers, anticipating many principles later codified in international labor standards. It further contends that Magnifica Humanitas extends this tradition to the challenges posed by digital technology and artificial intelligence to the dignity of work. The article argues that the convergence between CST and modern occupational health frameworks provides a compelling ethical foundation for advancing decent work and Occupational Health Services (OHS) worldwide.