Doubt Cast Research Articles

Contributions to the concepts of reproductive cycles and the systematics of the scalaris group of the lizard genus Sceloporus

The concept of parity type is proposed as a criterion of relation- ship among members of the Sceloporus aeneus-scalaris complex, with members of S. aeneus being regarded as and those of S. scalaris, as oviparous. The S. goidmani is regarded as a relative of S. aeneus , and S. a. subniger is not regarded as intermediate between S. scalaris and S. aeneus. The proposal by Davis and Smith that S. a. aeneus is oviparous and specifically distinct (as S. aeneus) from S. a. bicanthalis (as S. bicanthalis) is rejected. S. aeneus is hypothesized to have a biennial reproductive cycle. S. scalaris slevini auctorum is segregated into two subspecies: S. s. samcolemani subsp. nov. in the Sierra Oriental (northern end), and S. s. slevini sensu stricto in the Sierra Occidental (also northern end) of Mexico and of the adjacent United States. The systematics and phylogenetic history of the scalaris group of Sceloporus has long been viewed as enigmatic, beginning with the statement of the quandary by Smith (1939: 347-348) in explanation of the allocation of the northwestern member, slevini , to the species scalaris despite some contrary evidence. However, Smith and Pog- layen (1958: 13-15) allocated slevini to the species aeneus after another population exhibiting certain features of intermediacy be- tween the two polytypic species scalaris and aeneus was described (S. a. subniger) . Neither of the preceding accounts placed any overt emphasis upon parity types. Smith (1939: 332) made a passing comment that both oviparous and 4 'ovo viviparous species occur in the group. Evi- dence now available makes it certain that members of the scalaris complex are oviparous, and we here postulate that members of the aeneus complex are (a broader term, more certainly ap- plicable than ovoviviparity, which has come to imply absence of placental structures, whereas euviviparity implies their presence; both conditions exist in reptiles and only by microscopic techniques can they be determined). Anderson (1962) has demon- strated that slevini is oviparous, and accordingly its allocation with the scalaris complex is correct. The most critical doubt cast upon this hypothesis is the proposi- tion by Davis and Smith (1953: 102) that S. a. aeneus is oviparous, whereas S. a. bicanthalis is incontrovertibly (Smith, 1939: 356, and personal data). On this basis these taxa were elevated to specific status ( S. aeneus , S. bicanthalis) . The data provided in Davis and Smith, however, strongly suggest that in S. a. aeneus viviparity does occur, but on a two-year cycle. Ten of 28 females collected from 25 July to 15 August contained from 3 to 5 (average 4) large ova,

Deuteron polarization in the 9Be(p, d) 8Be reaction

The polarization of deuterons emitted at 30°(lab) from the reaction 9Be(p, d) 8Be excited at the 330 keV resonance has been measured. The result, P 33 = 0.83±0.13, indicates that the reaction proceeds predominately by compound nucleus formation through a J π = 1 − state in 10Be (excitation energy 6.89 MeV). The difference between the above measured value of P 33 and a predicted value may be regarded as support for recent doubt cast on the analysing power of the 3He(d, p) 4He reaction when used for deuteron tensor polarization measurements.

Is stellate ganglion block of value in stroke?

Millikan, Lundy, and Smith and Alvarez 1 have suggested that stellate ganglion block is of no value in patients suffering cerebrovascular accident. Previous reports disagree with this point of view. 2 Because of the doubt cast by these reports, we consider it timely to report our experience as a means of stressing the value of this therapeutic measure in stroke. In 1947, one of us (J. E. R.) began to do stellate ganglion blocks on stroke patients. By 1949, we had accumulated sufficient experience and had seen enough good results following this therapy to be interested in a controlled study. An arrangement was made by which every other patient admitted to the neurological wards of the Philadelphia General Hospital with a diagnosis of cerebrovascular accident could be subjected to stellate ganglion block as often as indicated. In April, 1949, 37 such patients were admitted. Ganglion blocks were effected in 18

Method In Cultural Anthropology

Those—other social scientists as well as laymen—who have read recent studies of national character and culture by anthropologists, while not having had experience in this field themselves, often seem to believe that the results which such anthropological investigators obtain are interesting, but that the methods used were intuitional, magical, or just invisible. The status of the work is cast in doubt, as falling short of an ideal that scientific description and analysis must be reproducible by any observer to whom a set of techniques of the discipline has been communicated. This paper attempts to show why and how such a belief is erroneous, and then to describe some of the fundamentals of method in current cultural anthropology as used in research and as related to the general structure of scientific method today.

Fate of the neural crest in lampreys.

THE favourable nature of amphibian material has permitted the unequivocal demonstration, by both histological1,2 and experimental3,4 techniques, of the neural crest origin of most of the splanchnocranium and of the anterior portion of the trabeculae cranii in these animals. In no other vertebrates is the position so clear; but in selachians5 and birds6 a similar origin has been claimed for the visceral bars as a result of studies of normal developmental stages. In cyclostomes the fate of the neural crest and the origin of the head skeleton is of particular interest in view of the doubt cast by Balfour on the homology of the visceral skeleton of lampreys with that of gnathostomes, and the suggestion of Sewertzoff and of de Beer7 that the ‘trabeculae cranii’ of these animals are not visceral elements but are more properly regarded as anterior parachordals.

Castiglione and the Nicomachean Ethics

As though from a sudden awareness of the ethical void in which we have been living since the first World War, a growing number of scholars, several among them Americans, have lately been turning their attention eagerly and fruitfully to the doctrine of the gentleman. They have studied its varied aspects in different national environments and have examined painstakingly its effects upon human conduct as this is reflected in the various literatures of Western Europe. A large segment of that vast aggregation of dust-laden volumes bearing the forbidding name “didactic literature” has been taken from library shelves and scanned anew in this effort to lay bare the minutest details of the doctrine. The initiator of this contemporary revival of interest in the ideals which nourished the gentleman appears to have been Maurice Magendie, whose study of the doctrine in seventeenth-century France gave rise to a healthy polemic regarding the appropriate scope and methods of literary history. This work was followed by Ruth Kelso's Doctrine of the English Gentleman in the Sixteenth Century, a model of erudite scholarship especially rich in bibliographical lore. Fittingly enough in a German work of the totalitarian period, August Hoyler's Gentleman Ideal and Gentleman Erziehung, dealing with the doctrine in England, sets up the Führerprinzip as the nucleus of the ideal. J. E. Mason's Gentlefolk in the Making continues Kelso's investigations down into the eighteenth century. The Italian contribution to the doctrine has been summarily discussed by F. R. Bryson. Written in semi-popular vein, In Praise of Gentlemen expresses the nostalgic longing of H. E. Sedgwick for a return to the social ideals of our forefathers. Perhaps the most complete analysis of the workings of the doctrine is found in E. Wingfield-Stratford's Making of a Gentleman. The number of these investigations is alone sufficient to show the interest which the subject holds for the literary and social historian, in spite of the doubt cast in some quarters on the present vitality of the ideal of the gentleman as an active social force. There is good reason to believe that we shall presently witness attempts, based upon these studies, to reinterpret the literature of the Renaissance as a reflection, in part, of the workings of the doctrine upon the minds of authors as disparate as Rabelais and Shakespeare or Spenser and Cervantes. Recalling the fruitful results obtained during the past half-century from the application of the investigations of Renaissance Platonism to literary interpretation, who can doubt that a similar success awaits the scholar who will launch forth upon a similar quest concerning the literary influence exerted by the concept of the “perfect gentleman,” of which concept Platonic love was but a part, however important?

Our Hierarchy of Values

THE field of education at the present time is practically the last realm in which the seeker after absolute values should expect to find satisfaction. While a very few may feel perfectly content in a position of dogmatic certainty, the situation among the skeptical and the open-minded majority will be more characteristically pictured by a committee of serious college teachers who, when recently faced with some new problems in the curriculum and challenged to formulate a definitive educational policy, with one accord maintained a discreet silence. Distracted theologians could hardly do more-or less. Even if one presumes to believe that human life offers anywhere else solid foundation for an absolute creed, certainly in our conflicting educational theories and practices we can claim no such certainty. Why do we believe as we do? Is it some unassailable body of fact and logic that decides us, or mere tradition or environment, or some superficial piece of petrified reasoning? In language teaching, for instance, the oldest assumption was that, in both school and college, the grammar-translation method functioned as a miraculous and all-satisfying process of mental discipline; this complacent certainty has melted before the doubts cast by experiment on the supposed discipline1 and before the suspicion engendered by experience with a dull and mechanical routine. A second cheerful assumption is that of the culture resulting from the appreciation of literature, a confidence chilled by the fear of dilettantism and by doubts about practical values. A third group have been sure that we are all to be saved by learning to speak the foreign languages-and then someone asked, With whom will Americans talk French and German? Others suggested the query whether several years of study are not a high price to pay for the ability to fight with a Parisian taxi driver over the fare, unless conversational lessons have some other intellectual meaning. Finally scholarship was stressed-in college classes and in the graduate school-meaning linguistics and the scientific study of literature. The obvious danger here is arid pedantry arising from acquiring or producing remote and dehumanized information. There are, to be sure, just a few who feel that they have a clear and positive educational program from which no righteous or intelligent person may dissent. These may be found both-in two mutually destructive extremes-among conservatives living in some traditional rut, and among

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE—THE SO-CALLED JUVENILE TYPE

1. Alzheimer's disease is to be considered up to the present as a definite clinico-pathological entity. Its pathology is not pathognomonic, the clinical data being therefore essential for the classification of cases into Alzheimer's disease. 2. The subdivision into a juvenile form of Alzheimer's disease does not seem as yet justified in its material presentation. Of 10 cases, reported in the literature, occurring at an age prior to the presenile stage, seven presented either insufficient pathological and clinical elements or typical pathology but non-characteristic clinical symptoms. Their inclusion in the group of Alzheimer's disease, cannot therefore be made without unduly stretching the original conception of the malady. 3. In addition to the case described in this presentation, three others have been reported in the literature of typical Alzheimer's disease from both the pathological and the clinical aspects, in which the age limit varied at the most between 37 and 41 years. The narrow variation of the age limit and the small number of these cases justifies, we feel, our conservative attitude toward the creation of a nosological variety termed "juvenile form of Alzheimer's disease." 4. The doubt cast on the generally accepted conception of Alzheimer's disease as a presenile psychosis, doubt based upon the occurrence precisely of the disease in its so-called "juvenile form" is therefore somewhat premature. Additional evidence is needed for such a conclusion. 5. A report of a case, in which all clinical and pathological data exclusive of the age, correspond to Alzheimer's disease, illustrates the expressed ideas.

Nutrition

Vitamin A determination, Relation between the biological, chemical, and physical methods of test. K. C. Lathbury. Biochem. Jour., Vol. 28, 1934, p. 2254.This investigation, conducted in the Physiological Laboratories of The British Drug Houses, Ltd., was undertaken because of doubt cast by some investigators, notaby Coward et al, on the value of the Carr-Price color test, which is used by the British Drug Houses in describing the potency of their products. Six samples of crude liver oils or concentrates and a sample of the international standard were compared for their content of vitamin A by feeding experiments on rats, the Carr-Price test, and the spectrophotometric test.