Causative Influence Research Articles

ON THE INFLUENCE OF ABNORMAL PARTURITION, DIFFICULT LABOURS, PREMATURE BIRTH, AND ASPHYXIA NEONATORUM, ON THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD, ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO DEFORMITIES

.... The object of this communication is to show that the act of birth does occasionally imprint upon the nervous and muscular systems of the nascent infantile organism very serious and peculiar evils. When we investigate the evils in question, and their causative influences, we find that the same laws of pathology apply to diseases incidental to the act of birth as to those which originate before and after birth. We are, in fact, afforded another illustration that there exists no such thing as exceptional or special pathology. Thirty-five years ago the pathology of deformities, if not invested with fable, was wrapped in obscurity; it was then scarcely perceived that the materials for extensive inductive observation existed. Nearly twenty years ago, in a course of lectures published in the 'Lancet,' and more fully in a 'Treatise on Deformities,' published in 1853, I showed that premature birth, difficult labours, mechanical

Near-Homonymy as a Factor in Language Change

It is not generally recognized that near-homonymy may, like homonymy, be a causative factor in language change. Relevant instances are cited from the Germanic languages where near-homonymy has resulted in homonymy contrary to laws of regular sound change, thus proving the causative influence. It then becomes possible to accept similar causation in cases where near-homonymy is followed by loss of a word, as happens frequently with homonymy. Finally, implications of the effects of near-homonymy for the concept of distinctiveness in language are considered.

Venereal disease problems and adolescent health.

The current world-wide rise in venereal diseases among young people is deeply in terrelated with other facets of modern liv ing. Exploration of causative influences should lead to increased understanding and healthier patterns of living.

Correlation of Myocardial and Renal Necrosis With Tissue Electrolyte Changes

It is known that degeneration and necrosis of tissue is associated with substantial changes in the electrolyte content of affected areas. It is not certain, however, whether such alterations are solely one of the consequences of tissue injury, or whether certain electrolyte shifts contribute to the elicitation of organic damage. In favor of a causative influence of electrolyte shifts, one may cite the fact that severe myocardial injury can be produced by dietary deficiency of potassium or magnesium, the two most important intracellular cations, and that the severity of cardiac lesions induced by dietary and other means can be enhanced by sodium-loading or by mineralocorticoids, and inhibited by the administration of potassium and magnesium salts. Primary Goals The primary goals of the present investigation were the following: (1) to search for possible similarities in the derangement of the electrolyte pattern occurring in myocardial necrosis produced by different means, (2) to

1 On the Influence of Abnormal Parturition, Difficult Labours, Premature Birth, and Asphyxia Neonatorum, on the Mental and Physical Condition of the Child, Especially in Relation to Deformities

.... The object of this communication is to show that the act of birth does occasionally imprint upon the nervous and muscular systems of the nascent infantile organism very serious and peculiar evils. When we investigate the evils in question, and their causative influences, we find that the same laws of pathology apply to diseases incidental to the act of birth as to those which originate before and after birth. We are, in fact, afforded another illustration that there exists no such thing as exceptional or special pathology. Thirty-five years ago the pathology of deformities, if not invested with fable, was wrapped in obscurity; it was then scarcely perceived that the materials for extensive inductive observation existed. Nearly twenty years ago, in a course of lectures published in the 'Lancet,' and more fully in a 'Treatise on Deformities,' published in 1853, I showed that premature birth, difficult labours, mechanical

Incidence of anencephalus, spina bifida, and hydrocephalus related to birth rank and maternal age.

Association of characteristics of the offspring with birth order or with maternal age is provisional evidence of the operation of environmental influences in causation; in addition, such data may provide clues for the elucidation of the more specific environments involved. The weight of previously published evidence relating congenital malformations of the central nervous system to birth rank and maternal age suggests that both variables influence the occurrence of these anomalies. Penrose (1946), using a modification of the GreenwoodYule method, found an increasing frequency of a group of central nervous malformations (anencephalus, spina bifida, and hydrocephalus) with advancing maternal age. After correction for the effect of maternal age, occurrence was somewhat excessive in the first birth rank and at birth ranks 7 and over. Malpas (1937) analysed the distribution of anencephaly (44 cases among 13,964 deliveries) according to maternal age, and found the defect to occur about ten times more frequently in the age group 46-50 than in the age group 16-20. Book and Rayner (1950) surveyed the protocols of 67 cases of anencephaly without finding any significant relation of the defect to advancing age or birth rank. Schwidde (1952) and Polman (1950) have also reported negative findings. Buchi (1950) identified 2,922 malformed infants among some 160,000 births

Genetic Studies in Experimental Cancer

Publisher Summary An inherited disease is the one in which the condition is determined, wholly or in part, by the genetic constitution with which the organism started its development. The genetic constitution of an organism is made up of discrete, stable units, with the genes that are carried in the chromosomes in linear order. Genetic susceptibility, estrogenic stimulation, and the virus-like milk agent are primary causative influences. The actions and interactions of all and, in certain circumstances, a combination of two increase the probability that mammary cancer will occur. The basic change from normal to leukemic, which is intrinsic to the cell, may be the result of an alteration of the reproductive material of the cell. The specific genes that have been identified as influencing susceptibility to leukemia could conceivably do so by producing gene mutations in the body cell. The somatic mutation theory maintains that cancer is a consequence of the mutation of a gene in a body cell. Many genes appear to be involved in determining susceptibility to each of the neoplasms investigated. These genes are cumulative in effect. The argument that transplantable tumors contribute little to the understanding of the etiology of cancer is quite sterile. A consistent relationship was found between the chromosome constitution of the tumor cells and transplantability.

TRAUMA AS A CAUSE OF NERVOUS DISEASES.

The subject assigned to me is so large that it is imposible to give it exhaustive study in the time at our disposal. I shall speak briefly about a number of different affections, shall quote no authorities, and shall try to confine myself to matters which will lend interest to the discussion. I shall speak solely of the causative influence of trauma and of the various ways in which it acts, and shall say little or nothing concerning symptomatology. Finally, I shall omit all consideration of the diseases which result from manifest physical injury to the bony coverings of the brain and cord, such as fractures and dislocations, and shall say nothing of such well-known conditions as cerebral concussion, meningeal hemorrhage and traumatic epilepsy, and shall consider only the organic and functional diseases unaccompanied by serious external injury. To prove the traumatic origin of a disease may be easy or

SOME CAUSES OF WRY-NECK.

The object of this paper is to report facts, leaving the consideration of their bearing upon the condition commonly known as wry-neck, for the future. The writer does not believe that disturbances of the nervous equilibrium, which in a few isolated cases are relieved by successful treatment of peripheral irritation, are to be considered as the result of that special irritation. As in epilepsy we occasionally have apparent cure, by correction of the refraction, or by some form of treatment of so-called muscular imbalance, as well as by operating for phimosis, and as the same measures have frequently been followed by the cessation of chorea, so in the following instances torticollis has recovered, after the removal of ocular conditions, apparently little more likely to have exerted a causative influence in its production. That there is nothing original in this suggestion, is shown by a remark in Vol. vii, p. 557,

PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES OF MEDICAL HEALTH OFFICERS AND PHYSICIANS IN DEALING WITH SUSPECTED CASES OF DIPHTHERIA.

It is within the recollection of almost all of us that it is not more than ten years since scientific investigation gave us any actual idea of the immediate cause of the disease known as diphtheria. At that time even its contagiousness was disputed by many; and while medical practitioners having experience with the disease had noted its special incidence in certain localities and still more in certain dwellings, yet the cause was by most supposed to be due to local unsanitary conditions wherein the decomposition of organic matter, whether animal or vegetable, in cellars, sewers, etc., was supposed to exert a causative influence. While to-day such conditions are readily acknowledged to exert influences favorable to the occurrence of the disease, yet actual observers of this as of other zymotic diseases give such influences the secondary place, and speak of them as exciting causes rather than as the immediate cause.