Nosology Of Disease Research Articles

Taking stock at The Green Journal

Taking stock at The Green Journal

The circular semantic network in Ngbandi disease nosology

This paper which relies very much on linguistics, proposes a circular semantic network as an original framework for organizing nosological terms used by the Angbandi of Zaire. Such a framework is presented as an alternative to ethnosemantist and structuralist classifications. Building on this new interpretation of Angbandi nosology, the paper presents in the last section the notions of iconicity and circularity as key features of Angbandi medical science.

Variability In Little People

To the Editor:— Your editorial, Big Variability in 'Little' People ( 209 : 411, 1969), raises some interesting points concerning the nosology of disease. As your discussion implies, increasing scientific information concerning dwarfism, chromosomal aberrations, and inborn errors of metabolism has resulted in what appears to be greater heterogeneity in the classification of the disease mechanisms in these patients. Our perception of disease is improved by new data derived from technological advances, and thus the state in question seems to exhibit greater variability. This variability is a prelude to more precise (but more complex) classification. For some years in teaching I have used the condition of cretinism to exemplify this nosologic phenomenon. As the Figure shows, there has been a progressive heterogeneity in the classification of cretinism since the 18th century. With increasing scientific knowledge, the concept of cretinism has developed from the rather primitive notion of 1800 that the patients were

HYPERINSULINISM AND DYSINSULINISM (INSULOGENIC HYPOGLYCBMIA)*

Insulin is a true internal secretion derived from the ductless glands (islands of Langerhans) of the pancreas. Like other glands of internal secretions, i. e., the thyroid, the suprarenals, the pituitary bodies, etc., the islet cells of the pancreas, because of various functional or pathological changes, may function excessively or deficiently. The part which the internal secretion of the pancreas (insulin) plays in carbohydrate metabolism is well known. When there is a deficiency of insulin with defective carbohydrate metabolism there accumulates in the blood an excess of sugar (hyperglycemia), a part of which is excreted by the kidneys (glycosuria). Tradition tells us that the ancients observed bees swarming around the “sweet” urine of patients who also had the syndrome of polyuria, thirst, hunger and emaciation, and they called the disease diabetes mellitus. If diabetes had been discovered since our present nosology of disease has been accepted it would be called hypoinsulinism, because that name ident...