Von Fellenberg Research Articles

The Midwest: Cradle of Vocational Education

The MidwestCradle of Vocational Education Steve Grineski (bio) Many important educational reforms were rooted in the Midwest, which, according to Susan Clark Studer, “played a defining role in the development of American educational institutions and ideas.” Reform movements “that furthered the development of industry, home arts, and the science of farming in elementary, secondary, and higher education” prospered, Studer asserts, due to the agrarian and egalitarian nature of midwestern states.1 These reforms were central to a promise for more prosperous living and greatly contributed to the rise of what would become vocational education in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.2 The Manual Labor Movement was the precursor to occupation-directed education. Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg created the first such school in Hofwyl, Switzerland, in 1805. Educational institutions influenced by Fellenberg offered students programs comprised of broad liberal arts courses that were balanced with manual labor in the school’s fields and shops. These programs were framed by a vision of holistic education: useful physical work that supported and complemented academic learning and provided students with means to offset schooling costs.3 Maine’s Gardiner Lyceum Manual Training School, founded in 1823, was the first institution in the United States to follow Fellenberg’s ideas. Two years later, the New Harmony, Indiana, Manual Training School became the first midwestern school of this type. Presbyterian minister John J. Shipherd founded two private liberal arts colleges in the Midwest offering academic work paired with physical labor: Ohio’s Oberlin College (which Shipherd cofounded with Philo P. Stewart in 1833) and Michigan’s Olivet College (1844). Both schools featured an inclusive admissions policy that welcomed women and students of color. Shipherd held that manual labor was a necessary element [End Page 45] for a comprehensive education and essential to forming proper habits of the mind.4 The Manual Labor Movement slowed in the mid-1850s, giving rise to the Manual Training Movement. This next generation of occupationally directed schooling promoted the importance of hands-on learning within the general education program. Its intent was to broaden and enhance liberal arts learning through training in practical arts, rather than industrial skill specialization. By 1894, 15 manual training schools were offering instruction to 3,362 students; twenty years later, 16,770 manual training schools and their 183,571 students were involved with manual training. However, there were critics advocating for these schools to be framed by purely economic purposes. The Vocational Education Movement emerged, demanding that greater emphasis be given to employment-driven education designed to meet the needs of industry. The state of Minnesota provides excellent illustrations for many of these developments.5 Minnesota played an active role in moving manual training and vocational education into the nation’s public schools. Two outstanding examples are St. Paul’s Mechanics Arts High School (1896) and Minneapolis’s Girls Vocational School (1914).6 Dr. Charles Prosser (1879–1952), appointed director of Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis in 1915, guided the private institute to national prominence in vocational education over a thirty-one-year period.7 As noted by curriculum historian Herbert M. Kleibard, vocational education would prove to have more impact on public schooling than any other curriculum development in the twentieth century.8 The Dunwoody model, with Prosser’s brand placed squarely on it, later provided the outline for vocational education throughout the nation via the National Vocational Education Act, commonly known as the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917.9 Its passage was the watershed event for vocational education in the U.S. and became known as the Magna Carta of Vocational Education. As vocational education gained acceptance as a necessary part of schooling, many vocationally directed programs, extracurricular organizations and clubs (such as 4-H and Future Farmers and Future Homemakers of America) emerged.10 Diverse motivations pushed various groups to advocate for this jobtraining legislation, such as satisfying work demands of the new industrial age, enhancing productivity, improving the lives of the poor, and encouraging students to remain in school. It is hard to ignore the self-interest demonstrated by some industrialists who demanded a well-trained workforce—at no personal cost to them—that would increase their profit margins. Leading [End...

“No wonder they are sick, and die of study”: European fears for the scholarly body and health in New England schools before Horace Mann

European physicians long worried that the scholarly life was harmful to health. Neurological and digestive problems flowed from sedentary, seated lives. In the late eighteenth century, when the Enlightenment began spreading education to more people, educators inspired by Rousseau’s Emile such as Johann Guts Muths, Friedrich Jahn, Johann Pestalozzi, and Philipp von Fellenberg explored ways to add exercise to schooling. In the northeastern United States, educational reformers were also concerned with how to expand schooling without subjecting more children and teachers to the diseases of scholars. Particularly in New England, educators such as Catharine Beecher, Mary Lyon, Alden Partridge, and Joseph Green Cogswell tested new forms of exercise in academies for both girls and boys. Educational reformers had in common a tendency toward ill health, so the dilemma of scholarly frailty particularly engaged them. Spinal curvature and pulmonary consumption added to the previous concerns for students and teachers. In addition to exercise, improving schoolhouse ventilation, heating, and desks could keep students healthier, and teaching physiology could train them to keep themselves healthier. Boston’s highly developed and prevention-oriented medical culture and its medical and education publications made the city the ideal home for the first seven annual meetings of the American Institute of Instruction, which were rich with health content. This paper focuses on the keen interest in health among American educators of the common school reform era before Horace Mann, which puts his interest in phrenology in perspective as only one of many paths to health concerns.

The role of neutrophil chemotactic cytokines in the pathogenesis of equine chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is defined as a chronic obstructive inflammatory disease affecting the small airways associated with hay dust exposure (Lowell, F.C., 1964. Observation on heaves. An asthma like syndrome in the horse, J. Allergy 35, 322–330). The disease corresponds histopathologically to a chronic bronchiolitis (Gerber, H., 1973. Chronic pulmonary disease in the horse, Equine Vet. J. 5, 26–33; Winder, N.C., Grünig, G., Hermann, M., Howald, B., von Fellenberg, R., 1989. Comparison of respiratory secretion cytology and pulmonary histology in horses, J. Vet. Med., A36, 32–38) and is mainly characterized by the presence of neutrophil granulocytes in the small bronchioles. Around 12–50% of all horses in Europe and the northern United States suffer from this disease (Mc Pherson, E.A., Lawson, G.H.K., Murphy, J.R., Nicholson, J.M., Fraser, J.A., Breeze, R.G., Pirie, H.M., 1978. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Identification of affected horses, Eq. Vet. J. 10, 47–53; Larson, V.L., Busch, R.H., 1985. Equine tracheobronchial lavage: Comparison of lavage cytologic features in horses with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Am. J. Vet. Res., 46, 144–146; Bracher, V., von Fellenberg, R., Winder, N.C., Grünig, G., 1991. An investigation of the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in random populations of swiss horses, Equine Vet. J. 23, 136-141). The number of neutrophils in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and in tracheobronchial secretions (TBS) correlates with the severity of the disease. The present study is focused on the mechanisms which lead to the infiltration of neutrophil granulocytes in the lung of horses. We found that: (1). A strong chemotactic activity in the BAL fluid is associated with high levels of dust exposition. (2). In vitro stimulated alveolar macrophages have impaired phagocytosis efficiency and secrete two chemo-attractants specific for neutrophil granulocytes: Interleukin-8 (IL-8) (Wuyts, A., Proost, P., Put, W., Lenaerts, J.-P., Paemen, L., van Damme, J., 1994. Leucocyte recruitment by monocyte chemotactic proteins (MCPs) secreted by human phagocytes, J. Immunol. Meth. 174, 237–247) and macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) (Wolpe, S.D., Sherry, B., Juers, D., Davatelis, G. Yurt, R.W., Cerami, A., Identification and characterisation of macrophage inflammatory protein-2, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86, 612–616; Tekamp-Olson, P., Gallegos, C., Bauer, D., 1990. Cloning and characterisation of cDNAs for murine macrophage inflammatory protein-2 and its human homologues, J. Exp. Med., 172, 911–927; Driscoll, K.E., 1994. Macrophage inflammatory proteins: Biology and role in pulmonary inflammation. Exp. Lung Res., 20, 473–490). This is associated with the appearance of chemotactic activity in the supernatant. These data confirmed our working hypothesis that bronchiolar neutrophilia may be the consequence of a (over)stimulation of pulmonary macrophages leading to expression of cytokines chemotactic for neutrophil granulocytes.

A review of the pathophysiology of exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage in the equine athlete

In the United States, more than 75% of equine athletes are reported to suffer from exercise-related haemorrhage of the respiratory tract (Voynick and Sweeney, 1986; Sweeney et al., 1990). Fiberoptic endoscopy has traced the source of blood to beyond the bifurcation of the trachea. In 1981, the term exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage (EIPH) was introduced (Pascoe et al., 1981). Racehorses of all breeds, polo ponies and three-day event horses of mixed heritage, even foxhunters, may 'bleed' (Voynick and Sweeney, 1986; Pascoe et al., 1981; Sweeney and Soma, 1983; Hillidge, 1986). Any horse working at speeds greater than 240 m/min is at risk (Voynick and Sweeney, 1986). The impact of exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage is difficult to assess. Most attempts to demonstrate statistically a negative correlation between EIPH and performance have been unrewarding, largely due to the number of uncontrollable variables (Pascoe et al., 1981; Raphel and Soma, 1982). In racing thoroughbreds (Mason et al., 1983) and standard breeds (MacNamara et al., 1990) approximately half as many EIPH-positive as EIPH-negative horses were placed in their races. Based on extensive intrapulmonary haemorrhage, a 3-year prospective study of sudden deaths in exercising thoroughbreds concluded that 9 out of 11 deaths were attributable to EIPH (Gunson et al., 1988). By correlation of clinical signs, thoracic radiographs, ventilation/perfusion scintigraphy, gross and subgross pathology and histopathology in 26 affected thoroughbreds, EIPH has been associated with chronic small airway inflammation, proliferation of subpleural, peribronchial and septal bronchial arterioles, interstitial connective tissue fibrosis and alveolar septal disruption in the dorsocaudal lung lobes (O'Callaghan et al., 1987). From this work it was proposed that the initial insult of EIPH started as focal, dorsocaudal pulmonary peribronchial inflammation which resulted in bronchial arterial neovascularization. Haemorrhage then occurred when, during exercise, bronchial blood pressure increased in fragile capillary buds. The incidence of bronchitis/bronchiolitis, regardless of aetiology, has been estimated to be 30% in non-racing equine athletes and close to 100% in one group of racing thoroughbreds (Sweeney et al., 1989). Histological study of lungs from horses with mild, moderate and severe chronic small airway disease consistently revealed a greater density of lesions in the diaphragmatic lobes (Winder and von Fellenberg, 1988). To understand further the aetiology and/or pathophysiology of EIPH, we will first explore some aspects of general mammalian and specific equine pulmonary and bronchial vascular anatomy and physiology. Exercise-related changes in these systems in normal and EIPH-positive horses will be briefly reviewed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Identification of the second α-2-antiprotease of equine serum as antithrombin III

1. 1. The α-2-protease inhibitor, of 65,000 daltons molecular weight, described by several authors in horse plasma and also present as a contaminant in α-1-isoinhibitor isolates previously described by us (Pellegrini & von Fellenberg (1980) Biochim. biophys. Acta 616, 351–361) has now been isolated to purity and identified as antithrombin III. 2. 2. The inhibitor is composed of a single polypeptide chain as judged by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. 3. 3. The inhibitor was effective only against trypsin and thrombin. 4. 4. Serological cross-reaction existed between the inhibitor and the antiserum to human antithrombin III. 5. 5. An antiserum to our isolate, however, did not react with human antithrombin III. 6. 6. This confirms the results reported by Kurachi et al. (1976, Biochemistry 15, 368–372).

Abundances of iodine tellurium and uranium in meteorites

Neutron activation analysis was employed to determine the abundances of I, Te and U in seven bronzite and hypersthene chondrites, three enstatite chondrites and two carbonaceous chondrites. On the basis of twenty-three analyses, the mean abundances in p.p.m. for the three groups were: iodine, 0.040, 0.17 and 0.27; tellurium, 0.51, 2.1 and 1.9; uranium, 0.013, 0.011 and 0.017. In meteoritic iron (four analyses), these abundances covered a wider range, i.e. 11–320, 17–90 and <0.15- <0.6 p.p.b., whereas five analyses of troilite gave 24–3600, 1200–5000 and 3.5–17 p.p.b. These data indicate that Te, and to a lesser extent I, are chalcophile in iron meteorites. In chondrites, I and Te are strongly correlated, and appear to reside (in part) in the same phase, tentatively identified as CaS or MgS. Four of the meteorites in the present study had been previously analysed by von Fellenberg. His values are found to be uniformly too high by factors of 5–30. It seems likely that most of the data in his fundamental study of the geochemistry of iodine are systematically too high by comparable factors.

Chemical form of the iodine present in the hair of the rat.

SEVERAL authors have observed the presence of iodine in the hair of mammals (Elmer, 1938; p. 82). The quantity of iodine per 100 gm. of hair was found to be 0.108 mg. in man (von Fellenberg, 1926), from 0.008 to 0.053 mg. in the rabbit (Maurer and Ducrue, 1928), and 0.437 mg. in the albino rat (Leblond, 1951). In the last case, the concentration of iodine in hair was about 100 times greater than in other organs. It is well known that abnormalities of the fur and particularly a pronounced retardation of hair growth occur after thyroidectomy and that normalcy can be restored by administration of thyroid preparations (Harington, 1928). It was a reasonable possibility that the thyroid hormone had to be present within the hair to produce its growth-promoting effect. The hormone would thus provide the hair iodine (by weight thyroxine is 65%, and tri-iodothyronine, 58% iodine). The present investigation was undertaken to test this hypothesis

Dietary factors in the pathogenesis of simple goiter.

FOR centuries the cervical swelling known as “goiter” or “bronchocele” has remained a mystery that has intrigued the curious mind of both layman and physician. Although for over a century now it has been generally recognized that the underlying pathology of this condition is an enlargement of a peculiar paratracheal mass of tissue known as the “thyroid gland,” little advancement has been made toward a comprehension of the etiology of the disease since the middle of the last century, when Chatin published his classic experiments demonstrating an inverse relationship between the incidence of goiter and the concentration of iodine. Thanks to the work of such twentieth century pioneers as Marine, McClendon, von Fellenberg, Hercus, and others, the iodine-deficiency theory is now generally accepted, and the governments of some countries where goiter is common have passed, or are now attempting to have passed, legislation which makes the fortification of table salt with potassium iodide mandatory. Such action is...

CLINICAL EXPERIENCES IN THE USE OF DETERMINATIONS OF BLOOD IODINE

In the study of disease of the endocrine glands it is extremely important to be able to determine with accuracy the amounts of hormones present in the body. The results of assays of blood and urine for the amount of estrogenic hormone serve as indexes of the production of ovarian follicular hormone. 1 Assay for testicular hormone in the urine is of considerable assistance in the diagnosis of hypogonadism in the male, 2 and the estimation of the amount of the gonadotropic hormone in the blood and urine by various methods gives a means of estimating the activity of the pituitary gland. 3 The value for blood iodine may be used as a direct indication of the activity of the thyroid gland. Various methods have been described by which determinations of blood iodine may be made. Modifications of the von Fellenberg technic 4 have been used successfully, but the method

AN IODINE TOLERANCE TEST FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THYROID FUNCTION

On the basis of a relationship between the utilization of iodine and the morphological and functional properties of the thyroid gland, it seems reasonable to presume the existence of a variation in the iodine metabolism as an accompaniment of secretory disturbances of this organ. The validity of such a presumption has been verified by the work of several investigators. The development of methods suitable for the estimation of minute quantities of iodine in biological materials has been the means of making studies of the iodine metabolism possible. In 1922, von Fellenberg (1) described a microprocedure for the determination of iodine and thus contributed the principles of a technique which has furnished a new approach to the clinical investigation of thyroid disease. After establishing the values for the iodine content of human blood under physiological conditions, Veil and Sturm (2) in 1926 reported that the blood iodine was increased in hyperthyroidism and decreased in hypothyroidism. These observations ...

IODINE AND THYROID HYPERPLASIA

R. G. TURNER, Ph.D. Assisted by Mina Z. Weeks A systematic study of the iodine content of human milk during the period of lactation may enlighten one's course in combating or preventing thyroidhyperplasia. The following report is a step in this direction. LITERATURE The ideas expressed in the literature on thyroid disease are so varied and confusing that it is difficult to form a definite and concise conclusion regarding the functions and mechanism involved. Further, examination of the literature reveals little regarding the iodine content of mother's milk and its variations during the period of lactation. Most of the studies reported have been on colostrum. Maurer and Diez 1 (1926) saponified colostrum with 25 per cent potassium hydroxide. After evaporation and ashing they extracted with alcohol and determined the iodine content colorimetrically after the method of von Fellenberg. 2 They found that colostrum has a high iodine value with decided

THE RANGE OF EFFECTIVE IODINE DOSAGE IN EXOPHTHALMIC GOITER

The normal daily requirement of the body for iodine has never been determined. Indirect evidence on the question is offered by analyses for iodine of soil, water, air and various foodstuffs as they occur in different parts of the world. 1 The foods richest in iodine are certain sea foods, but even these contain only from 0.07 to 2.4 mg. per kilogram, and most foods in the average dietary contain much less. McClendon and Williams 2 found that even in those districts of the United States in which the drinking water is relatively rich in iodine, it would be necessary to drink 10 liters of water daily in order to take in 0.10 mg. of the element by this means. McClendon and Hathaway 3 and von Fellenberg 4 have made valuable measurements of the ingestion and excretion of iodine in normal persons. The first observers, in a three day study of a normal subject,

EFFECT OF ACID AND ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS ON THE ESTIMATION OF HEMICELLULOSE AND ASSOCIATED GROUPS IN YOUNG APPLE WOOD

The greater portion of the food reserve and structural network in plants is composed of carbohydrate material. In the vegetative tissue and seed of many plants, there exists a group of hexosan-pentosan polysaccharides to which Schulze has given the name of These hemicelluloses are easily hydrolyzed by dilute acids into simple hexose and pentose sugars or may be isolated from the tissue in the colloidal form by means of weak caustic solutions. The characterization of this group of substances is even less specific than our present definition of cellulose. This apparent indefiniteness of classification is due partially to the fact that neither of the above methods of isolation effects a sharp separation of cellulose from lignin and the associated hemicellulose groupings. As a means of orientation in the general problem of investigating the distribution and function of these polyhexose-pentose structures in the metabolism of the plant, it became of interest to study the two usual methods of their determination, and further to note the effect of such procedures upon the tissue components associated with them. An attempt was also made to identify the sugars present in the hemicellulose fraction. No effort will be made here to review the voluminous literature pertaining to the distribution of these anhydride sugars in plants. The earlier work of Schulze (27, 28) has been enlarged through the efforts of O'Dwyer (22, 23, 24), Candlin and Schryver (3), Norris and Schryver (21), and Ling and Nanji (15) in a series of papers dealing with the isolation, properties and constitution of the hemicelluloses. Karrer (13) found a reserve cellulose (lichenin) present in lichens which yielded only glucose upon hydrolysis. O'Dwyer (23) and Ehrlich (7) have shown that hemicelluloses are not true carbohydrates (pentosans, hexosans), but also contain acid groups of the glucuronic type and are more nearly like the pectins than like true cellulose. Von Fellenberg (33) Ehrlich (7) and Candlin (3) suggest the possibility that hemicelluloses may prove to be the intermediate stage between pectin and lignin because of the fact that unlignified tissues have a larger proportion of pectins than hemicellulose, while in the lignified material the opposite is true. The transition of pectin into hemicellulose is presumed to occur through a process of decarboxylation (24). In the resolution of the hemicelluloses during acid or alkaline hydrolysis certain changes are produced in the residual tissues. These changes may alter the composition of the hemicellulose fraction. Norris and Schryver

Scientific Serials

THE report of the meeting of Swiss Naturalists (Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft) in Solothurn on the 23–25 August, 1869, opens with an admirable presidential address on the progress of scientific investigation in Switzerland, by Prof. Lang. The reports of the sections contain numerous short notices of memoirs read, but among these are some of greater length and importance, such as a report by Dr. Hengi on his experiments in the culture of Saturnia Yama-maya and S. mylitta, a notice by M. F. Hermann on the use of Saussure's hair-hygrometer for scientific observations, a paper on creosote and other products by Prof. Völkel, a communication on fluorescence by Prof. Hagenbach, and a paper (printed in full) by Dr. von Fellenberg, containing analyses of some nephrites and jadeites, including a stone implement of the latter mineral from Möhringen-Steinberg, which he regarded as having been imported from the east. From his analyses of nephrites from different localities, it appears that they contain silica and magnesia in equal equivalents, but that the proportion of each of these to the lime varies as 7, 7 1/2), 8, 9: 3. Hence he regards them as forming not a definite mineral species, but a group of silicates of magnesia and lime formed by the metamorphosis of rocks of similar composition. He does not consider the nephrites allied to the amphiboles and augites. The memoirs include a report by Prof. Pictet de la Rive on the present state of the question as to the limits of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, a notice of which has already appeared in NATURE; an account of the Miocene Flora of Spitzbergen, by Prof. Oswald Heer; and a report on the investigation and preservation of the erratic blocks in Switzerland, by MM. A. Favre and L. Soret. An amusing account of the festal doings of the Society concludes the volume.