Articles: human.
-
Five strains of virus were recovered from nasal washings and feces. Four strains were of human origin, the fifth strain came from a monkey sacrificed at the height of the disease. Of the four human strains the first was isolated from the feces of a 14 year old child 7 days after the onset of illness. ⋯ The recovery of the virus from the feces 7 and 9 days after the onset of illness takes on added significance. It indicates first, that the virus withstands the gastric acidity which under normal physiological conditions tends to keep gastric contents relatively free of bacteria. It further suggests that improper disposal of feces from patients with poliomyelitis may have serious public health consequences, particularly in smaller communities where inadequate sewage disposal may result in contamination of surrounding beaches or even local water systems.
-
The use of mummy as a drug was widespread in Europe from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, and its employment lingered on for a hundred years later. Its supposed virtue was originally based upon the medicinal properties of natural bitumen obtained from the Dead Sea and elsewhere. During the Middle Ages mummy was obtained from embalmed human bodies-in Egypt-which were believed to have been prepared with bitumen. ⋯ The use of mummy in medicine did not finally become obsolete until the latter part of the eighteenth century. The supplies of mummy sold to apothecaries in Europe were first obtained from genuine Egyptian mummies, but when it became difficult to procure these, spurious substitutes were made from recently dead bodies which were medicated by the purveyors. Desiccated bodies from North Africa, and Guanche mummies from the Canary Islands, were also exported to Europe and sold to the apothecaries.