February 08, 2019 Friday
Bedtime Story
Origins of Humorism
Emotions and religious fervor reign supreme
in most societies at the cost of rational behavior.
Collective wisdom is generally lost at the
cost of individual one-upmanship.
Perhaps England as a society is in some
sense superior to others to be able to enforce laws to a better extent than
others.
Even though not used anymore for bathing
purpose the Roman Baths in the city of Bath are major tourist attractions
drawing in over a million visitors every year.
We must never forget that the Austrian
obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis was castigated and ridiculed when he had first
proposed this idea of microbes as a causative reason for diseases which
probably drove him to insanity.
Many Hindus and other apes from various
cultures still find this idea appealing and hold on to it as an accessory aid
beyond modern medicine.
They find absolutely no contradiction
between the fundamental basis of ayurveda and scientific truths.
It should make you sit up (in case you are
lying down and reading this bedtime story) and ask the question:
On what basis was this theory of four
humors founded?
And why use specifically humors used and
not any other form of substance such as solid or gas?
Since the idea lasted so long there must
have been something physically existing that convinced so many for so long.
I think if a medical doctor would be made
to think hard he would get the idea sooner or later.
The answer to the origins of the humorism
of Hippocrates lies in a well known test known as the erythrocyte sedimentation
rate or more popularly by the masses as the ESR.
The test was devised by a Polish
pathologist by the name of Edmund Biernacki in 1921who was the first person to
note a correlation between the rate at which the red blood cells sediment and
the systemic condition of an organism.
It is for this reason that in many
non-English speaking nations of this world the ESR is also known as Biernacki
Reaction.
ESR also known as the sed rate is the
determination of the rate of sedimentation of red blood cells or erythrocytes
of anticoagulated blood placed in a specific Westergren tube.
It was Dr. Alf Vilhelm Albertsson
Westergren who used this test in 1921 to study the progress of tuberculosis.
Most of you who are able to tolerate my few
lines of bedtime stories and manage to read it through before falling asleep
would be aware that the sedimentation rate of erythrocytes increases during
conditions that induce inflammation in the body.
Yet I am quite certain you would not be
aware of the exact mechanism for such an effect.
We shall see the story behind it in the
nights to come.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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