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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: while my catarrh gently weeps...
Message-ID: <324@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Jul-85 13:12:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.324
Posted: Wed Jul 31 13:12:49 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Aug-85 19:32:29 EDT
References: <1049@cbdkc1.UUCP> <467@cadre.ARPA> <1066@cbdkc1.UUCP> <245@bbncc5.UUCP> <1072@cbdkc1.UUCP>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Distribution: na
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 40
Summary: 

In article <1072@cbdkc1.UUCP> tjs@dkc1.UUCP ( Tom Stanions) writes:

>>What is catarrh?  What is it made of?  How does it "build up?"
>>Why has modern medical science ignored this important, um, thing,
>>um, waste product, um, elan vital?  Sheesh!
>>
>>/Steve Dyer
>
>I have tried to make it a point that people survived well before 20th century
>meidicine.  Must all knowledge prior to 1900 be trashed out so that modern
>medicine can continue it's research?  Modern medicine's ignorance of catarrh is
>most interesting.  

You haven't answered Steve's questions. If the existence of something
called 'catarrh' (which my dictionary defines as an obsolete name for
an inflammation of a mucous membrane) is to be accepted by the rest of
us as a possible causal agent in illness, you're going to have tell us
WHAT it is and WHY there's been a conspiracy to suppress this
'knowledge.' Science and medicine involves the refinement of models
based on acquired information. Many 19th century and earlier models of
the body were based on incomplete knowledge and incorrect
observations. The brain was once thought (I seem to recall reading) to
be a kind of radiator or cooling organ for the blood, the heart was
the seat of emotions, etc. These earlier models were 'trashed' because
better models came along that better explain observed phenomena. 

As to people 'surviving well' prior to 20th century medicine, take a
look at the mortality rates for various diseases prior to 1900 and at
the changes in the mean life span over the last two or three
centuries. Conspiracy to suppress vital information, indeed.

Modern medicine's 'ignorance' of catarrh is no more interesting than
modern medicine's 'ignorance' of models of human behavior that were
popular in Shakespeare's day. I don't know what to suggest if you
don't believe that modern medicine knows more about the body  and
human behavior than ancient medicine, but I'm sure you can find a 
few hunter-gatherer groups that are looking for shamans if you try 
hard enough :-)

                             -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly