jaw@ames.UUCP (James A. Woods) (05/21/85)
# "Most of all, I like to watch the gall bladder operations, since they're
so colorful."
-- Shirley Temple Black, commenting on one of her hobbies.
Since 95% of all conversations descend to the anatomical, I'd like to
quickly, and cathartically, advertise a few of my favorite medical journals,
working as I do upstairs from a life sciences library. These include
Pain
Sleep
Bone
Brain
"Pain", with its artery-red title embossed upon a vein-blue cover is
of especial amusement -- for this month, aside from the enlightening editorial
on "Itch", we have the magnificent article by Beverly Whipple and Barry
Komisaruk (vol. 21, p. 357-367):
"Elevation of Pain Threshold by Vaginal Stimulation in Women"
The abstract is rather boring, and the text itself is deliberately stark in
its dispassion. Anything beginning with "Previous studies in this laboratory
have shown that vaginal stimulation (VS) in rats blocks behavioral responses
to noxious stimulation (e.g. leg withdrawal to foot pinch [15], vocalization
to tail shock [16], and tail flick away from radiant heat [24]), VS was far
more effective than a standard analgesic dose of morphine sulfate..." has
got to be a gut-wrencher, or to some [you, helpless and dear readers] a
vicarious thrill. Within this particular contribution to science, the
monotonic bar graph plotting the labels
"Pre-VS Control" "Post-VS Control" "TV" "Fur Mitt" (!)
"VS at 1 min" "VS at 5 min" "VS-Pleas. at 1 min" ...
"VS-Pleas. to Orgasm"
makes one wonder if the experimental subjects were paid well for their efforts.
For the nonspecialist, the British weekly New Scientist closely monitors
the more eccentric contributions to the medical art. Just to prove that the
male species is equally poked and prodded, they report in the March 28 issue
that penile injury brought about by vacuum cleaners is in the news again,
having captured an unusual amount of public interest about four years ago.
What red-blooded male could forget the "Hoover Dustette" reportage in
New England J. Med. some time ago?
The entertaining New Scientist relays the tidbit that a new
scientific unit has been created. It's called the PENRIG (100 grams tissue
moving a sensor 1 millimetre). c.f. the related article by J. M. Barry
"Nocturnal penile tumescence monitoring with stamps", Urology,
15:171, 1980.
No stiffs these blokes!
Well, back to the breathtakingly detailed lithographic plates we have
here of frozen cadaver cross-sections. Oh, I must note that my reading
tastes at home are much less lurid -- I really prefer the bedside company
of children's stories by Edward Gorey and Roald Dahl.
-- James A. Woods (ames!jaw)