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Biomedical subjects

E J Griffith

Publications and source records attributed to E J Griffith.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1986

Racism, psychological injury, and compensatory damages.

Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have paid only modest attention to the idea that discriminatory conduct causes emotional suffering for those who are the object of it. However, courts have held that if such racist conduct is willful and outrageous and the ensuing suffering is severe, the plaintiff has a reasonable claim to compensatory damages. The authors trace these developments in the legal arena in both tort actions and complaints under civil rights statutes. They also point out how psychiatrists could be more influential in sharpening considerations about the idea that racism causes psychological injury.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1977

Phosphorus, a key to life on the primitive Earth.

The phosphorus of the primitive Earth was present as phosphates. It is strongly probably that a portion of the phosphate was present as condensed phosphates. The primitive Earth was highly deficient in the total available phosphorus until a sufficient quantity of phosphorus weathered from the igneous rocks in which it was entrapped. Approximately three billion years were required for the seas to become saturated. Until this time passed the seas acted as a giant sink for phosphorus, diluting it to the extent that all forms of life were deprived of the vital nutrient. When the seas became saturated, the rate of turn over of the phosphorus increased rapidly. As the seas pulsated, they left the excess precipitate phosphorus as sedimentary rock in locally righ deposits on which life could thrive.

Apatites↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Modern mankind's influence on the natural cycles of phosphorus.

When the molten surface of the earth solidified over 4 X 10(9) years ago the quantity of phosphorus to be contained in the storehouse of the new planet had already been resolved. The phosphorus was locked in an igneous lithosphere as orthophosphate. With the advent of the first primitive rainstorms the slow endless process of liberating the phosphorus from the igneous rock strata had begun. It required about 3 X 10(9) years for this process to supply enough soluble phosphates for the seas of the earth to become saturated with respect to apatites. Today slightly more than half of the phosphate is contained in sedimentary deposits. The established phosphorus cycles of the earth were almost independent of the activities of mankind for more than 4 X 10(9) years. Only in the past 200 years has the influence been worthy of consideration and as late as the 1960s too few reliable data were available for us to assess the status of our activities on the natural cycles. Today a reasonably clear picture is emerging.

Cyclization↗