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PubMed2001

The originality of Descartes' theory about the pineal gland.

René Descartes thought that the pineal gland is the part of the body with which the soul is most immediately associated. Several prominent historians (such as Soury, Thorndike and Sherrington) have claimed that this idea was not very original. We re-examine the evidence and conclude that their assessment was wrong. We pay special attention to the thesis about the pineal gland which Jean Cousin defended in January, 1641.

History, 17th Century↗
PubMedDate not supplied

William Penn and the peace of Europe.

The Quaker William Penn proposed a European Union to ensure peace in the continent in 1693. Penn was unusual among Quakers in being of the landed upper classes. When converted, he became a leader of the Quakers and other Dissenters. He had the two related ideals of peace and religious toleration, and dreamed of realizing both ideals in the New World. A practical idealist, he took advantage of four factors: friends at Court made through his social position; King Charles II's gratitude for services rendered by his father, Admiral Sir William Penn; the King's desire to conciliate the City merchants, who were ready to invest in Penn's scheme; and above all the King's concern to get North America settled by British colonists. Penn received a charter to found Pennsylvania in 1681. In England he worked hard, especially in collaboration with James II, for toleration for the cruelly persecuted Quakers and other Dissenters. In Pennsylvania he was able to establish complete toleration and his fair and friendly treatment gave the colony 70 years of peaceful co-existence with the Indians. In his essay on the peace of Europe, he virtually invented collective security and with amazing foresight planned in detail something very like the present European Union.

Christianity↗
PubMed2005

Language and values in the human cloning debate: a web-based survey of scientists and Christian fundamentalist pastors.

Over the last seven years, a major debate has arisen over whether human cloning should remain legal in the United States. Given that this may be the 'first real global and simultaneous news story on biotechnology' (Einsiedel et al., 2002, p.313), nations around the world have struggled with the implications of this newly viable scientific technology, which is often also referred to as somatic cell nuclear transfer. Since the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997, and with increasing media attention paid to the likelihood of a successful human reproductive clone coupled with research suggesting the medical potential of therapeutic cloning in humans, members of the scientific community and Christian fundamentalist leaders have become increasingly vocal in the debate over U.S. policy decisions regarding human cloning (Wilmut, 2000). Yet despite a surfeit of public opinion polls and widespread opining in the news media on the topic of human cloning, there have been no empirical studies comparing the views of scientists and Christian fundamentalists in this debate (see Evans, 2002a for a recent study of opinion polls assessing religion and attitudes toward cloning). In order to further investigate the values that underlie scientists' and Christian fundamentalist leader's understanding of human cloning, as well as their differential use of language in communicating about this issue, we conducted an open-ended, exploratory survey of practicing scientists in the field of molecular biology and Christian fundamentalist pastors. We then analyzed the responses from this survey using qualitative discourse analysis. While this was not necessarily a representative sample (in quantitative terms, see Gaskell & Bauer, 2000) of each of the groups and the response rate was limited, this approach was informative in identifying both commonalities between the two groups, such as a focus on ethical concerns about reproductive cloning and the use of scientific terminology, as well as significant differences including concerns over 'playing God' for the Christian pastors, focus on therapeutic cloning by scientists, and subtle but informative differences between the two groups in their use of scientific terminology and their interpretations of human cloning as scientific progress.

Attitude↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Changes in fertility relative to starting, stopping, and spacing behaviors in a migrating Mennonite community, 1775-1889.

Fertility change over time in a migrating Mennonite church congregation is reconstructed through genealogies developed from church registries of vital events during 1725-1924. The congregation was located in Prussia from 1725-1821, in Russia from 1822-1874, and in Kansas, U.S.A., from 1875-1924. Age-specific marital fertility rates were relatively low and usually peaked for women aged 25-29. Total fertility rates ranged from 1.19 to 5.29. These relatively low figures for a natural fertility population may partly reflect underreporting of births and deaths of infants, but it also reflects the heterogeneity in fertility evident for this population. Some women had many children while others were having either few or none. This pattern changed twice. Fertility was lowest during residence late in Prussia and early in Russia, peaked during residence late in Russia, and has decreased slightly for women born in the United States.

Birth Intervals↗