Traditional veterinary medicine in India.

A tradition of veterinary therapy developed very early in India and this has survived to the present time. Based on the Ayurveda ('knowledge concerning longevity'), a medical art which had its roots in the literature of the Veda (1500-1000 BC), Indian veterinary medicine is known for its specialised literature, which provides information on ancient methods of preventing and treating diseases of animals before the advent of modern medicine. Some of these treatments, little known outside India, are still practised today.

Repertory, therapeutic indications, chemical analysis and cultural background of mineral drugs of Afghanistan.

The traditional uses of minerals drugs and chemical products for medicine were studied in Afghanistan. Twelve medicinal drugs have been identified by chemical investigations and are presented in one table with the vernacular names (in Dari, Pasto and Kati); the origins and the therapeutical uses are listed in another table with their cultural background in pre-Islamic (Greek and Indian medicines) and Islamic pharmacopoeia (Afghano-Persian and Arabian medicines). Twenty-six other mineral drugs are also mentioned.

Repertory of drugs and medicinal plants used in traditional medicine of Afghanistan.

The traditional uses of plants for medicine were studied in Afghanistan. To date, 215 medicinal plants have been identified and are presented in a table with the vernacular name (in Dari, Pashto and Kati), the geographical and ecological distribution, and the medicinal use. This study of traditional medicine demonstrates a close relationship between the kinds of medicinal plants used and pathology, and thus may serve as an indicator of the major health problems of the people.

Arrow poisons in south Asia. Part 1. Arrow poisons in ancient India.

The use of arrow poisons in ancient India is discussed. While it is possible that Mesolithic hunting communities may have applied poison to their arrows, passages in the Rg Veda and Atharva Veda indicate its use in warfare. The meaning of the word -ala, used in the Rg Veda to denote the poison smeared on the arrowheads, is examined; but the available evidence, while almost certainly excluding a mineral (arsenical) source, does not allow a conclusion to be drawn between an animal and/or plant origin. Certain hymns in the Atharva Veda point to aconite tubers as one source. Later Sanskrit (and Buddhist) literature shows that poisoned arrows continued to be used and that a second source of poison was (putrefying) snakes--a source confirmed by an account in the classical literature of Alexander the Great's campaign in western India. Detailed descriptions of the symptoms and methods of treatment of wounds caused by poisoned arrows are to be found in the Sanskrit medical literature.

[Painful stumps after digital amputations]. / Moignons douloureux après amputations digitales.

Two etiologic groups of painful digital amputation stumps may be seen, each calling for a different type of treatment. One-fourth of painful amputation stumps are due to excessive nociperception and their management usually consists of local treatment. The other three-fourths are due to thalamic sensitive deafferentation and call for neurosurgical treatment if discriminative sensitivity has not been reestablished in the painful zone. Intermittent thalamic stimulation is our choice and has led to recovery in 25 out of 26 patients who have been submitted to this type of treatment.

Cultural background of the medicinal plants of Yemen.

The study of the traditional use of medicinal plants of Yemen in the old pre-islamic and islamic pharmacopoeia has shown that: (1) the traditional medicine actually used in this country belongs to the old arabic medicine, itself similar to Greek and Indian medicines; (2) this medicine is highly original according to the great number of plants, indigenous or specific, of the Yemenite pharmacopoeia, which are not recorded in the literature, and to the high percentage of therapeutic indications belonging to Yemen which are unknown elsewhere.

[Treatment of various dyskinesias by intermittent thalamic stimulation]. / Traitement de certaines dyskinesies par stimulation thalamique intermittente.

Abnormal movements or dyskinesias are associated with hyperpathia and hyperalgesia in a number of conditions such as post amputation jumping stumps pseudothalamic syndromes following cerebro vascular accidents and in some cases of demyelinating diseases. Intermittent electrical stimulation of the specific sensory nucleus of the thalamus (I.T.S.) controls at the same time pain and dyskinesias with the same long lasting effect. In some cases where dyskinesias are associated with sensory deafferentation, but not with chronic pain or hyperpathia, the same positive effect of thalamic stimulation on the control of abnormal movements is achieved while in other cases of tremor or dyskinesias without sensory deafferentation such as parkinsonism, intention tremor etc.. the efficacy of I.T.S. is nil. Hence, discriminative sensory deaffrentation is the common link between the cases of tremor or dyskinesias that use to respond to I.T.S. which is up to now the only therapy of proven efficacy in such conditions.

[Transformation of body scheme caused by thalamic stimulation. Thalamic stimulation for painful phantom limb (author's transl)]. / Modification du schéma corporel sous stimulation thalamique. A propos des stimulations thalamiques pour membres fantômes douloureux.

Intermittent stimulation of the parvo cellular portion of the nucleus ventralis posterolateralis (VLP) was able to control both pain and phantom limb phenomenon. The authors insist upon the transformation of the "body scheme" caused by an operation which does not alter the somesthesic function. The sensorial delusion of a phantom limb is probably related to an insufficiency of sensitive information at thalamus level.

Control of dyskinesias due to sensory deafferentation by means of thalamic stimulation.

Intermittent stimulation of the parvocellular portion of the nucleus ventralis posterolateralis (V.P.L.) by means of chronically implanted electrodes and stimulus generator was performed in 124 patients for the control of chronic intractable pain. Among these, 11 showed spontaneous abnormal movements within the painful area: 6 post amputation "jumping stumps"; 4 pseudothalamic syndromes and 1 Von Benedikt's syndrome following a cerebrovascular accident. Electrical stimulation of the V.P.L. was able to control both pain and abnormal movements in all cases. The technique was applied with an equally good result in a case of choreoathetotic syndrome without pain but with severe sensory disturbances following a demyelinating process. Attempts made to control action tremor, parkinsonism and other dyskinesias not associated with sensory deafferentation in 12 cases failed. The same mechanism seems to be responsible for pain and dyskinesia in cases of sensory deafferentation, and thalamic stimulation might work as a substitute for sensory information delivered to the nucleus ventralis posterolateralis.

[Present state of pain surgery]. / Etat actuel de la chirurgie de la douleur

This report presented to the Société de Neurochirurgie de Langue Française is based on 34 years of unique practice in neurosurgical management of pain; during that long period the author and his associates have collected an unusually large experience in almost every field of neurosurgical management of pain; they have improved or fully devised several new techniques which allow them to ground an appreciation of the procedures still worthy to be used in various pain syndromes. The first part of the report deals with "Cybernetics of pain". This rather long chapter is based both on classical data and personal observations on man during and following operations, meant to relieve pain. Though supporting HEAD and HOLMES, theory on Control of protopathic by epicritic Stimuli, the authors consider that the type of pain associated with noxious stimulation as representative of just one among other types of pain, not induced by nociception and not associated with protection reflexes. Sensory deafferentation as can be produced by amputations, herpes zoster, dorsal column or medullary lesions, cannot be included in Sherrington's scheme of psychical mechanisms associated with protection reflexes and yet is responsible for most of the chronic unbearable and often intractable pain. Moreover, an important modulation of pain as such depends on conditioning, on inherited and acquired patterns of behaviour and on a multiplicating factor which is provisionally named "algogenic neurosis". The fact that an intact nucleus ventralis posterolateralis is a necessity for a "no pain status" tends to prove that this thalamic nucleus acts as a major inhibiting relay on the pain integrating system and for several additional reasons is the level of integration of epicritic versus protopathic stimuli in case of true nociception...

Intermittent stimulation of nucleus ventralis posterolateralis for intractable pain.

A number of patients with intractable pain were subjected to electrical stimulation of the nucleus ventralis posterolateralis. Positive results obtained support the theory according to which pain is caused by lack of proprioceptive stimuli reaching the thalamus. The implantation technique is discussed and improvements of electrodes and of the device are proposed. Optimal stimulation parameters are defined.