999 was the world's first number for automatically telephoning the emergency services. It was introduced in London in 1936 following a disaster in 1935 in which five women died in a fire in Wimpole Street while a neighbour was unable to contact the telephoneexchange which was jammed with calls. The General Post Office which ran the telephone network at the time suggested that an easy to remember three digit number, which could be easily located in the dark or in smoke, be introduced which would cause a light to flash at the exchange alerting the operators to the urgency of the call. The number 111 was rejected as it could be accidentally dialled by knocking the receiver - telephones at the time were pulse dialled - 000 could not be used as the first 0 would make it impossible to prioritise and so 999 was adopted. One year after 999 calls were introduced in London they were introduced into Glasgow. Research 999
Cajanus is a genus of Leguminous plants of the sub-family Papilionacea. The only species, Cajanus indicus, is a valuable pulse found in the tropics where it is commonly called Congo Pea or Dhal. Research Cajanus
The chick pea (Cicer arietinum) is an annual herb of the family Leguminosae. It grows wild along the shores of the Mediterranean and in many parts of the East, producing a short puffy pod with one or generally two small wrinkled seeds. It is an important article in French and Spanish cookery, and the plant is cultivated in Europe, Egypt, Syria, India, Mexico, etc. When roasted it is the common parched pulse of the East. The herbage serves as fodder for cattle. Research Chick pea
Claudius Galenus (Claudius Galen) was an ancient Greek medical writer and physician. He was born in 130, at Pergamus in Asia Minor and died in 200. His father, Nicon, an architect and mathematician, gave him a careful education, and he studied under physicians in Smyrna, Corinth, Alexandria, etc, afterwards visiting Cilicia, Phoenicia, and Palestine. He returned in 103 to Pergamus, where he received a public appointment, but five years later went to Rome, and there acquired great celebrity by his cures.
Driven thence by envy, he again travelled for some time and resumed his labours in his native town, but was soon after invited to Aquileia by the Emperors Marcus Aurelins and Lucius Verus in 169.
He followed Marcus Aurelius to Rome, and appears to have remained there for some years before finally retiring to Pergamus. The closing part of his life, however, is obscure. One Arabic writer says that he died in Sicily, and Suidas states that he died at the age of seventy, and accordingly in the year 200 or 201, but it is not improbable that he lived longer.
The writings attributed to Galen include eighty-three treatises acknowledged to be genuine, forty-five manifestly spurious; nineteen of doubtful genuineness, and fifteen commentaries on different works of Hippocrates, besides a large number of short pieces and fragments, probably in great part spurious. The most valuable of his works were those dealing with anatomy and physiology, and he was the first to establish the consultation of the pulse in diagnosis and prognosis. Untill the middle of the 16th century his authority in medicine was supreme. Research Claudius Galen
Michaela Strachan is an English television presenter. She was born in 1966 at Ewell, Surrey. She first appeared as a presenter of the 1984 'Wide Awake Club' which suddenly saw its rating soar as all over the British Isles fathers suddenly started sitting down with their children to watch the Michaela Strachan who was completely oblivious of the pulse-racing effect she was causing. Research Michaela Strachan
The brachial artery conveys blood to the upper arm. It begins at the tendon of the teres major and extends to just below the elbow joint. It then branches into the radial and ulnar arteries. You can feel your pulse by placing your fingertips along the brachial artery at the bend of the elbow along the inner margin of the biceps muscle. Research Brachial Artery
The arteries that provide the major portion of blood supply to the head and neck are the left and right common carotid, each of which divides into two branches: the external carotid, supplying the neck, the face, and the exterior of the head; and the internal carotid artery, supplying the anterior brain, eye, orbit, and sinuses. You can feel your pulse by placing your fingertips along the common carotid artery in the neck. Research Carotid Arteries
Consumption, or Phthisis was a name formerly given for various diseases known by emaciation (serious loss of weight), debility, cough, hectic fever, and purulent expectoration, particularly tuberculosis which was unknown at the time. The predisposing causes were believed to be very variable, and around 1900 were reliably listed as: hereditary taint, scrofulous diathesis, syphilis, small-pox, etc; exposure to fumes and dusty air in certain trades; violent passions and excess of various kinds, sudden lowering of the temperature of the body, etc. The more immediate or occasional causes were thought to be pneumonic inflammation proceeding to suppuration, catarrh, asthma, and tubercles in the lungs, the last of which is was by far the most general.
The incipient symptoms usually varied with the cause of the disease; but when it arose from tubercles it was usually marked by a short dry cough that became habitual, but from which nothing was spat up for some time except a frothy mucus. The breathing was at the same time somewhat impeded, the body became gradually leaner, and great languor, with indolence, dejection, and loss of appetite prevailed. At a later stage the cough became more troublesome, particularly by night, and was attended with an expectoration, the matter of which assumed a greenish colour and purulent appearance, being on many occasions streaked with blood. In some cases a more severe degree of blood-spitting attended, and the patient spat up a considerable quantity of florid, frothy blood. At a more advanced period of the disease a pain was sometimes felt on one side in so high a degree as to prevent the person from lying easily on that side; but it more frequently happened that it was felt only on making a full inspiration, or coughing.
At the first commencement of the disease the pulse was often natural, but it afterwards became full, hard, and frequent. At the same time the face flushed, particularly after eating, the palms of the hands and soles of the feet were affected with burning heat; the respiration was difficult and laborious; evening exacerbations became obvious, and by degrees the fever assumed the hectic form with remittent exacerbations twice every day, at noon and evening. From the first appearance of the hectic symptoms the urine was high coloured, and deposited a copious branny red sediment. At this time the patient was usually costive; but in the more advanced stages a diarrhoea often came on, colliquative sweats likewise broke out, and these alternated with each other, and induced great debility.
Some days before death the extremities became cold. In some cases a delirium preceded that event. The morbid appearance most frequently to be met with on the dissection of those who had died of phthisis was the existence of tubercles in the cellular substance of the lungs, most usually at the upper and back part, or occupying the outer part, and forming adhesions to the pleura.
By about 1905 the tubercles were generally attributed to a special bacillus, and this was correctly being regarded as the originating cause of the disease, which could be conveyed from one person to another, that is, it was infectious. In fact, what had been discovered was Tuberculosis, but as it was not yet identified, various diseases were being blamed and the whole grouped under the popular term 'consumption'.
The treatment for consumption at the end of the Victorian era in Britain was based around healthy diet and fresh air, one source quoting: 'The diet should be nutritious, but not heating, or difficult of digestion. Milk, especially that of the ass; farinaceous vegetables; acescent fruits; animal soups; and, above all, cod-liver oil, etc, are usually given. It is also of the utmost importance to see that the digestive organs are in proper working order. As much open air as possible, combined with abundance of nutritious food, is at present the treatment in vogue. With regard to urgent symptoms requiring palliation, the cough may be allayed by demulcents, but especially mild opiates swallowed slowly; colliquative sweats by acids, particularly the mineral; diarrhoea by chalk and other astringents, or by small doses of opium.' Research Consumption
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
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Abbreviations
Research 999
