Medical-scientific explanation

There is no general recognition of MCS in the medical establishment, because of a lack of consensus about whether or not it is a distinct medical condition. The confusion is caused by a lack of a conclusive medical-scientific explanation for MCS, although several possible causes and mechanisms have been proposed. See entry 27-... 

At this time (2009) there is no conclusive medical-scientific explanation for MCS and some controversy still exists over whether MCS is physical or psychosomatic (see also entry 28). The fol-... 

Although I know of no scientific explanation, some patients get relief in the last days or weeks of tapering by taking very small doses of a medication, for example, by breaking up a tablet of Xanax 0.5 mg into several relatively tiny pieces or by using an eyedropper to dispense 1 or 2 mg of fluid Paxil (paroxetine). 

The descendants of slaves, along with many other minorities in the United States, have had an historical, and to some extent continuing, experience of oppression and discrimination. The scientific and medical professions participated in that experience. The "scientific racism" of the nineteenth century predated the (re)discovery of genetics in 1900 one could date it at least to Linnaeus eighteenth-century classification of humans into four subspecies with its assignment of superiority to his own European subspecies. When the science of genetics arrived with the twentieth century, genetic explanations were quickly advanced for the perceived inferiority of minorities. 

Explanation is related to prediction the models or theories that explain phenomena sometimes enable predictions to be made about what would be observed in specific circumstances. The making of such observations is the essence of scientific experimentation. However, the complexity of the real world means that it is not always possible to make predictions. We may, in retrospect, be able to explain an event such as a hurricane or a crop failure, but we cannot predict whether there will be a hurricane or crop failure in a years time. Conversely, there are instances when we can make reliable predictions (for example that a medical treatment will be effective) but cannot explain why. These predictions are based on repeated experience and are not derived from an explanatory theory. 

The Tractatus Quinque concerned itself with other scientific questions beyond the medical, physiological, and chemical. For example, Mayow discussed the origins of water spouts as due to air turbulence (see Figures 151 and 152 see also Benjamin Franklin s studies of these phenomena and Figure 119 later in this book). Mayow s explanation of lightning and thunder are reminiscent of those of Paracelsus and imagine explosions between nitro-aerial spirit and sulphureous matter in the atmosphere. 

Two hypothetical conditions, each with the label of temporary brittle bone disease , are to be found in the medical literature and maybe offered in court as an explanation for unexplained fractures. The first described by Paterson et al. (1993) is believed by the authors to be the result of a temporary collagen synthesis defect, possibly as a result of copper deficiency or another metalloenzyme deficiency. The second, proposed by Miller and Hangartner (1999), is supposedly the result of intrauterine confinement causing a temporary defect in mineralisation. There is little scientific basis to justify the existence of either of these conditions (Chapman and Hall 1997 Mendelson 2005). 

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