Subject natural history

Clearly, the intended use of a collection item is extremely important to determining the acceptabiHty of a treatment. The degree to which a treatment affects appearance is obviously of the greatest importance for an art object. On the other hand, in natural history collections the collections serve as research resources above all. The effect a preservation or conservation treatment has on these research appHcations is the main consideration. Collections of art, archaeology, history, science, technology, books, archival materials, etc, all have their own values in terms of balance between preservation needs and collections use, and these values are, moreover, constantly subject to reevaluation and change. 

Asbestos has been known and used for millennia (Theophrastus, fourth century B.C.). The subject of much scholarly comment since Pliny s Natural History and Dioscorides De Materia Medica in the first century, asbestos was known through a large quantity of fact and fable by the late seventeenth century when the modem era of mineral materials began (Plot, 1686 Ciam-pini, 1701 Gimma, 1730 Ledermuller, 1775 and Schroeter, 1772). 

The success of drug therapy in the treatment of epilepsy is singularly difiScult to assess owing to the extreme variability of the disorder, both in type of seizure pattern and the frequency with which attacks occur. The natural history of the disorder is also notoriously variable, further increasing the difficulties of assessing the contribution made by therapeutic agents. Moreover, the therapeutic aim varies from patient to patient. In one subject, for example, successful therapy may mean complete seizure control, while in another a reduction in seizure frequency from daily to weekly attacks may be considered adequate. 

The salt has heen extensively omployod for the preservation of subjects of natural history, and likewise for preserving wood against the dry rot. 

His work is not merely a record of facts, but is also full of the legends, myths, and superstitions of the time, often indeed recorded with protests against their absurdity, but often also soberly accepted. This feature, however, is of much human interest in giving an understanding of ancient points of view on many subjects. Taken all in all, the Natural History of Pliny is an extremely valuable compendium of the knowledge of his time, and in scope and comprehensiveness it far exceeds any other work which has come down to us in the domain it covers. 

Matter in its multeity forms the subject of chemistry while physics finds its task in the study of that which is common to the various manifestations of matter. On the one hand chemistry is, therefore, a descriptive science, a natural history of unmoulded, unorganized, non-living matter but, on the other hand, chemistry as an explanatory science has also the task of reducing this multeity to the multitude of combinations of a very restricted number of elementary concepts. 

Nearly everybody who has worked (on this subject) until now seems to have omitted this part so essential and common to natural history and chemistry, the most proper to shed light in one and the other of these two sciences. ... 

The editors concept of clinical chemistry, as stated in previous volumes of this serial publication, encompasses a wide field of subjects— from the mechanism of blood coagulation to the microbiological assay of vitamins, and from the significance of trace metals in health and disease to the therapeutic application of increased gas pressure. The natural history of clinical conditions and their comparison with normal controls share one common feature, namely, the central position of some species of molecules, be they small or large, all of them the natural subject of chemical research. Hence, practical methods develop, either manual or mechanized, the results of which become increasingly more useful for the clinician in diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis. 

The natural history of COPD is characterized by recurrent exacerbations associated with increased symptoms and a decline in overall health status. Because many patients experience chronic symptoms, the diagnosis of an exacerbation is based, in part, on subjective mea-... 

There were about 30 scientific meetings on Balkan nephropathy. Over 500 papers on the disease were published by the year 1970 [1]. By late 1980 s, this number rose to 3000 [2]. Sociopolitical turmoil, including wars, and economical hardship prevented any serious research on the problem during the 1990 s. In spite of numerous proceedings and a large number of publications on the subject, many features of Balkan nephropathy, its etiology and natural history in particular, remained nearly as mysterious as when described in the mid-fifties. 

Shulgin s work is what might be called the natural history of the chemistry of the mind. The work is largely descriptive the determination of which compounds are active, at what levels, and the characterization of their subjective qualitative effects (he has also done considerable work in developing techniques for the synthesis of these compounds). 

Peter Forey is a researcher in fossil fishes at the Natural History Museum, London, where he undertakes research into the anatomy and relationships of fishes, in particular coelacanths and primitive teleost fishes. While most of his research is specimen based, there is inevitably a theoretical component concerned with how relationships are discovered and how the results are expressed in diagrams and classifications. Within the field of paleontology there is division between those who advocate that the present is the key to the past, and those who believe that the past is the key to the present. Forey sides with the former, and explores ways in which the fossil record is best able to supplement our explanations of present diversity. He has contributed to and edited several volumes of essays concerned with such diverse subjects as the theory and practice of cladistics, the relationship between systematics and conservation, and the kinds of observations that can usefully reveal the paths of evolution. 

---