| "In the large intestine, a greater portion of the gases is derived from bacterial action, including especially carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen. They occur along with varying amounts of oxygen and nitrogen from swallowed air. When the methane and hydrogen become suitably mixed with oxygen from swallowed air, an actual explosive mixture is occasionally formed; the use of the electric cautery during sigmoidoscopy has, on rare occassions, caused colon explosions." (And a few words are worth a vivid mental picture...) |
| Guyton Medical Physiology p851 |
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| "Despite the high level of sanitation in any country, it still is possible for cattle to be exposed to the eggs of this parasite [beef tapeworm]. Cattle are coprophagous, and often will eat human dung, wherever they find it. In India, where cattle roam at will, it is common for a cow to follow a person into the woods, in hopes of obtaining a fecal meal." (I'm glad I'm not a cow if that is all they have to hope for...) |
| "Wandering adult worms [intestinal roundworm, a common parasite] cause various conditions, some serious, some bizarre, all unpleasant... Worms reaching the stomach are aggravated by the acidity and writhe about, often causing nausea. The psychological trauma induced in one who vomits an 18-inch ascarid is difficult to quantify." (I think "difficult to quantify" is an understatement, don't you?) |
| "Local traditions may contribute to massive infections [of a tapeworm transmitted by dogs]. Some tribes of Kenya, for instance, are said to relish dog intestine roasted on a stick over a campfire. Because cleaning of the intestine may involve nothing more than squeezing out its contents, and cooking may entail nothing more than external scorching, these people probably have the highest rate of infection with hydatids [cysts caused by this tapeworm] in the world." (Mmmmm, pass the ketchup.)
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The above three are from my parasitology textbook in undergrad. Boy, those were the days... |
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| In the midst of descriptions of very serious genetic disorders... "Most Europeans and Africans have wet ear wax, but 80% of Japanese and variable proportions of other Orientals have dry ear wax. Wet ear wax is dominant over the dry type." (Did we really want to know this?) |
Meisenberg, et al. Genetics handout, section G5 p.22 |
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| (Speaking of Y-linked chromosome disorders) "To date, the only important disease unequivocally assigned to the Y chromosome is maleness." (We all thought so.) |
| Meisenberg, et al. Genetics Handout, Ch. G4, p3. |
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| "Two thirds of all X-chromosomes in the population are in females, and therefore a lethal X-linked mutation has a 2 in 3 chance to appear first in a female [relatively harmlessly] before killing a male."
(You go girl! - um, I mean, do we sense some bitterness here?) |
| Meisenberg, et al.Genetics handout, Ch. G7, p6. |
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| "Every sensible person promptly associates the term 'statistics' with the thought: 'This is a bunch of lies.'" (So does this apply to the above statistic?) |
| August Bier |
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