The technical term placebo is precisely applied in the specialized medical domains of pharmacology, nosology, and aetiology to denote the pharmacologically inert, dummy simulator of an "active" drug that serves as a scientific control in clinical trials designed to determine the clinical efficacy of that particular drug.^[1] Jargon redirects here. ... A placebo, from the Latin for I will please, is a medical treatment (operation, therapy, chemical solution, pill, etc. ... Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) meaning drug, and logos (λόγος) meaning science) is the study of how chemical substances interact with living systems. ... Nosology (in Greek Nosos = Disease) is a branch of medicine that deals with classification of diseases. ... Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of Greek words aitia = cause and logos = word/speech) is used in philosophy, physics and biology in reference to the causes of various phenomena. ... In semiotics, denotation is the surface or literal meaning encoded to a signifier, and the definition most likely to appear in a dictionary. ... In English, to be inert is to be in a state of doing little or nothing. ... A simulation is an imitation of some real device or state of affairs. ... Oral medication Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world. ... A scientific control augments integrity in experiments by isolating variables as dictated by the scientific method in order to make a conclusion about such variables. ... In medicine, a clinical trial (synonyms: clinical studies, research protocols, medical research) is a research study. ... In general, efficacy is the ability to produce an effect, usually a specifically desired effect. ...

In particular, these clinical trials are conducted in order to determine whether a drug's supposedly active ingredients affect the subject through direct physiochemical processes or through mind-mediation.^[2]

Whether the object of your faith be real or false, you will nevertheless obtain the same effects. Paracelsus (1490-1541)

Paracelsus Paracelsus (November 11 or December 17, 1493 - September 24, 1541) was a famous alchemist, physician, astrologer, and general occultist. ...

Inertness

Although placebos are generally characterized as pharmacologically inert substances, sham treatments, or inactive procedures, they are only inert, sham, or inactive in the particular sense that they have no known cause and effect relationship with any of the pre-designated, biochemical, physiological, behavioural, emotional and/or cognitive outcomes of the pharmacologically active and known-to-be-efficacious intervention that might have otherwise been applied. Cause and Effect is considered by many fans to be one of the best episodes of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... Efficacy is the ability to produce a desired amount of a desired effect. ... See: Intervention (counseling) - an orchestrated attempt by family and friends to get a family member to get help for addiction or other similar problem. ...

They are, however, not inert, sham, or inactive in any other manner of speaking; and they may well, in and of themselves, generate considerable change within any given subject, at any given time, under any given circumstances.

Actually the question of inert versus active placebo is academic, because there is no such thing as an inactive substance. For example, distilled water injections can cause hemolysis and water intoxication. Ingestion of two 5-grain [325 mg] capsules of sacchari lactis [milk sugar], QID [quater in die, "four times a day"], for 30 years, can result in a weight gain of 30 pounds, so that even sugar can hardly be considered harmless, indifferent, or inert. (Shapiro, 1968, p.675)

Distilled water is water that has had virtually all of its impurities removed through distillation (boiling the water and re-condensing the steam into liquid water). ... Injection has multiple meanings: In mathematics, the term injection refers to an injective function. ... Hemolysis (alternative spelling haemolysis) literally means the excessive breakdown of red blood cells. ... Water intoxication (also known as hyperhydration or water poisioning) is a potentially fatal medical condition in which an individuals intake of water exceeds a safe amount. ... Ingestion is the action of consuming something orally, whether it be food, drink, medicine, or other substance. ... A grain is a unit of mass equal to 0. ... The word capsule (from the Latin capsula, a small box), has many similar meanings in English: In botany, a capsule is a type of dry fruit as in the poppy, iris, foxglove, etc. ... Lactose is the sugar making up around 2-8% of the solids in milk. ... The pound is the name of a number of units of mass, all in the range of 300 to 600 grams. ...

Applications of the term placebo

Whilst it is universally accepted that the Latin word placebo means "I shall please", the precise meaning of the English technical term placebo is not always immediately clear. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

In the strictest sense, the technical term placebo denotes the inert, dummy simulator of an "active" drug that serves as a control in the clinical trials of drug efficacy, that are conducted to determine whether a drug's supposedly active ingredients affect its recipients through direct physiochemical processes or through mind-mediation.

However, some such as Gaddum (1954, p.197) have taken the position that -- by contrast with the "counterfeit objects" that are genuinely "dummy drugs" (which "cannot be distinguished from the real treatment" and are "indistinguishable in appearance, taste and smell from the real [drugs]" and, by definition, "have no effect", and "are sometimes called placebos" -- only those "counterfeit objects" that really do have some biochemical, physiological, behavioural, emotional and/or cognitive effect on a subject, and produce that effect through a psychological (rather than pharmacological) mechanism, can truly be called placebos.

A placebo is something which is intended to act through a psychological mechanism. It is an aid to therapeutic suggestion, but the effect which it produces may be either psychological or physical. It may make the patient feel better without any obvious justification, or it may produce actual changes in such things as gastric secretion. Dummy tablets may, of course, act as placebos, but, if they do, they lose some of their value as dummy [control] tablets. They have two real functions, one of which is to distinguish pharmacological effects from the effects of suggestion, and the other is to obtain an unbiased assessment of the result of the experiment. (p.197)

In a far more general sense, the term placebo is also sometimes used to denote the pharmacologically inert, but subjectively soothing "sugar pill", electuary, or pharmaceutical syrup that a doctor might give a patient in order to gratify their need for treatment. A so-called sugar pill is a pill containing no medical ingredient; this pill is given to half of the subjects of a double-blind drug trial. ... An electuary is a medicinal paste composed of powders, or other ingredients, incorporated with some jam, honey, syrup, etc, for the purposes of oral consumption. ... In cooking, a syrup (from Arabic شراب sharab, beverage, via Latin siropus) is a thick, viscous liquid, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars, but showing little tendency to deposit crystals. ...

The term placebo may also be used pejoratively to mean a treatment or remedy that has no demonstrated efficacy whatsoever; and it is most often used to describe earlier forms of treatment to which some level of therapeutic efficacy had once been actively misattributed. Look up pejorative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Treatment may refer to: // Health Therapy - the act of remediation of a health problem. ... A remedy is the solution or amelioration of a problem or difficulty. ...

In everyday English, the word placebo is also used to denote a pharmacologically active drug, treatment or surgical procedure that has a positive, beneficial, desirable or pleasant outcome. The negative counterpart of this sort of placebo -- an active drug, treatment or procedure that has an injurious, undesirable or unpleasant outcome -- is called a nocebo. Surgical procedures have long and possibly daunting names. ... The nocebo effect is the phenonemon that a patient who believes a treatment will cause harm, will actually experience adverse effects. ...

…a therapy may be used with or without knowledge that it is a placebo. It would include treatments given in the belief that they were not placebos, but which actually are placebos by objective evaluation. The placebo may be inert or active and may include, therefore, all medical treatment no matter how potentially specific or how administered. It may take the form of oral and parenteral medication, topical preparations, inhalants, and all mechanical, surgical, psychotherapeutic, and other therapeutic techniques. It would include a treatment that produced symptoms or side effects which were not specific for that treatment. A placebo may or may not result in a placebo effect, and the effect may be favorable or unfavorable — that is, positive or negative.^[3]

In the absence of contextual evidence -- and, in particular, in the absence of any direct knowledge of the theoretical orientation of the individual who is using the term -- it may be quite impossible to accurately and unequivocally identify its meaning in a particular case, due to the extremely wide range of different (and possibly mutually exclusive) meanings to which the term may be applied. Oral can refer to: Oral, Kazakhstan — a city in western Kazakhstan, along the Ural (Zhayyq) River. ... In pharmacology and toxicology, a route of administration is the path by which a drug, fluid, poison or other substance is brought into contact with the body 1. ... Oral medication A medication is a licenced drug taken to cure or reduce symptoms of an illness or medical condition. ... In medicine, a topical medication is applied to body surfaces such as the skin or mucous membranes such as the vagina, nasopharynx, or the eye. ... Inhalants are a chemically diverse group of psychoactive substances composed of organic solvents and volatile substances commonly found in more than 1000 common household products, such as glues, hair spray, air fresheners, gasoline, lighter fluid, and paint. ... Psychotherapy is a set of techniques believed to cure or to help solve behavioral and other psychological problems in humans. ... The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: A symptom can be a physical condition which shows that one has a particular illness or disorder (see e. ... A side-effect is any effect other than an intended primary effect. ... See also ConTeXt, a macro package for the TeX typesetting system. ... In logic, two mutually exclusive (or mutual exclusive according to some sources) propositions are propositions that logically cannot both be true. ...

Uses of the term placebo

See Placebo (origins of technical term)#Applications of the term placebo Whilst it is universally accepted that the Latin word placebo means I shall please, the precise meaning of the English technical term placebo is not always immediately clear. ...

Homonymy vs. polysemy

This confusion and ambiguity within the term's application, to a large extent is due to the complex nature of the English word. For, rather than there being an extended range of linked polysemous meanings of a single term (i.e., placebo) that have multiplied, over time, from a single original source,^[4] many of the applications of the term placebo emanate from quite different sources. Polysemy (from the Greek πολυσημεία = multiple meaning) is the capacity for a sign or signs to have multiple meanings (sememes, i. ...

Consequently, the range of different usages of the term placebo are homonymous (rather than polysemous) usages; with significantly different concepts sharing the same spelling (as with the homonyms ear, bank, sound, corn, and scale).^[5] A homonym is a word that has the same pronunciation or spelling (or both) as another word, but a different meaning. ...

Origins of placebo (the simulator)

By the 8th century the Roman Catholic Church had established the final form and content of its Office of the Dead ritual. Catholic Church redirects here. ... The Office of the Dead was an office traditionally read before a burial mass in the Roman Catholic Church. ...

This ceremony was designed to bring solace to the living just as much as comfort to the dead. As part of the ritual, the celebrant would recite certain extended passages from scripture (mainly from the Psalms). At the end of each recited passage, the congregation would make a specific response (antiphon) to each recitation. The celebrant’s first recitation was Psalm 116:1-9^[6] -- or, Psalm 114:1-9 in Septuagint version^[7] -- and the congregation’s first responding antiphon was verse 9 of that Psalm.^[8] Psalms (Hebrew: Tehilim, תהילים) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh. ... This article is about the musical term. ... The Septuagint (LXX) is the name commonly given in the West to the Greek Alexandrine translation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) translated some time between the 3rd to 1st century BC. The Septuagint translation includes additional books and chapters of the Hebrew text, including the books of the...

The Roman Catholic Church had chosen Jerome’s first (circa 384) Greek-to-Latin version of the Vulgate as the source of the celebrant’s text, rather than his third (circa 405) Hebrew-to-Latin version. Jerome (ca. ... The Vulgate Bible is an early 5th century translation of the Bible into Latin made by St. ...

The Psalms in his first version were translated directly into Latin from the Septuagint’s Greek text. The Psalms in his third version had been translated directly from the Hebrew text of his day into Latin.^[9]

There is a significant difference in the Septuagint Psalm’s 114:9’s^[10] Latin translation, "placebo Domino in regione vivorum"^[11] ("I will please the Lord in the land of the living"), and the Hebrew Psalm's 116:9’s^[12] Latin translation, "ambulabo coram Domino in regione vivorum" ("I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living"^[13] -- which also matches the English of the King James Version^[14]) and the English version of the Islamic Zabur 116:9.^[15] This page is about the version of the Bible; for the Harvey Danger album, see King James Version (album). ... The Zabur (Arabic زبور), equated by some scholars with Psalms, is, according to Islam, one of the holy books revealed by Allah prior to the Quran (the others being the Tawrat and Injil). ...

In France, it was the custom for the mourning family to distribute largesse to the congregation immediately following the Office of the Dead ritual. As a consequence, distant relatives and other unrelated parasites would attend the ceremony, simulating great anguish and grief -- in the hope of, at least, being given a meal and something to drink. The Office of the Dead was an office traditionally read before a burial mass in the Roman Catholic Church. ...

This practice was so widespread that these parasites were soon recognized as the personification of all things useless; and were considered to be archetypical simulators. Because the grief simulators' first collective act was to chant "placebo Domino in regione vivorum" they were collectively labelled (in French) as either "Placebo Singers" or "Singers of Placebo"; and they were so labelled because they sang the word "placebo", not because they were "choral placaters", using their song to please. Personification is a term used in literary criticism to name the figure of speech which involves directly speaking of an inanimate object, or an abstract concept, as if were a living entity, often one with specifically human attributes. ... Archetype is defined as the first original model of which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are merely derivative, copied, patterned, or emulated. ... A simulation is an imitation of some real device or state of affairs. ...

In the light of all of the subsequent terminological confusion it is significant that, if Jerome’s third version of the Vulgate had been selected for the ritual’s text instead of the first -- or if the Septuagint’s translators had translated an entirely different Hebrew text -- the congregation’s first response would have been "ambulabo coram Domino in regione vivorum". As a consequence, the simulators would have been "Ambulabo Singers" or "Singers of Ambulabo".

By the time of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (circa 1386), the disparaging English expression placebo-singer, meaning a parasite or a sycophant, was well established in the English language.^[16] Chaucer: Illustration from Cassells History of England, circa 1902 Chanticleer the rooster from an outdoor production of Chanticleer and the Fox at Ashby_de_la_Zouch castle Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. ... Canterbury Tales Woodcut 1484 The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). ...

The English word placebo also denoted a sycophant,^[17] and it was this application of the word placebo that seems to have oriented those unaware of the term’s origins, over time, to the irrelevant fact that the Latin word placebo means "I shall please". Look up sycophant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

However, the first English meaning of "placebo" is simulator; and it denotes any thing that simulates any other thing (thus, A is a placebo, or simulator of B).

…for Distinction Sake, a Deceiving by Words, is commonly called a Lye, and a Deceiving by Actions, Gestures, or Behavior, is called Simulation… Robert South (1643-1716)^[18]

South was speaking of the differences between a falsehood and an honestly mistaken statement. The difference being that, in order for the statement to be a lie, the truth must be known -- and the opposite of that truth must have been knowingly uttered -- and, from this, to the extent to which a lie involves uttering deceptive words, a simulation involves the performance of deceptive actions, deceptive gestures, or deceptive behavior. Robert South (September, 1634 - July 8, 1716), was an English churchman. ... A lie is a statement made by someone who believes or suspects it to be false, in the expectation that the hearers may believe it. ... A lie is an intentionally false statement. ... La Vérité by the French painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre Common dictionary definitions of truth mention some form of accord with fact or reality. ... Wooden mechanical horse simulator during WWI. A simulation is an imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process. ... Deception is providing intentionally misleading information to others. ...

Thus, if a simulation is genuinely false, the real truth must be known in order for some other thing (i.e., other than the truth) to be presented in its stead; otherwise, one would not know what to offer up in simulation.^[19]

Origins of placebo (the morale-booster)

Hooper’s (1811) Quincy’s Lexicon-Medicum defines placebo as "an epithet given to any medicine adapted more to please than benefit the patient".

In the practice of medicine it had been long understood that, as Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) had expressed it, the physician’s duty was to "cure occasionally, relieve often, console always".^[20] Ambroise Paré. Ambroise Paré (1510 – December 20, 1590) was a French surgeon, the official royal surgeon for kings Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, is considered by some one of the fathers of surgery. ... Physician examining a child A physician is a person who practices medicine. ... Cure can be: successful treatment of disease preserve (meat, for example), as by salting, smoking, or aging (see curing) prepare, preserve, or finish (a substance) by a chemical or physical process (one example is the curing, or seasoning, of a cast iron pan; another is the curing of an adhesive...

According to Jewson, eighteenth century English medicine was gradually moving away from the patient having a considerable interaction with the physician -- and, through this consultative relationship, having an equal influence on the construction of the physician’s therapeutic approach -- and it was gradually moving towards that of the patient being the recipient of a far more standard form of intervention that was determined by the prevailing opinions of the medical profession of the day.^[21]

Jewson characterizes this as parallel to the changes that were taking place in the manner in which medical knowledge was being produced;^[22] namely, a transition all the way from "bedside medicine", through "hospital medicine", to "laboratory medicine".^[23] A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ... Biochemistry laboratory at the University of Cologne. ...

From this point of view, the last vestiges of the consoling approach to treatment are to be found in the administration -- often without any sort of adequate history being taken, or any sort of appropriate physical examination being made^[24] -- of the morale-boosting and pleasing remedies, such as the "sugar pill", electuary or pharmaceutical syrup;^[25] all of which had no known pharmacodynamic action.^[26] A so-called sugar pill is a pill containing no medical ingredient; this pill is given to half of the subjects of a double-blind drug trial. ... An electuary is a medicinal paste composed of powders, or other ingredients, incorporated with some jam, honey, syrup, etc, for the purposes of oral consumption. ... In cooking, a syrup (from Arabic شراب sharab, beverage, via Latin siropus) is a thick, viscous liquid, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars, but showing little tendency to deposit crystals. ...

Those doctors who provided their patients with these sorts of morale-boosting therapies -- which, whilst having no pharmacologically active ingredients, provided reassurance and comfort -- did so either to reassure their patients whilst the vis medicatrix naturæ (i.e., "the healing power of nature") performed its normalizing task of restoring them to health, or to gratify their patients’ need for an active treatment. Broadly, normalization (also spelled normalisation) is any process that makes something more normal, which typically means conforming to some regularity or rule, or returning from some state of abnormality. ...

To argue with a man, and especially with a woman, that there is little the matter with them might be thought injudicious, and to advise them to return at a more convenient occasion requires more time and resolution than writing out a prescription or administering a placebo. (Steele, 1891)^[27]

By contrast, Shapiro (1968) reports that many of his respondents expressed the opinion that, in cases such as these, it was wrong to think of the medication as inert:

If a placebo is prescribed by a physician because it is thought that it will help the patient, then it is a specific [remedy] and therefore not a placebo [at all].^[28]

An editorial in the British Medical Journal of 19 January 1952 warns that any failure of the placebo to affect the disorder for which the patient has presented for treatment may only serve to reinforce the patient's belief that they have a serious disease:

But it is a fallacy to suppose that an inactive medicine can do no harm. If prescribed in a perfunctory way for a patient needing explanation and reassurance it may increase faith in his disease rather than in the remedy, and a doctor who gives a placebo in the wrong spirit may harm the patient. (Anon, 1952, p.150)

More than sixty years ago, Pepper noted the significant fact that "there may be a time when during the carrying out of diagnostic tests it is undesirable to give potent medicine lest it interfere with the tests and yet the patient must be encouraged by treatment" (1945, p.411). He had this to say about the application of placebos in routine medical practice:

…there is a certain amount of skill in the choice and administration of a placebo. In the first place, it must be nothing more than what the name implies a medicine without any pharmacologic action whatever. Even a mild sedative is not a true placebo. Secondly, its name must be unknown to even the most inveterate patient who knows most drugs by name and is always quick to read the prescription. If the medicines named are familiar the type of patient who needs a placebo will promptly exclaim that this or that drug had been tried and "had not helped me" or "had upset my stomach". It is well if the drug have a Latin and polysyllabic name; it is wise if it be prescribed with some assurance and emphasis for psychotherapeutic effect. The older physicians each had his favorite placeboic prescriptions -- one chose Tincture of Condurango, another the Fluidextract [sic] of Cimificuga nigra. Certainly this latter by its Latin name might be expected to have more supratentorial action than if one merely wrote for the Black Cohosh, and Condurango would be more efficacious than sugar of milk.^[29]

1n 1954, Leslie lamented the fact that physicians were losing their skill in applying placebos: Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) meaning drug, and logos (λόγος) meaning science) is the study of how chemical substances interact with living systems. ... A sedative is a drug that depresses the central nervous system (CNS), which causes calmness, relaxation, reduction of anxiety, sleepiness, slowed breathing, slurred speech, staggering gait, poor judgment, and slow, uncertain reflexes. ... A patient is any person who receives medical attention, care, or treatment [1]. A patient is often ill or injured and is being treated by, or in need of treatment by, a physician or other medical professional. ... Prescription has various meanings. ... A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ... Psychotherapy is a set of techniques believed to cure or to help solve behavioral and other psychological problems in humans. ... In medicine, a tincture is an alcoholic extract (e. ... In anatomy the supratentorial is located above the tentorium cerebri. ... Binomial name Cimicifuga racemosa (L.) Nutt. ...

Because medicine has beeb so concerned with its scientific growth too little attention has been paid to advancing the art of medicine, to which therapy with placebos belongs, and consequently knowledge of the use of placebos has not progressed significantly.^[30]

Origins of placebo (the useless)

"Heroic medicine" had begun to fall from favour long before research scientists such as Robert Koch, Louis Pasteur, Frederick Hopkins and Casimir Funk demonstrated that the presence or the absence of specific agents could cause specific diseases, and long before the chemical laboratory orientation of Abraham Flexner’s 1910 Flexner Report had evolved into the evidence-based medicine of the 1970s. Heroic medicine is a term for aggressive medical practices or methods of treatment, and usually refers to those which were later superseded by scientific advances. ... Robert Koch For the American lobbyist, see Bobby Koch. ... Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French microbiologist and chemist. ... Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins (June 20, 1861 – May 16, 1947) was an English biochemist, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 with Christiaan Eijkman for the discovery of vitamins. ... Kazimierz Funk (February 23, 1884 - January 19, 1967), commonly anglicized as Casimir Funk, was a Polish biochemist, generally credited with the first formulation of the concept of Vitamins in 1912, which he called vital amines or vitamines. ... A disease is an abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person afflicted or those in contact with the person. ... Biochemistry laboratory at the University of Cologne. ... Abraham Flexner (November 13, 1866-September 21, 1959) was an American educator. ... The Flexner Report, written by the professional educator Abraham Flexner (1866-1959), advocated radical change in the way medical schools were run in Canada and the United States. ... Evidence-based medicine (EBM) applies the scientific method to medical practice. ...

As the earliest precursors of modern, scientific, conventional medicine began to emerge, medical scholars began to routinely question: A precursor is something that existed before and was incorporated into something that came later. ...

• the principles of their medical diagnosis and prognosis,
• the efficacy of their conventional medical practices,
• the correctness of their current anatomical, physiological and neurological knowledge, and
• the true scientific status of the drugs and therapies in their pharmacopoeia.

In many cases, active agents were identified within supposedly efficacious treatments; such as salicylic acid within decoctions of willow bark, which eventually led to the production of the drug aspirin. Diagnosis (from the Greek words dia = by and gnosis = knowledge) is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures. ... ... Greek anatome, from ana-temnein, to cut up), is the branch of biology that deals with the structure and organization of living things; thus there is animal anatomy (zootomy) and plant anatomy (phytonomy). ... Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. ... Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems. ... Pharmacopoeia (literally, the art of the drug compounder), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of samples and the preparation of compound medicines, and published by the authority of a government or a medical or pharmaceutical society. ... Salicylic acid is a colorless, crystalline organic carboxylic acid. ... Species About 350, including: Salix acutifolia- Violet Willow Salix alaxensis- Alaska Willow Salix alba- White Willow Salix alpina- Alpine Willow Salix amygdaloides- Peachleaf Willow Salix arbuscula- Mountain Willow Salix arbusculoides- Littletree Willow Salix arctica- Arctic Willow Salix atrocinerea Salix aurita- Eared Willow Salix babylonica- Peking Willow Salix barrattiana- Barratts... Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid is a drug in the family of salicylates, often used as an analgesic (against minor pains and aches), antipyretic (against fever), and anti-inflammatory. ...

However, it was also apparent that certain other treatments, such as the treatment of syphilis with salves made from mercury, had no efficacy whatsoever; and, regardless of the level of their acceptance within the medical profession, or the curative intentions associated with their administration, they were medically useless. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that is caused by a spirochaete bacterium, Treponema pallidum. ... Look up Salve in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Salve is a medical ointment used to soothe the eyes or other body surface. ... General Name, Symbol, Number mercury, Hg, 80 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 12, 6, d Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 200. ...

It was these sorts of useless decoctions, drugs, treatments, remedies and procedures that were given the pejorative label placebo -- the second edition of Motherby’s (1785) New Medical Dictionary defines placebo as "a common place method or medicine".^[31] Look up pejorative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Because this usage does not appear in English -- or in any English, French, German, Italian, or Portuguese dictionary -- prior to Motherby’s 1785 edition, Shapiro (1968, pp.656-657) is certain that this pejorative use of placebo was actually coined by Motherby.^[32] In linguistics, a neologism is a recently coined word, or the act of inventing a word or phrase. ...

Origins of placebo (the simulator in a clinical trial)

The aim of a clinical trial is to determine what treatments, delivered in what circumstances, to which patients, in what conditions, are the most efficacious;^[33] as well to obtain objective evidence of what treatments are efficacious and specific (i.e., rather than just being efficacious),^[34] or are intentionally efficacious and specific (i.e., rather than being just intentionally efficacious or inadvertently efficacious)^[35] In medicine, a clinical trial (synonyms: clinical studies, research protocols, medical research) is a research study. ...

In pursuit of these goals, the question “Who does what, with which, and to whom?” is central to task of identifying what are: specific effects (those for which the treatment was administered), non-specific effects (predictable "side-effects"), unintended effects (i.e., the placebo responses), or simply serendipitous effects of treatment (i.e., effects of the subject just being "in therapy").^[36] A side-effect is any effect other than an intended primary effect. ... Look up Serendipity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In 1747, James Lind (1716-1794), the Naval Surgeon on HMAS Salisbury, conducted what was most likely the first-ever clinical trial when he investigated the efficacy of citrus fruit in cases of scurvy. James Lind (1716 – 1794), born Edinburgh, Scottish Surgeon in the Royal Navy (1739-1748); physician to the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar (1758-1783); founder of naval hygiene in the United Kingdom and promoter of the use of citrus fruits and fresh vegetables to prevent and cure scurvy. ... In medicine, a clinical trial (synonyms: clinical studies, research protocols, medical research) is a research study. ... Species & major hybrids Species Citrus maxima - Pomelo Citrus medica - Citron Citrus reticulata - Mandarin & Tangerine Major hybrids Citrus x aurantifolia - Lime Citrus x aurantium - Bitter Orange Citrus x bergamia - Bergamot Citrus x hystrix - Kaffir Lime Citrus x ichangensis - Ichang Lemon Citrus x limon - Lemon Citrus x limonia - Rangpur Citrus x paradisi... Scurvy (N.Lat. ...

He randomly divided twelve scurvy patients, whose "cases were as similar as I could have them", into six pairs. Each pair was given a different remedy.^[37] He noted that the pair who had been given the citrus were so restored to health within six days of treatment that one of them returned to duty, and the other was well enough to attend the rest of the sick.^[38] Lind’s approach can still be seen in the way that the comparative efficacy of various treatments for particular sorts of cancer are determined, by examining and comparing the five year survival rates of those who have been treated with each of the different interventions. Species & major hybrids Species Citrus maxima- Pomelo Citrus medica- Citron Citrus reticulata- Mandarin & Tangerine Major hybrids Citrus × sinensis- Sweet Orange Citrus × aurantium- Bitter Orange Citrus × paradisi- Grapefruit Citrus × limon- Lemon Citrus × latifolia- Persian lime Citrus × aurantifolia- Key lime See also main text for other hybrids Citrus is a common term... When normal cells are damaged beyond repair, they are eliminated by apoptosis. ... Prognosis (older Greek πρόγνωσις, modern Greek πρόγνωση - literally fore-knowing, foreseeing) is a medical term denoting the doctors prediction of how a patients disease will progress, and whether there is chance of recovery. ...

In 1784, the French Royal Commission into the existence of animal magnetism^[39] investigated the practices of Charles d’Eslon (1739-1786);^[40] and compared the effects of his allegedly magnetized water with that of plain water.^[41] In states that are Commonwealth Realms a Royal Commission is a major government public inquiry into an issue. ... Animal magnetism is both a synonym for mesmerism as well as the 18th century term for the supposed ethereal medium postulated by Franz Mesmer as a therapeutic agent. ... Franz Anton Mesmer His Grave Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) discovered what he called animal magnetism and others often called mesmerism. ...

In 1799, John Haygarth investigated the efficacy of Perkins tractors -- they were called "tractors" because they were drawn across the skin -- by comparing the results from dummy wooden tractors with a set of allegedly "active" metal tractors.^[42] Elisha Perkins (January 16, 1741 – 1799) was a US physician who created his own magnetic therapy, Perkins Tractors. ...

It was not until 1863 that Austin Flint (1812–1886) conducted the first-ever trial that directly compared the efficacy of a dummy simulator with that of an active treatment. This was a significant departure from the (then) customary practice of contrasting the consequences of an active treatment with what Flint described as "the natural history of [an untreated] disease".^[43] In cardiology, an Austin Flint murmur is detected in cases of severe aortic regurgitation. ...

Flint’s paper is the first time that either of the terms "placebo" or "placeboic remedy" were ever used to refer to a dummy simulator in a clinical trial.

…to secure the moral effect of a remedy given specially for the disease, the patients were placed on the use of a placebo which consisted, in nearly all of the cases, of the tincture of quassia, very largely diluted. This was given regularly, and became well known in my wards as the placeboic remedy for rheumatism.^[44]

Species See text Quassia is a genus of about 40 species of tropical evergreen trees and shrubs native to Asia. ...

Origins of placebo (the benefactor)

Origins of the "placebo effect"

Origins of placebo response/reaction

In 1946, the Yale biostatistician and physiologist E. Morton Jellinek was the first to speak of either a "placebo reaction" or a "placebo response".^[45] Yale can refer to an educational institution: Yale University, one of the United States oldest universities. ... Biostatistics or biometry is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biology. ... Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. ... E. Morton Jellinek (1890-1963), whose full name was Elvin Morton Jellinek, was a biostatistician, physiologist, and a researcher into alcoholism. ...

In post-World War II 1946, pharmaceutical chemicals were in short supply. One U.S. headache remedy manufacturer sold a drug that was comprised of three different ingredients: a, b, and c. Chemical b was in short supply. Combatants Allies: United Kingdom, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, Canada, China, India, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, South Africa, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

Jellinek was asked to test whether or not the headache drug's overall efficacy would be reduced if ingredient b was missing.

Jellinek set up a complex trial involving 199 subjects, all of whom suffered from "frequent headaches".^[46] The subjects were randomly divided into four test groups. He prepared four test drugs, involving various permutations of the three drug constituents, with a placebo as a scientific control. The structure of this trial is significant because, in those days, the only time placebos were ever used "was to express the efficacy or non-efficacy of a drug in terms of "how much better" the drug was than the "placebo".^[47] The four test drugs were identical in shape, size, colour and taste: In mathematics, especially in abstract algebra and related areas, a permutation is a bijection from a finite set X onto itself. ... A placebo, from the Latin for I will please, is a medical treatment (operation, therapy, chemical solution, pill, etc. ... A scientific control augments integrity in experiments by isolating variables as dictated by the scientific method in order to make a conclusion about such variables. ...

• Drug A: contained a, b, and c.
• Drug B: contained a and c.
• Drug C: contained a and b.
• Drug D: a simulator', contained "ordinary lactate".

Each time a subject had a headache, they took their group’s designated test drug, and recorded whether their headache had been relieved (or not).^[48] Every two weeks the groups’ drugs were changed; so that by the end of eight weeks, all groups had tested all the drugs.^[49] Lactic acid is a chemical compound that plays a role in several biochemical processes. ...

Each group took a test remedy for two weeks. The trial lasted eight weeks, and by the end of the trial all groups had taken each test drug for two weeks (although each group had taken them in a different sequence). Over the entire population of 199 subjects, 120 of the subjects responded to the placebo, and 79 did not; i.e., there were 120 "subjects reacting to placebo" and 79 "subjects not reacting to placebo".^[50]

At first glance there was no difference between the self-reported "success rates" of Drugs A, B, and C (84%, 80%, and 80% respectively);^[51] and, from this, it appeared that ingredient b was completely unnecessary. However, in quite a remarkable way, the trial eventually did demonstrate that the chemical in question did make a significant contribution to the remedy’s efficacy.

Examining his data more closely, Jellinek discovered that there was a very significant difference in responses between the 120 placebo-responders and the 79 non-responders. The 79 non-responders' reports showed that if they were considered as an entirely separate group, there was a significant difference the "success rates" of Drugs A, B, and C: viz., 88%, 67%, and 77%, respectively. And because this significant difference in relief from the test drugs could only be attributed to the presence or absence of ingredient b, he concluded that ingredient b was essential (thus contradicting his initial conclusion, derived from the comparison between the "success rates" for all test subjects, that Drugs A, B, and C were equally efficacious).

There were two further repercussions from this trial:

• Jellinek (p.90), having identified 120 "placebo reactors", went on to suppose that all of them may have been suffering from either "psychological headaches"^[52] or "true physiological headaches [which were] accessible to suggestion". Thus, according to this view, the degree to which a "placebo response" is present tends to be an index of the psychogenic origins of the condition in question.

• It indicated that, whilst any given placebo was inert, a responder to that particular placebo may responding for a wide number of reasons unconnected with the drug's active ingredients; and, from this, it could be important to pre-screen potential test populations, and treat those manifesting a placebo-response as a special group, or remove them altogether from the test population.

This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This page is a candidate to be copied to Wiktionary. ...

Origins of the "placebo ritual"

Ambiguity of medical usage

The nocebo effect is the phenonemon that a patient who believes a treatment will cause harm, will actually experience adverse effects. ...

Ambiguity of anthropological usage

The nocebo effect is the phenonemon that a patient who believes a treatment will cause harm, will actually experience adverse effects. ...

See also

Adverse effect, in medicine, is an abnormal, harmful, undesired and/or unintended side-effect, although not necessarily unexpected, which is obtained as the result of a therapy or other medical intervention, such as drug/chemotherapy, physical therapy, surgery, medical procedure, use of a medical device, etc. ... In medicine, a clinical trial (synonyms: clinical studies, research protocols, medical research) is a research study. ... In statistics, a confounding factor is a factor which is the common cause of two things that may falsely appear to be in a causal relationship. ... The first statistician to consider a methodology for the design of experiments was Sir Ronald A. Fisher. ... The Flexner Report, written by the professional educator Abraham Flexner (1866-1959), advocated radical change in the way medical schools were run in Canada and the United States. ... Ancient Greek painting in a vase, showing a physician (iatros) bleeding a patient. ... The nocebo effect is the phenonemon that a patient who believes a treatment will cause harm, will actually experience adverse effects. ... The observer-expectancy effect, in science, is a cognitive bias that occurs in science when a researcher expects a given result and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or misinterprets data in order to find it. ... Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) meaning drug, and logos (λόγος) meaning science) is the study of how chemical substances interact with living systems. ... A placebo, from the Latin for I will please, is a medical treatment (operation, therapy, chemical solution, pill, etc. ... A scientific control augments integrity in experiments by isolating variables as dictated by the scientific method in order to make a conclusion about such variables. ... A simulation is an imitation of some real device or state of affairs. ... The Subject-expectancy effect, in science, is a cognitive bias that occurs in science when a subject expects a given result and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or reports the expected result. ... A so-called sugar pill is a pill containing no medical ingredient; this pill is given to half of the subjects of a double-blind drug trial. ... The name Thomas theorem refers to a fundamental principle in sociology formulated by William I. Thomas. ... Unintended consequences can be either positive, in which case we get serendipity or windfalls source of problems, according to the Murphys law definitively negative: perverse effect, which is the opposite result to the one intended The Law of Unintended Consequences holds that almost all human actions have at least...

Notes

1. ^ In the past, there was tendency for American authors to speak of all controls as placebos, whilst British authors tended to speak of dummy drugs, placebo therapies, and sham procedures.
2. ^ Wampold, Minami, Tierney, Baskin & Bhati (2005), p.836.
3. ^ Shapiro (1968), p.682
4. ^ Such as, for example, the word net, an openwork meshed fabric, a fishing net, cricket practice held in "the nets", a tennis net, a tennis shot that hits the net cord, etc.
5. ^ This may be due to the fact that the term placebo, in certain of its applications, is far more of an "English" word (i.e., simulator), and in others is far more of a Latin word (i.e., a "pleaser"). This phenomenon is well known across English; e.g., the term index, as in index of a book, is an established English word (because we speak of the indexes of books), but the term index, as in mathematical index, is a Latin loan-word (because we speak of mathematical indices).
6. ^ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=23&chapter=116&version=9
7. ^ See Composition of the Book of Psalms
8. ^ http://www.hebrewoldtestament.com/B19C116.htm#V9 or Green (1997), p.502.
9. ^ The Septuagint had been translated from Hebrew into Greek, some seven centuries earlier, specifically for lodgement into the Library of Alexandria. The numbers of the Psalms are different in each of Jerome’s version, because they were numbered differently in his Septuagint and Hebrew sources. See Composition of the Book of Psalms
10. ^ * Rahlfs (1935), p.128.
11. ^ http://www.drbo.org/lvb/chapter/21114.htm
12. ^ http://www.hebrewoldtestament.com/B19C116.htm#V9
13. ^ Colunga & Turrado (1965), p.553 displays both the Greek to Latin version of the Septuagint’s Psalm 114, and the Hebrew to Latin version of Psalm 116 side by side. Scholars are divided on whether the Septuagint translators were attempting to provide a more poetic translation, or whether, in using ευαρεστισω ("I shall be well pleased") instead of περιπετει ("I shall walk") they have provided a translation of an entirely different Hebrew text from the text that is accepted as the standard today. For example, the Christian scholar John Chrysostom (347 - 407) understood the Septuagint verse to mean that "those who had departed [from this life] accompanied by good deeds . . . [would] abide forever in high honor" -- and it was from this perspective that he chose to read the Septuagint as saying "I shall be pleasing in the sight of the Lord in the land of the living" (Hill, 1998, p.87). See also Popper (1945), Shapiro (1968), Lasagna (1986), Aronson (1999), and Walach (2003).
14. ^ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=23&chapter=116&version=9
15. ^ http://www.al-kitab.org/al-kitab/zabur/Zabur_116.htm
16. ^ In Chaucer’s Parson’s Tale, for example, the Parson speaks of how flatterers -- those who continuously "sing Placebo" -- are "the Devil’s Chaplains". (Perhaps Charles Darwin had Chaucer’s Parson in mind when he wrote: “What a book a Devil's Chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature.”)
17. ^ Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, which contains a character called Placebo, also includes other significantly named characters: January, the old, blind knight, with hair as white as snow; May, his beautiful, lusty, and extremely young wife (and, thus, a January-May marriage); Justinus (the noble man), his correct and thoughtful brother, who strongly advised against the marriage of January to May (which also involved a considerable transfer of money, land, and wealth to the young woman); and Placebo (the “Yes man”), his sycophantic, flattering brother, who never once raised objection to any of January’s thoughts, and actively supports January’s proposal.
18. ^ South, 1697, p.525. Samuel Johnson thought so highly of South's definition, that he used it in the entry for simulation in his Dictionary of the English Language.
19. ^ Roger Bacon’s (1214-1294) essay Of Simulation and Dissimulation expresses somewhat similar views.
20. ^ i.e., "Guérir quelquefois, soulager souvent, consoler toujours".
21. ^ Jewson (1974 & 1976).
22. ^ For more on the effect of the development of various types of medical technology see Medical sign.
23. ^ Jewson (1976), p.227.
24. ^ Carter (1953), p.823.
25. ^ Cooper (1823, p.259), speaking of the application of "the compound decoction of the sarsaparilla" in cases of "irritable ulcer", noted that "some think it placebo; others have a very high opinion of its efficacy" and goes on to remark that when it is used "after the use of mercury, it diminishes the irritability of the constitution, and soon soothes the system into peace" (p.259, emphasis added).
26. ^ Shapiro (1968, p.656) expresses the view that this application of the term placebo was a form of positioning: "Introduction of the word placebo to describe a class of treatments not previously specified was an important development in the history of methodology and medicine."
27. ^ Steele (1891), pp.277-278.
28. ^ Shapiro (1968), p.679.
29. ^ Pepper (1945), p.411. Pepper's assertion that a placebo "must be nothing more than what the name implies" -- namely that it must be "a medicine without any pharmacologic action whatever" -- in order for it to be called a placebo, is most significant.
30. ^ Leslie (1954), p.854.
31. ^ N.B.: not "a common place method of medicine" as is often misquoted.
32. ^ The fact that Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English Language has no entry for placebo, or for placebo-singer, or for singer of placebo, strongly supports Shapiro's contention.
33. ^ Gaddum (1953):

    The first object of a therapeutic trial is to discover whether the patients who receive the treatment under investigation are cured more rapidly, more completely or more frequently, than they would have been without it. (p.195)

34. ^ Chambless & Hollon (1998)
35. ^ Lohr, Olatunji, Parker & DeMaio (2005).
36. ^ Perlman (2001). In discussing the "unrecognized serendipitous effects of being in therapy", Perlman (p.283) suggests the following as examples: the "organizing effects of the therapeutic structure", "inadvertent role modeling", "outside knowledge of the therapist", "chance remarks or encounters", and "the influence of auxiliary personnel" ("this category includes doormen, receptionists, cashiers, secretaries, security guards, janitors, and child care attendants", p.287). Gaddum (1954) also recognizes that "changes in the incidence or severity of diseases in a hospital may be due to changes in the diet or changes in the nurses, which happen to coincide with the introduction of a new treatment" (pp.195-196).
37. ^ According to Lind’s 1753 Treatise on the Scurvy in Three Parts Containing an Inquiry into the Nature, Causes, and Cure of the Disease, Together with a Critical and Chronological View of what has been Published of the Subject, the remedies were: (a) one quart of cider per day, (b) twenty-five drops of elixir vitriol (aromatic sulphuric acid) three times a day, (c) two spoonfuls of vinegar three times a day, (d) a course of sea-water (half a pint every day), (e) two oranges and one lemon each day, and (f) an electuary (Dunn, 1997, p.F65). According to Gaddum (1954, p.196) the electuary had been recommended to Lind by a hospital surgeon, and it contained garlic, mustard, balsam of Peru, and myrrh.
38. ^ Dunn (1997), p.F65.
39. ^ Note that using the (conventional) English term animal magnetism to translate Mesmer's magnétism animal is extremely misleading for three reasons:

    1. Mesmer chose his term to clearly distinguish his variant of magnetic force from those which were referred to, at that time, as mineral magnetism, cosmic magnetism and planetary magnetism.

    2. Mesmer felt that this particular force/power only resided in the bodies of humans and animals.

    3. Mesmer chose the word "animal", for its root meaning (from latin animus = "breath") specifically to identify his force/power as a quality that belonged to all creatures with breath; viz., the animate beings: humans and animals.

40. ^ It did not examine the practices of Franz Mesmer. It examined the significantly different practices of his associate Charles d’Eslon.
41. ^ Gauld (1992), p.28.
42. ^ Green, (2002).
43. ^ Flint (1863), p.18.
44. ^ Flint (1863), p.21. Flint treated 13 hospital inmates that had rheumatic fever; 11 were "acute", and 2 were "sub-acute". He then compared the results of his dummy "placeboic remedy" with that of the active treatment’s already well-understood results (Flint had previously tested, and reported on, the active treatment’s efficacy). There was no significant difference between the results of the active treatment and his "placeboic remedy" in 12 of the cases in terms of disease duration, duration of convalescence, number of joints affected, and emergence of complications (pp.32-34). In the thirteenth case, Flint expressed some doubt as to whether the particular complications that had emerged -- namely, pericarditis, endocarditis, and pneumonia -- would have been prevented if that subject had been immediately given the "active treatment" (p.36).
45. ^ Jellinek (1946) speaks of a "response to placebo" (p.88), those who "responded to placebo" (p.88), a "reaction to placebo" (p.89), and of "reactors to placebo" (p.90). From this, it is obvious that, to Jellinek, the terms "placebo response" and "placebo reaction" -- or the terms "placebo responder" and "placebo reactor" -- were identical and interchangeable.
46. ^ Originally there were 200 subjects, but one did not complete the trial.
47. ^ Jellinek (1946), p.88. Note that the trial conducted by Austin Flint is an example of such a drug efficacy vs. placebo efficacy trial.
48. ^ Despite the fact that "some subjects had only three headaches in the course of a two-week period while others had up to ten attacks in the same period", the data showed a "great consistency" across all subjects (Jellinek, 1946, p.88)
49. ^ The stipulated drug (i.e., A, B, C, or D) was taken as often as necessary over each two-week period, and the two week sequences were:

    (1) A, B, C, D; (2) B, A, D, C; (3) C, D, A, B; and (4) D, C, B, A.

50. ^ Jellinek (1946), p.89.
51. ^ The "success rate" of the simulating, placebo Drug D was 52%
52. ^ With or without attendant "hypochondriasis" (p.90).

Wiktionary has related dictionary definitions, such as: net Bird netting on wine grapes. ... Look up Index in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Index in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken in by one language from another. ... Psalms (Hebrew: Tehilim, תהילים) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh. ... This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... Psalms (Hebrew: Tehilim, תהילים) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh. ... Saint John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (347 - 407) was a notable Christian bishop and preacher from the 4th and 5th centuries in Syria and Constantinople. ... The Parsons Prologue and Tale make up the final section of Geoffrey Chaucers Canterbury Tales. ... In his lifetime Charles Darwin gained international fame as an influential scientist examining controversial topics: portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron. ... A Devils Chaplain (Phoenix, 2003, ISBN 0753817500) is a book collecting selected essays and other writings by the British zoologist Richard Dawkins. ... The Merchant The Merchants Prologue and Tale is one of Geoffrey Chaucers Canterbury Tales. ... Samuel Johnson circa 1772, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. ... Wooden mechanical horse simulator during WWI. A simulation is an imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process. ... Statue of Roger Bacon in the Oxford University Museum Roger Bacon (c. ... In medicine, a sign is a feature of disease as detected by the doctor during physical examination of a patient. ... Sir Astley P. Cooper Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet (August 23, 1768–February 12, 1841), English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia. ... In marketing, positioning is the technique by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. ... Samuel Johnson circa 1772, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. ... A pint of cider. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into sulfuric acid. ... Sulfuric acid (British English: sulphuric acid), H2SO4, is a strong mineral acid. ... Vinegar is often infused with spices or herbs—as here, with oregano. ... The pint is a unit of volume or capacity. ... Wiktionary has related dictionary definitions, such as: orange Orange has several meanings. ... Binomial name Citrus × limon (L.) Burm. ... An electuary is a medicinal paste composed of powders, or other ingredients, incorporated with some jam, honey, syrup, etc, for the purposes of oral consumption. ... Binomial name Allium sativum L. Garlic (Allium sativum) is a perennial plant in the family Alliaceae and genus Allium, closely related to the onion, shallot, and leek. ... For the plant and spice of the same name, see the article on mustard. ... Species Myroxylon is a genus of two species of South American trees in the Fabaceae (Leguminosae). ... 100g of Myrrh. ... Franz Anton Mesmer His Grave Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) discovered what he called animal magnetism and others often called mesmerism. ... Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease which may develop after a Group A streptococcal infection (such as strep throat or scarlet fever) and can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. ... Acute may refer to: An acute accent is a diacritic character. ... Several fields refer to compliations: Complication (medicine) - a unfavorable evolution of a disease, a health condition or a medical treatment Complication (horology) - a special feature in a mechanical clock that causes the design of the movement to become more complicated This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that... Pericarditis is inflammation of the pericardium. ... Endocarditis is an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart, the endocardium. ... Pneumonia is an illness of the lungs and respiratory system in which the microscopic, alveoli (air-filled sacs) responsible for absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere become inflamed and flooded with fluid. ... The technical term placebo is precisely applied in the specialized medical domains of pharmacology, nosology, and aetiology to denote the pharmacologically inert, dummy simulator of an active drug that serves as a scientific control in clinical trials designed to determine the clinical efficacy of that particular drug. ... Hypochondria (or hypochondriasis, sometimes referred to as health anxiety or health phobia) is a somatoform disorder in which one has the unfounded belief that he or she is suffering from a serious illness. ...

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