Dracontiasis is an infestation of man by the guineaworm, Dracunculus medinensis; a similar infestation also occurs in animals,' and a related species, Dracunculus insignis, is known to infect racoons, mink, and dogs.2 The disease, at the present time, has a wide distribution throughout tropical and subtropical regions ofthe world. The rate of human infestation varies with the possibility of the...

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art! Who alterest all things with thy prying eyes. Why preyest thou thus upon the poet’s heart, Vulture, whose wings are dull realities? How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise, Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies, Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing? Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car? An...

If thou art diligent and wise, O stranger, compute the number of cattle of the Sun, who once upon a time grazed on the fields of the Thrinacian isle of Sicily, divided into four herds of different colours, one milk white, another glossy black, the third yellow and the last dappled. In each herd were bulls, mighty in number according to these proportions: Understand, stranger, that the white bul...

Since its initial cloning in 1992, SCN5A (Nav1.5) has become known as “the” cardiac sodium channel.1 SCN5A encodes a tetrodotoxin (TTX)-resistant channel that is responsible for the inward sodium current (INa), which initiates the cardiac action potential. Its RNA and protein expression dominate the sodium channel landscape in the ventricle, atrium, and specialized conduction system. Mice heter...