More Suppression
* Dr. Louis Pasteur’s germ theory for infection diseases provoked violent opposition from the medical community of the late 1800s. How could a mere chemist poach upon their scientific ?
* Dr. Harvey’s monumental work on the theory of blood circulation was forbidden to be taught at the University of Paris Medical School twenty-one years after Harvey published his findings.
* Austrian botanist Gregory Mendel’s theory of genetic composition was generally ignored for thirty-five years. His pioneering work was dismissed as that of an idle, rich, dilettante by the leading scientists of his day.
* Dr. Fleming’s mid-twentieth-century discovery of the antibiotic penicillin was ridiculed and ignored for twelve years before this life-saver was admitted into the medical circle. Once scorned, Dr. Fleming was eventually knighted and received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for what had once been denounced.
* Dr. Joseph Goldberg unraveled the mystery of pellagra, a disease which ravaged especially the poor in the American South. Pellagra was at first thought to be an infectious disease causing the three Ds of dermatitis, diarrhea, and dementia. Goldberg discovered that, like scurvy, pellagra was a vitamin-deficiency disease. The milling or refining process of corn removed important vitamins and minerals from the husk. Those people dependent on corn-based foods such as grits, cornbread, etc., became deficient in vitamins and minerals. Goldberger’s recommendation, to re-fortify corn flour, is now a routine practice in refining most flours. But the foot-dragging over this minor business expense by the greedy flour barons of the time dragged on for fifty years.
* These examples are just a handful of so very many courageous doctors and scientists who braved a battle with Organized Medicine on behalf of what could help patients. THE BATTLE CONTINUES TODAY!
NO COMMON SENSE
ANALYZE THE EXAMPLE
* What supports and barriers were in play?
* What were the dynamics?
* Who, or what, won the Tug-of-War?
* Discuss the outcome with your friends and family.
* Use Post #4 as a reference for the dynamics, and the relationships, between supports and barriers.
