Hypnosis: A Medico-Moral Evolution

Author\u27s Introductory Note: About two years ago at the request of His Eminence, the late Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago, we started an investigation into the subject of hypnosis with the intention of making a medico-moral evaluation. To faciliate our work we drew up a questionnaire and sent it to six leading Catholic psychiatrists: Father William J. Devlin, S.J. of Loyola University, Chicago, Ill., Doctors Francis J. Braceland of the Institute of Living, Hartford, Conn., Francis J. Gerty of the University of Illinois, Chicago, Ill., John J. Madden of Loyola University Chicago, Ill., John J. Nurnberger of the University of Indiana, Indianapolis, Ind., and to Edward A. Strecker of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn. These men mediately or immediately directed us to send the questionnaire also to the following doctors who have been using hypnosis in their clinical practice: Doctors Milton H. Erickson, President of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, of Phoenix, Ariz.; Merton M. Gill of Berkeley, Cal.; William S. Kroger of Chicago, Ill.; Lawrence S. Kubie of New York, N.Y.; Harold Rosen, Executive Secretary of the Society for Clinica1 and Experimental Hypnosis, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md and Lewis R. Wolberg of New York, N.Y. We also sent the questionnaire to Mr. Stanley L. Morel. a hypnotist studying in Chicago, Ill. Since all thirteen of these men answered the questionnaire in more or less detail, our debt of gratitude to them is very great. Some sent impartant articles and references to help in the study. In the body of the article where we quote these men without any specific reference we are quoting from their private answers to the questionnaire. Two other sources that we found especially helpful are the two official reports on hypnosis made by the British Medical Association. published in the British Medical journal. April 23, 1955, and by the American Medical Association, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Sept. 13, 1958

cDNA-RNA subtractive hybridization reveals increased expression of mycocerosic acid synthase in intracellular Mycobacterium bovis BCG.

Identifying genes that are differentially expressed by Mycobacterium bovis BCG after phagocytosis by macrophages will facilitate the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of host cell-intracellular pathogen interactions. To identify such genes a cDNA-total RNA subtractive hybridization strategy has been used that circumvents the problems both of limited availability of bacterial RNA from models of infection and the high rRNA backgrounds in total bacterial RNA. The subtraction products were used to screen a high-density gridded Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomic library. Sequence data were obtained from 19 differential clones, five of which contained overlapping sequences for the gene encoding mycocerosic acid synthase (mas). Mas is an enzyme involved in the synthesis of multi-methylated long-chain fatty acids that are part of phthiocerol dimycocerosate, a major component of the complex mycobacterial cell wall. Northern blotting and primer extension data confirmed up-regulation of mas in intracellular mycobacteria and also revealed a putative extended -10 promoter structure and a long untranslated upstream region 5' of the mas transcripts, containing predicted double-stranded structures. Furthermore, clones containing overlapping sequences for furB, groEL-2, rplE and fadD28 were identified and the up-regulation of these genes was confirmed by Northern blot analysis. The cDNA-RNA subtractive hybridization enrichment and high density gridded library screening, combined with selective extraction of bacterial mRNA represents a valuable approach to the identification of genes expressed during intra-macrophage residence for bacteria such as M. bovis BCG and the pathogenic mycobacterium, M. tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Expresses a Novel Ph-Dependent Divalent Cation Transporter Belonging to the Nramp Family

Mammalian natural resistance–associated macrophage protein (Nramp) homologues are important determinants of susceptibility to infection by diverse intracellular pathogens including mycobacteria. Eukaryotic Nramp homologues transport divalent cations such as Fe2+, Mn2+, Zn2+, and Cu2+. Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis (bacillus Calmette-Guérin [BCG]) also encode an Nramp homologue (Mramp)