Vincentian Footprints in China: The Lives, Deaths, and Legacies of François-Regis Clét, C.M., and Jean-Gabriel Perboyre, C.M.

Francois-Regis Clet and Jean-Gabriel Perboyre were martyred in China in 1820 and 1840 respectively. They were later canonized. Their lives and deaths are recounted and the context of their persecution is provided. They were in violation of Chinese law when they arrived because Western missionaries and Christianity had already been forbidden. Anthony Clark explains why. He also briefly describes Vincentian efforts and influence in China from Jean-Gabriel’s death to today. Thanks to local Chinese in Wuchang, Clark found the saints’ execution site, which had been largely lost to history. He also confirmed the whereabouts of their commemorative gravestones. Red Guards in Beijing destroyed Saint Vincent’s Seminary in 1966, but Clark located the contents of its library. He produced a preliminary catalog of the Xikai Cathedral’s library in Tianjin even though scholars’ access to it has been severely restricted. The effects of the saints’ legacies are assessed

Laser stimulation for pain research

Pain is a serious medical problem; it inflicts huge economic loss and personal suffering. Pain signals are conducted via small, non- and partially myelinated A-delta and C nerve fibers and lasers are particularly well suited to stimulating these fibers. Large myelinated fibers convey touch and vibration information and these fibers are also discharged when contact thermodes and other touch pain stimuli are used and this would give a more muddled signal for functional imaging experiments. The advantages of lasers over conventional methods of pain stimulation are good temporal resolution, no variable parameters are involved such as contact area and they give very reproducible results. Accurate inter-stimulus changes can be achieved by computer control of the laser pulse duration, pulse height and repetition rate and this flexibility enables complex stimulation paradigms to be realized. We present a flexible carbon dioxide laser system designed to generate these stimuli for the study of human cerebral pain responses. We discuss the advantages within research of this system over other methods of pain stimulation such as thermal, electrical and magnetic. The stimulator is used in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography and electrophysiological methods of imaging the brain's activity. This combination is a powerful tool for the study of pain-induced activity in different areas of the brain. An accurate understanding of the brain's response to pain will help in research into the areas of rheumatoid arthritis and chronic back pain