Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

A type of skin graft in which thin partial thicknesses of skin are cut in narrow strips and placed onto the wound area to be healed. The term given to a method of skin-grafting in which strips of skin are shaved from a normal area and placed on a burned, injured or scarred area to be…

A drug used in the treatment of leprosy and (in combination with isoniazid) tuberculosis. The drug is administered by mouth. Toxic effects, though infrequent, are severe and include anorexia, hepatitis, and exfoliative dermatitis.  

Any substance that retains heat for a long time, such as kaolin, which is often used in hot poultices. Any apparatus designed to retain warmth, such as a hot-water bottle. A container that holds chemicals capable of absorbing a significant amount of heat and gradually releasing it as they crystallize.  

Absence of the ability to recognize the sensations of heat and coldness. When occurring as an isolated sensory symptom it indicates damage to the spinothalamic tract in the spinal cord, which conveys the impulses of temperature to the thalamus. Impairment of the usual ability to sense heat.  

An abnormal sense of pain that is felt when part of the body is warmed. It is a type of dysesthesia and is a symptom of partial damage to a peripheral nerve or to the fiber tracts conducting temperature sensation to the brain.  

The active alkaloid found in tea. The active ingredient in tea, akin to caffeine found in coffee.  

Syndrome a raised threshold to pain stimuli combined with a highly unpleasant burning quality to any pain that is experienced once the threshold is exceeded. It is caused by disease affecting the thalamus at the upper end of the brainstem. Related to the thalamus, a brain region that processes sensory information.  

A drug that constricts blood vessels and is used as a nasal decongestant.  

The SI unit of magnetic flux density, equal to a density of 1 weber per square meter.  

A woman who has been pregnant at least three times and who has given birth to £m infant capable of survival after each of three pregnancies. A woman who has had three pregnancies terminating after the 20th week of gestation or has produced three infants weighing at least 500 g, regardless of their viability. A…