Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The smallest amount of a substance required to kill someone or something.  

Smallest possible.  

Surgery which involves the least possible disturbance to the body. It often uses lasers and other high-tech devices. More popularly called ‘keyhole surgery’, MIS is surgical intervention, whether diagnostic or curative, that causes patients the least possible physical trauma. It has revolutionized surgery, growing from a technique used by gynaecologists, urologists and innovative general surgeons…

A liquid measure used in pharmacy (one sixtieth of a drachm).  

A drinking water containing dissolved mineral salts from the ground the water is piped from. It is bottled and sold. Water that contains sufficient inorganic salts to cause it to have therapeutic properties. Discover the wonders of natural mineral waters that emerge from the depths of the earth in numerous locations, each unique in its…

A person who works in a coal mine.  

Try to stop her worrying about them.  

A form of mercury poisoning from eating polluted fish, found first in Japan. Form of mercury poisoning that occurred among people eating fish from mercury-contaminated waters of Minamata Bay, off Japan, in the 1950s. It is characterized by severe neurological degeneration with symptoms of paresthesia of mouth and limbs, tunnel vision, difficulties with concentration and…

The appearance of the symptoms of a disease in someone who does not have the disease. Imitation, mimicry. The term is applied to a disease that exhibits symptoms of another disease or to conditions in functional illnesses that simulate organic disease.  

A support for people with unusually curved spines, consisting of a leather or metal pelvic girdle with two bars at the back and one at the front, which connect into a neck ring. A brace made of strong, lightweight materials. It extends from a chin cup with neck pad to the pelvis, and is used…