The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7173 p696
10 November 2001

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

Remember, remember ... [more]
Root of evil [more]
Biology of autism [more]

Remember, remember ...

The anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot has once again been celebrated widely across Britain, even though the event being commemorated took place nearly 400 years ago. As all but the most ill-educated of young students know, it was on 5 November, 1605, that a terrorist plot came to light, designed to destroy James I and his parliament by exploding barrels of gunpowder stocked in a vault underlying the House of Lords. The man chosen to light the fuse, Guy Fawkes, was betrayed by Thomas Tresham, one of the plotters, who warned his Catholic relative Lord Monteagle to stay away from the parliamentary session. When the news reached the authorities the cellars were searched and Fawkes was caught in the act.

It seems odd that Guy Fawkes has achieved such lasting celebrity. But ever since his exploit, stuffed effigies — not necessarily of him, but of any unpopular character — have been escorted to bonfires, and children have wandered the streets begging for pennies for the guy. The celebration has been a golden excuse for showy displays of fireworks.

Even the Puritans in the 17th century failed to suppress the festival, but ever since people have adapted it for their own purposes. After the 1670s and until the 19th century, notorious political figures became bonfire effigies. Processions and organised bonfires sometimes gave way to gunfire, the carrying of blazing tar-barrels, and inevitably drunken orgies to accompany them. Moves took place in the late 19th century to suppress the more dangerous manifestations of bonfire night. By the 20th century private firework displays in domestic gardens had replaced the public affairs, but again in the 1960s public opinion favoured properly organised local displays rather than amateur performances hazardous to life and limb. The highly hazardous tar-barrel ceremonies persist in two Devon localities and elsewhere.

As pharmacists are reminded year by year, the practice of supplying flammable chemicals and oxidising agents to children at this time of year is sternly frowned upon. Home-made fireworks are far more dangerous to children and their environment than are any of the commercially available products, since, as any experienced chemist knows, chemical reactions invariably hold a random factor that we ignore at our peril.

Back to Top

Root of evil

We are told on good authority that love of money is the root of all evil. Nowadays, we hear of public utility companies which, after neglecting their proper concerns and going out of business, insist loudly that the financial interests of their directors and shareholders must be preserved at all cost, even when the poor, oppressed tax payer must foot the bill. And when anyone who trips and wrenches an ankle or catches a finger in a doorframe claims compensation from the owner of the offending doorstep or door, we may be forgiven for looking hard at the dominant position that money plays in our culture.

I am reminded of a comment by that master of fast-moving fiction, Henry Rider Haggard, in the preface to his 'Allen Quatermain' (1887), concerning the difference between the savage tribesmen of Africa and their European conquerors: "I say that as the savage is, so is the white man, only the latter is more inventive and possesses a faculty of combination; save and except also that the savage, as I have known him, is to a large extent free from the greed of money which eats like a cancer into the heart of the white man. It is a depressing conclusion but in all essentials the savage and the child of civilisation are identical."

Much of our current university education concerns itself with managing money — business management, accountancy, advertising, investment and the rest. And much of our legal structure seems now geared to helping out those with ample means and glossing over its reason for existence, which is the search for justice at any cost. But when you come to think about it, human happiness and progress depends upon other things. It would be better, surely, to insist that socially important functions are efficiently carried out by people who have expertise in them, rather than protest that railways cannot be run efficiently and hospitals used humanely because there is insufficient money available to support their day-to-day activities. And, in the end, where money is the overriding desire, all we produce is cut-throat warfare and pushing the weakest to the wall.

There is hidden meaning in the old proverb "Muck and money go together". And the combination is overwhelmed by too much muck.

Back to Top

Biology of autism

In Science for 5 October there is an account of the setting up of a new and comprehensive clinic and research centre by the University of California to diagnose, study and treat children suffering from autism. There has recently been an upsurge of interest in this strange condition and there is claimed to be an increase in the incidence of it in the United States. Its connection with childhood vaccinations has largely been discredited, and research has been mobilised at the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders unit as a consequence.

The biological basis of autism is beginning to be understood. Behaviourists have studied its social and cognitive deficits. Neuroanatomists have detected abnormalities in brain structure and faults in neurological circuits that may help to explain it. Some 20 genes are thought to interact with hitherto unrecognised environmental factors. The bulk of the evidence currently available points to problems in brain development before birth and in early childhood. Although genetic factors clearly play a major role, there may be other determining factors, including exposure to toxins, infections and abnormalities of the immune system and metabolism. The cure of the condition remains distant.

The primary manifestation of autism is impaired ability to relate socially with other individuals. Autistic individuals have language and communication problems and seem to have difficulty in inferring what other people think or feel, making them present a childish aspect to the rest of society. Up to 60 per cent of sufferers fail to experience the normal range of emotions, but nevertheless they may react to others with infantile tantrums. Exceptionally, a few demonstrate marked gifts in the spheres of music, drawing or calculation. However, the symptoms are so variable that they render diagnosis difficult.

Autistic individuals are well able to understand facts, but not abstract concepts. Although able to recollect facts, they are unable to interpret them in such a way as to act upon them. The motor system also may be faulty, so that they find it difficult to kick balls, tie shoelaces or write words.

The amygdala and hippocampus in the brain are smaller than normal, and the cerebellum is deficient in Purkinje cells. Brain chemistry differs from normal, with a deficiency of the neuropeptide oxytonin, a known regulator of social reactions in animals. Although injection of oxytocin significantly decreases repetitive behaviour in autistic individuals, it has a short-lived effect, so that it is useless in treatment.

Back to Top