The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7359 p120
23 July 2005

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Combating cross-infection more
Signs of a dearth of dentists in ancient Egypt more
Purpose of education should be to produce a rounded personality more
Matching the means to the end more

Combating cross-infection

An intriguing report published in Chemistry World for July refers to a paper presented at the l05th general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Atlanta. A group of high school pupils found that the addition of cetrimide to paints and varnishes enabled them to render surfaces that were touched by hand sterile for long periods.

The team also tested a series of different metal dusts and salts incorporated into an alkyl based clear and durable varnish. These also proved effective. Colloidal silver was the best of the metals but would be too costly for general use. Varnishes with 25 per cent of copper chlorides self-sterilised within seconds, but the copper added undesirable colour. A varnish containing 2 per cent of quaternary ammonium salts also self-sterilised in seconds but without discolouring the varnish. Aluminium, iron, nickel, tin and zinc compounds took longer to kill bacteria.

The best formula was the varnish containing cetrimide, which killed microbes within seconds and was effective at much lower concentrations than the copper salts. Varnish coatings containing cetrimide were still active five months after application, but cetrimide was less effective in floor and furniture polishes.

It is argued that frequently handled surfaces in public buildings and schools are responsible for spreading common upper respiratory infections that result in serious loss of productivity in industry. Although coinage has long been known to be self-sterilising, the idea of producing simple and durable antimicrobial applications for railings, doorknobs, desktops and water taps has until now been overlooked in our efforts to counteract the transmission of respiratory pathogens between individuals in close-knit societies.

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Signs of a dearth of dentists in ancient Egypt

One of our problems at the moment in many areas of Britain is the scarcity of dentists. Indeed, in some places it seems almost impossible to find a dental practitioner who can deal with an immediate toothache without embarrassing delay. But in the golden age of the Egyptian pharaohs, it seems, matters were even worse than they are with us.

In New Scientist for 2 July, Stephanie Pain offers an account of studies of the skulls of ancient Egyptian children and adults dating from predynastic times some 6,000 years ago to Roman times four millennia later.

More than 500 skulls and jaws from collections in London and Cambridge were studied by Judith Miller, a dental surgeon who has turned her attention to archaeology, her findings indicate a rather shocking state of affairs. The state of the Egyptians’ teeth was often appalling. Missing teeth was the least of their worries. The teeth remaining after death had often been worn to stumps or were riddled with cavities. Often infection had produced abscesses and loss of bone from the jaw itself.

Throughout most of Egyptian history physical wear was the main factor involved, outstripping the ability of teeth to manufacture more dentine. This was most pronounced in predynastic times, prior to about 3100BC, but with the arrival of the Greeks in 332BC tooth decay became less of a problem for Egyptians.

Caries attributable to dietary carbohydrates affected some 16 per cent of the population in predynastic times but had risen to 25 per cent by the New Kingdom, when Tutankhamun, Ramses the Great and Amenhotep III flourished, and reached 34 per cent by the Graeco-Roman period.

Dietary changes may have been involved, although most Egyptians ate a varied diet. Their diet was originally rich in protein from hunting-gathering but later, as they turned to agriculture, it contained more carbohydrate. The diets of ordinary folk were largely vegetarian, while the nobility and priests ate beef. Bread was rich in grit, which increased wear on teeth. When the Egyptians turned to honey and sugary fruits, tooth decay increased. There is no evidence that Egyptians cleaned their teeth.

There is also no evidence that dental extraction was practised, and we know of no false teeth. It seems there was a complete dearth of dentists of any kind.

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Purpose of education should be to produce a rounded personality

We hear a great deal from politicians about education, and how it should be emphasised in any scheme that aims at improving the calibre of a civilised society. It is true that efforts devoted to education should aim primarily at the youngsters who are making their often laborious way through grade after grade of elementary and then secondary training in order to be able to use their brains for good and not for evil. Yet the process of education does not stop there. As we well appreciate in our professional work, it continues and never cries “enough!”. And individuals with active brains can never be satisfied.

The term education means essentially “drawing out”. If we need a term signifying a planting of ideas it should be “inducation”. This has sinister significance, and makes one think of Big Brother, who more and more seeks to control our private lives through more and more technological advances.

When politicians talk of education they focus their efforts on producing a workforce of people who can be relied upon to perform expert functions without reflecting on their motives and their morality. The ultimate desideratum is a machine, not a person.

Much of the present trouble over education stems from the desire to specialise as early as possible, whereas the true purpose should be to produce as rounded a personality as possible.

The rather vague term “holism” has been used to describe an approach to natural phenomena where individual elements in a situation are assessed by the relationship they bear to other elements present, never by selecting one aspect of a thing and ignoring all others that might complicate the outlook. This selective approach is the delight of politicians and lawyers and the aim of all who look to profit and prestige from adopting the comfort of tunnel vision and choose to ignore the visionary diversions.

We risk losing vast intellectual treasures by removing from our educational curriculum subjects such as art, literature and history in order to concentrate our efforts on the means of making a profitable living. And we are now extending this idea to the exact sciences, where demands for university courses are shrinking to make room for more commercial considerations.

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Matching the means to the end

“It is of little use trying to suppress terrorism if the production of deadly devices continues to be deemed a legitimate employment of man’s creative powers.”
— E. F. Schumacher: ‘Small is beautiful’ (1973).

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