(Image courtesy of XKCD.)

St. Valentine’s Day is an annual holiday held on February 14th that celebrates romantic love. The origin of the holiday hearkens back to a Catholic saint named St. Valentine. The problem is that there are actually three St. Valentine’s (all were martyrs to boot), and no one is entirely sure which St. Valentine is responsible for the holiday. All we really know for sure is that in 469 A.D., Pope Gelasius declared February 14 a day to honor St. Valentine, and ostensibly celebrate one of these three men.

According to one legend, St. Valentine #1 was executed for objecting to a decree from the Roman emperor that banned his soldiers from marrying. Another legend claims that St. Valentine #2 was executed for being a Christian. Before he died, he allegedly left a farewell note to his beloved that was signed, “From Your Valentine.” Sadly, little is known about the life of St. Valentine #3….

It is widely believed that St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14 because it is the day the birds begin to mate according to an ancient belief from the Middle Ages. In fact, during the Middle Ages, a fertility festival was celebrated each year on February 15.

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Coagulation is the complex process by which blood forms clots in order to slow blood loss (hemostatsis) from the body. When a blood vessel is cut or damaged, it is covered by a platelet enmeshed in a web of insoluble fibrin molecules, before shock and possible death occurs. Blood clotting also requires the proteolytic enzyme thrombin, calcium ions and about a dozen other protein-clotting factors. People who suffer from diseases that effect blood coagulation, such as Hemophilia A (a hereditary bleeding disorder caused by a lack of blood clotting factor VIII) can lead to an increased risk of hemorrhage. The lack of factor VIII in the coagulation cascade results in the formation of fibrin deficient clots that both slows the coagulation process and makes the resulting clots less stable.

The signs and symptoms of hemophilia include:

Bleeding into joints, with associated pain and swelling;
Blood in the urine or stool;
Bruising;
Gastrointestinal tract and urinary tract hemorrhage;
Prolonged bleeding from cuts, tooth extraction, and surgery; and
Spontaneous bleeding.

The standard treatment for hemophilia involves replacing the missing VIII clotting factor. Mild hemophilia is sometimes treated with desmopressin (DDAVP), which helps facilitate the release of factor VIII that is stored within the lining of the blood vessels. However, people with more severe forms of the disease must undergo regular preventative treatment, such as blood transfusions, to prevent a bleeding crisis.

Frustratingly, hemophiliacs can develop “inhibitor” antibodies against factor VIII as a result of frequent blood transfusions, which lessens the efficacy of the treatment. At least hemophiliacs can be thankful for the advent of modern blood screening methods, which has dramatically reduced the transmission of blood born diseases such as hepatitis and HIV, which used to be extremely prevalent amongst patients with this disease.

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“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry.

Patrick Henry, a prominent figure in the American Revolution and one of our Founding Fathers, is most famous for the legendary, “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” speech that he made in a court hearing on March 23, 1775 at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia. Allegedly delivered without notes, Henry’s speech was so persuasive that it is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the Virginia Houses of Burgesses to pass the resolution that delivered the Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War.

To one listener, the words sounded “as the doom of Fate.” A Baptist parson who was there recalled the speech’s beginning in a smolder and ending in a blaze: “The tendons of his neck stood out white and rigid, like whipcords. His voice rose louder and louder, until the walls of the building and all within them seemed to shake and rock. . . . Finally his pale face and glaring eyes became terrible to look upon. Men . . . strained forward, their faces pale and their eyes glaring like the speaker’s. . . . When he sat down, I felt sick with excitement.”

Because there are no notes or existing transcriptions of the speech, some controversy remains as to whether Henry actually delivered the most famous line of the speech as is quoted. Nonetheless, Henry was undoubtedly a remarkable orator, and his speeches were widely compared to those of the legendary Roman wordsmith Cato.

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According to the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, Sodom and Gomorrah were two ancient cities in Palestine that were destroyed by God because of the sins of its inhabitants. The cities are described as being destroyed by brimstone and fire (with an earthquake thrown in for good measure), and have become a symbol of impenitent sin and “sexual deviancy” in both the Christian and Islamic faiths. Thus, the etymology of the English word “sodomy,” a term that is broadly used to describe any non-vaginal sex, but is most often employed in reference to homosexual intercourse. However, Bible scholars are split over whether the primary offense of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality or some other significant sins, with some Rabbinical writings asserting that they were also guilty of rampant stealing, blasphemy and violence.

According to Genesis, God appeared to Abraham to warn him of his intention to destroy the two cities. Abraham expressed his concern about the righteous people in the city who would be unfairly punished for the sins of their fellow citizens. In response, God promised Abraham that he would save the city if He could find ten righteous Sodomites. God then sent two angels to Sodom, who encountered Lot at the gates of the city. Lot kindly offered to house and feed the grateful angels. However, later that night, a mob of shady men surrounded Lot’s house and ordered that he hand over his guests so that they may “know them” (which has been interpreted by some to mean, “have intercourse with them.”). A consummate host, Lot refused to turn over his guests to the mob, but generously offered them his two virgin daughters instead to “do to them whatever you like.”

Despite Lot’s tempting offer, the mob turned him down and attempted to force their way into the house, at which point the angels unceremoniously struck them with blindness. As a token of their gratitude, they briefed Lot about the impending destruction of the city, and ordered him to leave with his wife and daughters. As a final word of caution, Lot and his family were warned not to look behind them while they were fleeing the city. However, Lot’s wife could not resist the temptation to take a peek behind her during their escape from the city (hardly a crime considering the allegedly abominable sins of the Sodomites, but I digress). For this split-second act of disobedience, God turned her into a pillar of salt.

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“The female is, as it were, a mutilated male.”
– Aristotle, Generation of Animals.

The etiology of the Western philosophical tradition can be traced back to the Holy Trinity of Greek philosophers-Socrates, Plato and Aristotle- who loom so large in our cultural memory that they are only referred to on a first-name basis. Aristotle’s writings have been especially significant to the development of Western philosophy, especially with respect to his influence on Arabian, Christian and Jewish thought since the Middle Ages. While Aristotle’s contribution to ethics and political theory are inarguably impressive, his views on women have had a more troubling impact, and many feminists credit his writings with influencing the patriarchal and sexist ideologies of his successors.

Aristotle believed that the virtue of a thing lies in the realization of its essential nature. With this framework in mind, he set out to determine the “nature” of the fairer sex, starting from a “biological” perspective. He (rather self-servingly) thought that women were merely passive vessels in the reproductive process, with the active and dynamic masculine element (semen) bringing life to the inert and passive female form. Thus, he viewed women’s inability to produce semen as a sort of deficiency and likened women to “infertile men”. He believed that a male was a male by virtue of this ability, while women were defined by relative “inability”. He also declared that women are inherently less intelligent and more compassionate, emotional and jealous than men. Moreover, because of the alleged superior intelligence of males, Aristotle believed that women should inhabit a subordinate role within the home, a position that he likens to that of a “tame animal.”

To his credit, Aristotle also believed that the well being of society depended equally on the happiness of both sexes, and was allegedly happily married during his lifetime. Lucky lady….

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The cervix is the located between the lower third portion of the uterus and the top of the vagina. The cervical canal, called the os, stretches to allow blood to pass through the vagina during menstruation. When a woman’s period ends, the os is blocked by thick and acidic mucus plug that helps prevent sperm from entering the uterus.

However, for the several days in the middle of a woman’s menstrual cycle when she ovulates, the cervix becomes softer and rises and opens in response to the increased production of estrogen. In addition, the cervix produces mucus that actually aids fertilization: it has higher water content, is less acidic and has a ferning (branching) pattern that helps guide sperm through the cervix to the egg and prolongs their life expectancy in the uterus. Some methods of fertility awareness revolve around a woman becoming aware to certain telling symptoms of ovulation, such as the appearance and consistency of her vaginal mucus. During pregnancy, the cervix is blocked with a special antibacterial mucosal plug, which is expelled from the uterus during labor and delivery.

When a woman experiences an orgasm, her cervix convulses and the external os dilates. This has prompted some scientists to posit an “upsuck theory of the female orgasm,” claiming that it may function to draw semen deeper into the uterus, increasing the likelihood of conception. However, thus far there is little evidence to conclusively support this theory of the biological etiology of the female orgasm.

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Wernicke’s area is one of two parts of the cerebral cortex of the brain (the other being Broca’s area) that is involved in language development. Located on the temporal lobe in the dominant cerebral hemisphere (on the left side of the brain for 90% of people), Wernicke’s area is responsible for the comprehension of speech, including semantic processing, recognition and interpretation, while the closely related Broca’s area is responsible for speech production.

Wernicke’s area is named after Carl Wernicke, a German neurologist and psychiatrist who hypothesized a link between the left temporal lobe and speech comprehension after observing a number of patients who suffered from aphasia after sustaining injuries to this region of the brain. Language development and usage can be seriously impaired by damage to the Wernicke’s area, and can cause a person to lose the ability to understand language.

Strangely, a person with damage to their Wernicke’s area may be able to speak clearly, but the words they string together are nonsensical; it has been called a “word salad” because all of their words are tossed haphazardly together like a salad. In contrast, damage to the Broca’s area of the brain can prevent a person from being able to produce or understand speech. These people often have difficulty properly forming words and their speech is slow and slurred.

According to the Geschwind-Wernicke model of language function developed in the 1960s and 1970s, when a person hears a word spoken, the signal is first processed in the brain’s primary auditory cortex, which then passes the signal to the Wernicke’s area. Wernicke’s area is responsible for associating the structure of the signal with the representation of the word stored in the memory, thus enabling a person to retrieve the meaning of the word.

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