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Maggots as Medicine

While serving in World War I, surgeon William Baer noticed something curious: soldiers whose wounds were infested with maggots (the wormlike immature larval form of flies) recovered faster than those whose wounds were maggot-free. Although Baer was not the first military doctor to take note of this phenomenon, he was the first to apply his observations to the problem of non-healing wounds. In the 1920s, he began treating hospital patients’ serious wounds with maggots. The maggots consumed dead tissue, effectively cleaning the wounds and helping the patients heal. While maggot therapy fell out of favour after bacteria-killing antibiotic medications were introduced, it has made a comeback in modern medicine. Many clinicians have found that the treatment can be effective for certain types of severe wounds that do not respond to antibiotics.

🎻 What is the main idea of the passage?

• William Baer, a military surgeon, observed the advantages of maggot-infested wounds while serving in World War I.
• As noted by William Baer, some severe wounds can be effectively treated with maggots, which consume dead tissue.

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Synaesthesia: Mixed-Up Senses

We generally think of our senses as having completely separate functions. This is a logical assumption; after all, we can’t see with our ears or taste with our eyes. For people with a condition called synaesthesia, however, senses can be conflated, or mixed together. In fact, the word synaesthesia, derived from Greek, literally means ‘sensations together’. This combining of senses causes interesting sensory experiences. For example, some synaesthetes (people who experience synaesthesia) imagine tasting a particular flavour whenever they hear a certain sound. Others ‘hear’ a sound in their minds whenever they touch a certain object. The most common types of synaesthesia involve colours. In one common subtype, for instance, synaesthetes associate different colours with different letters of the alphabet. Typically, synaesthetes are not bothered by their synaesthesia; in fact, many enjoy it.

🎻 What is the main idea of the passage?

• People with synaesthesia may hear a sound when they touch an object.
• People with synaesthesia experience a fusing of different senses.

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Sign Language on Martha’s Vineyard

While researching Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of the north-eastern United States, anthropologist Nora Groce made a remarkable discovery. She learned that from the 1600s until the early 1900s, almost all the residents of two towns on the island—West Tisbury and Chilmark—were fluent in sign language. During these years, the towns had an unusually high population of deaf people, due to a form of hereditary deafness that ran in many Martha’s Vineyard families. Consequently, a bilingual society developed. The islanders didn’t attend special sign language classes; they simply learned the language as they grew up. One of the most interesting aspects of the phenomenon was that, in the absence of language barriers, deafness was not perceived as a disability. As one Vineyarder explained to Groce, deaf people were seen as ‘just like everyone else’.

🎻 What is the main idea of the passage?

• The large population of deaf people on Martha’s Vineyard was due to hereditary deafness.
• The high incidence of deafness on Martha’s Vineyard led to the development of a bilingual society.