Evolution of European bison image and its implications for current species conservation.

Visual media are one of the fastest and most effective tools informing the public about conservation goals and convincing societies to support conservation actions. Similar mechanisms functioned in the past, only within a much longer time scale and different communication channels. We analyse the evolution of European bison's depictions between 1500 and 1900 in the context of building public awareness of the species and its conservation needs. Experts evaluated the anatomical accuracy of thirty eight images of the species from the period analysed, and their conservation appeal was assessed by using an online survey of the general public. Existing knowledge and previous publications allowed authors to describe the development of the scientific knowledge about European bison in 1500-1900. By juxtaposing this with anatomical accuracy of depictions, a conclusion was reached that the accuracy of depictions was not directly linked to the state of knowledge about the species. In the survey, the public reception of the accuracy of historical pictures of European bison, as well as their potential to be used in conservation campaigns, was connected with subjective appeal of depicted animals. This lesson can be translated to modern conservation campaigns using mass media and global communication channels: popularization of knowledge on species of concern should be accompanied by appealing depictions of these species to strengthen public reception.

Lessons from Bialowieza Forest on the history of protection and the world's first reintroduction of a large carnivore.

Understanding how the relationships between large carnivores and humans have evolved and have been managed through centuries can provide relevant insights for wildlife conservation. The management history of many large carnivores has followed a similar pattern, from game reserved for nobility, to persecuted pests, to conservation targets. We reconstructed the history of brown bear (Ursus arctos) management in Bialowieza Forest (Poland and Belarus) based on a detailed survey of historical literature and Russian archives. From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of 18th century, the brown bear was considered "animalia superiora" (i.e., game exclusively reserved for nobility and protected by law). Bears, also a source of public entertainment, were not regarded as a threat. Effective measures to prevent damages to traditional forest beekeeping were already in practice. In the beginning of 19th century, new game-management approaches allowed most forest officials to hunt bears, which became the primary target of hunters due to their valuable pelt. This, together with an effective anticarnivore policy enhanced by bounties, led to bear extirpation in 1879. Different approaches to scientific game management appeared (planned extermination of predators and hunting levels that would maintain stable populations), as did the first initiatives to protect bears from cruel treatment in captivity. Bear reintroduction in Bialowieza Forest began in 1937 and represented the world's first reintroduction of a large carnivore motivated by conservation goals. The outbreak of World War II spoiled what might have been a successful project; reproduction in the wild was documented for 8 years and bear presence for 13. Soft release of cubs born in captivity inside the forest but freely roaming with minimal human contact proved successful. Release of captive human-habituated bears, feeding of these bears, and a lack of involvement of local communities were weaknesses of the project. Large carnivores are key components of ecosystem-function restoration, and site-specific histories provide important lessons in how to preserve them for the future.

Video-assisted thoracic surgery in hemothorax evacuation after cardiac surgery or cardiac interventions.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiac surgery and cardiac interventions are associated with the risk of iatrogenic complications, including hemothorax. Minimally invasive methods of evacuating hemothorax include video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). AIM: This paper presents this method and provides its detailed analysis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The VATS procedures were used to evacuate hemothorax in 8 patients (7 after cardiac surgery and 1 after a cardiac intervention). Complete three-port VATS was performed in 7 patients, while 1 patient underwent assisted VATS due to a large number of adhesions. RESULTS: On average, the repeat procedures were performed on the 20th postoperative day (10th-58th postoperative day). In 6 (75%) cases the VATS intervention was the third surgical intervention performed. One patient, operated on 12 days after the original procedure, was diagnosed with active arterial bleeding, which required conversion to a classic procedure using median sternotomy. No postoperative wound infection was noted. Complete hemothorax removal was achieved in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: Classic median sternotomy is the standard approach for hemothorax evacuation. However, it may sometimes be burdened with a high perioperative risk due to massive mediastinal adhesions in the late postoperative period. Additionally, access through the postoperative wound appears to be associated with a higher risk of local infection and sternal instability. Hemodynamically stable patients in the late postoperative period, with stable sternums and healed postoperative wounds, are good candidates for VATS aiming to evacuate hemothorax. The VATS is an effective procedure for evacuating hemothorax.

Airgun shot wound to the orbit with retention of pellet. Case report and review of the literature.

Shot wounds become a growing clinical concern in the civilian setting, due to increasing popularity of air guns among minors. We present a pediatric case of a shot wound to the orbit with sparing of the eyeball and retention of airgun pellet in the retrobulbar space. The pellet was removed 3 months after injury via lateral orbitotomy. Pathophysiology and ballistics of shot wounds are briefly reviewed and current views on the management strategy of shot wounds with retained projectile are discussed.

[J.E. GILIBERT--HIS LIFE AND WORK IN THE LIGHT OF A CORRESPONDENCE AND TESTIMONIES OF HIS TIME]. / JEAN EMMANUEL GILIBERT (1741-1814)--ZYCIE I PRACA W SWIETLE KORESPONDENCJI I SWLADECTW Z EPOKI.

Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert (1741-1814) has been the subject of few biographical works. This paper presents the results of research from unpublished documents, unknown by historians until now. The information, publishedin old sources as in Gilibert autobiographical sketches or in catalogues of natural history papers auctions, is critically analyzed here. We also tried to establish a list of documents from those cited by Gilibert biographers, but lost today. The author both presents and comments letters to Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) and André Thouin (1747-1824), as well as a letter to an unknown receiver, in the autograph's collection of Gustave Thuret (1747-1824) and Eduard Bornet (1828-1911)--which is conserved in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Precious information about Gilibert and his stay in Lithuania was found in the letters of Antoine Gouan (1733-1821) to Philippe-Isidore Picot de Lapeyrouse (1744-1818). Research were also conducted in the Museum's herbarium in order to find Gilibert's specimens from Lithuania as well as to discover more information about the naturalist himself. The documents of Jean Hermann (1738-1800) linked with Gilibert were found in Strasbourg's National and University Libraries and in the Municipal Archives; a letter from Gilibert to Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu was also discovered in this collection. Some new and interesting data came from a register of Hermann's natural history cabinet visitors Some additional information about Gilibert's life and work was obtained as a result of the analysis of manuscripts conserved in the National Academy of Medicine in Paris, more specifically in Gilibert's correspondences from Lithuania and Lyon about illnesses and epidemics. The information obtained allowed a better knowledge of the history of Gilibert floristic works in Lithuania, his zoological research, his practice of medicine and his study of different pathologies, his way of collecting and the collection itself of natural history specimens and the history of Gouan's herbarium and Pierre Richer de Belleval's copper plates brought from France to Lithuania. Some facts about Gilibert's life unknown to his biographers were also discovered in these manuscripts. We also tried to discover to what extent the information obtained in Lithuania was used by Gilibert in France. The role of Gilibert in the description of the Alps flora and his participation in the work of Dominique Villars (1745-1814) were discussed. We tried to estimate the impact of Gilibert's experience in Lithuania on his bio-geographical conceptions, as well as on botany in the XIX century. Based on this information, the character of Gilibert was found to be representative of a typical member of the "république des savants" while still remaining very specific to his atypical life. We therefore also tried to understand to what extent Gilibert was a typical naturalist of the XVIII century.

[WILD MAMMALS OF THE GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA IN THE WORKS OF JEAN-EMMANUEL GILIBERT]. / DZIKIE SSAKI WIELKIEGO KSIESTWA LITEWSKIEGO W PRACACH JEANA-EMMANUELA GILIBERTA.

Among the many topics of lively scientific work that Jean Emmanuel Gilibert (1741-1814) conducted in Grodno and Vilnius, an important place is occupied by his observations of wild mammals. Royal patronage and care from Antoni Tyzenhauz, Treasurer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the governor of Grodno, allowed Gilibert to keep and observe wild fauna captured by royal services in royal forests, including Bialowieza Primeval Forest. Such was an origin of a female bison kept by Gilibert in Grodno. Its description, published in Indagatores naturae in Lithuania (Vilnius 1781) for decades became the primary source of information about the behaviour, food preferences and the anatomy of European bison. European science has just begun to take interest in European bison, therefore Gilibert's account entered scientific circulation by way of French natural history encyclopaedias (mainly Georges Buffon's Histoire naturelle) and works by Georges Cuvier or Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Apart from the description of European bison, Gilibert left an entire series of observations of wild mammals inhabiting the forests of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His accounts of moose were important in building a knowledge base for this species. In the first half of the 18th century, moose was known mainly from fantastic descriptions in Renaissance works and from prescriptions devoted to using moose hoof as the epilepsy treatment. Gilibert's observations helped to overthrow such superstitions. Similarly, Gilibert's first-hand information verified the widespread legends concerning brown bear (e.g. the belief that white bears, belonging to other species than polar bears, occur in Lithuania) . List of species kept and thoroughly watched by the scholar is much longer and includes lynx, wolf (and hybrids of wolves and dogs), beaver, badger, fox, hedgehog, and even white mouse. Also his comments on the species of mammals then absent in Lithuania but known either from farming or from the fur trade (wolverine, bobak marmot or steppe polecat). Also in these cases, Gilibert's descriptions were often the first reliable information that entered the circulation in European science. His accounts were not free of errors and mistakes--but they resulted mainly from the pioneering role of his work. Some of his breeding experiments can arouse the reader's sincere smile today, such as an attempt to feed a beaver with fish or serve cooked beans to a lynx In the margins of his mammal observations, Gilibert described also the place of their occurrence, extensive forests of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Read from the contemporary perspective, his thoughts are surprisingly relevant. In his praise of "primeval nature, free from human actions and not disturbed by accident or by the impatience of human desires" he sounds very similar to today's eulogists of the primeval forest of Bialowieza.

[THE PROFESSORS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND THE SOCIETY OF THE FRIENDS OF THE SCIENCES OF WARSAW (1800-1832)]. / LES PROFESSEURS DU MUSEUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE ET LA SOCIETE DES AMIS DES SCIENCES DE VARSOVIE (1800-1832).

The National Museum of Natural History played a crucial role in the formation of Polish scientific elites in the 19th century. Many Polish students were attending in Paris natural history, botany, zoology, chemistry and mineralogy courses. The Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning was the largest scientific society and one of the most important scientific institutions in Poland. It had also an impact on the political and cultural life of the country, occupied and deprived of freedom at that time. Amongst its founders and members, could be found listeners to the lectures of Lamarck, Haüy, Vauquelin, Desfontaines, Jussieu. Moreover, seven professors of the National Museum of Natural History were elected foreign members of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning: Cuvier, Desfontaines, Haüy, Jussieu, Latreille, Mirbel, Vauquelin. The article analyses this choice and underlines the relationship between these scientists and Warsaw's scientists. The results of this research allow to confirm that the National Museum of Natural History was the most important foreign institution in the 19th century for Polish science, and more specifically natural sciences.