Malarial Encounters and Shifting Racial Recruitment Strategies by the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast, 1828-1849.

In the early- to mid-nineteenth century, European mortality rates in West Africa were the highest in the world. Mortality estimates included nine missionaries sent from the Basel Mission (established in what is now Switzerland) to the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), eight of whom died between 1828 and 1840, mostly from "fevers." In response to high mortality rates, the Basel Mission recruited several Afro-West Indians to work as Christian missionaries in the Gold Coast, mostly based on the presumption that individuals of African descent would better survive the environment. The decision to recruit Afro-West Indians to evangelize on the Gold Coast seemed to the mission to be a rational decision, one not in need of further justification or an overarching theory of race, environment, and disease. Surprisingly, the Basel Mission did not justify this position Biblically either. Once arrived, the West Indian Christian missionaries mostly lived in the Akwapem hills above Accra at an elevation that would have provided some protection against malaria; subsequently, their mortality rates were significantly lower than the European missionaries. After quinine came to be used as a prophylactic against malaria after 1850, thus lowering European missionary mortality rates, no more Afro-West Indians were recruited by the Basel Mission.

The Economic Rationality of Religious-Based Medical Abstinence in the Early Twentieth Century: The Case of Philadelphia's Faith Tabernacle Congregation.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Faith Tabernacle Congregation's commitment to medical abstinence was an economically rational practice. To the working poor of Philadelphia, who constituted the earliest members, Faith Tabernacle's therapy was financially attainable, psychologically supportive, and physically rejuvenating. Orthodox medicine was deficient in these three areas based on the patient narratives (i.e., testimonies) published in the church's monthly periodical Sword of the Spirit and testimony book Words of Healing. First, some early members spent all their money on orthodox medical care without relief causing significant financial hardship, while others found medical care prohibitive. Second, many early members experienced a great loss of hope because orthodox physicians ended treatment due to chronic or critical illness, both of which were interpreted as psychologically harmful. Third, early members of the church perceived getting physically worse by physicians because of low quality care, which was compounded by low access to orthodox medicine. Faith Tabernacle alternatively provided care that - in the patient narratives of the earliest members - helped them improve and get back to work faster.

Appendectomy during childhood and adolescence and the subsequent risk of cancer in Sweden.

OBJECTIVE: Researchers have speculated that surgical excision of lymphoid tissue, such as appendectomy, early in life might confer an increased risk of cancer. In this study, we determined the risks of cancer for people who had appendectomy performed during childhood. METHODS: We studied the risk of cancer in a large Swedish cohort of children who had appendectomy performed during the period of 1965-1993. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were computed using age-, gender-, and period-specific incidence rates derived from the entire Swedish population as comparison. Hospital discharge diagnosis data were used to examine cancer risks by categories of surgery, medical conditions, and type of appendicitis. The average length of follow-up was 11.2 years. RESULTS: We found no excess overall cancer risk but noted a significant excess for stomach cancer (SIR: 2.45; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1-4.8) and a borderline increase of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL; SIR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.0-2.3). The elevated risks for both cancers were only evident 15 or more years after appendectomy (stomach cancer, SIR: 3.82; 95% CI: 1.7-7.5; NHL, SIR: 2.49; 95% CI: 1.4-4.2). CONCLUSIONS: It is reassuring that there was no overall increase of cancer several years after childhood appendectomy. Increased risks for NHL and stomach cancer, occurring 15 or more years after appendectomy, were based on small absolute numbers of excess cancers. As 95% of the subjects were younger than 40 years at exit, this cohort requires continuing follow-up and monitoring.