Zur Entwicklung der medizinischen Wissenschaften in China

Three periods or stages can be recognized in the development of medicine in China. The first one, being the indigenous medical practice, has its own philosophical approach and can therefore not simply be combined with Western medicine. The second period, in which medical missionaries introduced modern medicine was still a time of laissez-faire and pestilence. The third stage was ushered in by the liberation in 1949 and is characterized by the fact that the government no longer regards health as the private affair of the individual but as a task for the whole community. A number of endemic and epidemic diseases were conquered mainly through close cooperation between the population and medical workers. Success must be regarded as in an important part due to land reform and the eradication of famine. Further improvement in health care will depend to a great deal on improvement in living standards and a lessening of population pressure. As family planning meets resistance for economic and other reasons, only specific measures by the state can bring about a change in attitude. The progress in preventive measures is matched by advances in the technical aspects of medicine and especially too in medical education.     

Die Entwicklung der Erdrinde

The key and the well established basis for our present understanding of the evolution of the earth's lithosphere is the continous creation of new oceanic lithosphere in the mid oceanic ridge system. Paleomagnetic evidence and the concept of global plate tectonics permit a quantitative reconstruction of the kinematic history of the lithosphere for the past 200 m.y. This leads to continent configurations very similar to those proposed by A. Wegener. Plate tectonic processes can be traced back until Precambrian times. Before that, due to the generally higher temperature of the earth, the evolution was apparently governed by different processes. Thermal convection and gravitational instabilities are considered as driving forces for the lithosphere.