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Adaptations: Obtaining and Processing Food

J. Eduardo P. W. Bicudo, William A. Buttemer, Mark A. Chappell, James T. Pearson, and Claus Bech

in Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Birds

This chapter reviews the diversity of feeding habits among birds and the consequences for their nutritional ecology. Different digestion strategies are also emphasized. Food selection is often ... More

This chapter reviews the diversity of feeding habits among birds and the consequences for their nutritional ecology. Different digestion strategies are also emphasized. Food selection is often treated as a challenge of acquisition, but it is also a problem of utilization, processing and digestion of food. What animals eat and excrete shapes their role in ecological communities and determines their contribution to the flux of energy and materials in ecosystems. The balance between energy acquisition and expenditure is critical for survival and reproductive success. Because energy intake and expenditure integrate all aspects of an individual's life, changes in energy management are closely tied to all aspects of its life-history, including diet quality, nutritional requirements, allocation of time, and body plan.Less

Nutritional physiology and ecology

Steven L. Chown and Sue W. Nicolson

in Insect Physiological Ecology: Mechanisms and Patterns

Nutritional ecology covers the behavioural, physiological, and ecological aspects of nutrition. As in many areas of insect physiology, most information is available for caterpillars and locusts, ... More

Nutritional ecology covers the behavioural, physiological, and ecological aspects of nutrition. As in many areas of insect physiology, most information is available for caterpillars and locusts, which are continuous feeders. Locusts have been used as a model system in showing how animals eating unbalanced foods must compromise between the intakes of different nutrients. At the cellular level, advances in digestion and absorption, including the ways in which insects deal with plant secondary compounds, are reviewed. The gut is the major interface between the insect and its environment and knowledge of its physiology is important in the development of new control methods. This chapter also forms a natural choice for placement of a discussion of growth rate and development because these parameters are ultimately dependent on food quantity and quality, strongly modified by environmental temperature.Less

The voyager returns

Mark Harrison

in Medicine in an age of Commerce and Empire: Britain and its Tropical Colonies 1660-1830

This chapter examines some of the themes arising from earlier chapters through the career of James Johnson, one of the most influential practitioners of his day. After his retirement from the Royal ... More

This chapter examines some of the themes arising from earlier chapters through the career of James Johnson, one of the most influential practitioners of his day. After his retirement from the Royal Navy, Johnson began to write not only about tropical invalids but about degeneration in Britain, particularly among the inhabitants of large commercial towns. Johnson believed that imperial commerce had brought great benefits but that civilization had its down‐side, including a host of new ailments linked to over‐stimulation of the nervous system. These tended to manifest themselves in hypochondria and digestive disorders, and Johnson made a good living by offering homely advice about managing these disorders through diet and changes to lifestyle. The great popularity of Johnson's work shows that former colonial practitioners could use their experience of digestive disorders to good effect in the medical marketplace.Less

The Natural Philosophy of Angels

Raymond Joad

in Milton's Angels: The Early-Modern Imagination

This chapter discusses the impact of natural philosophy on views of angels, and the ways in which angels constituted thought experiments in natural philosophy. Milton's angels are objects of ... More

This chapter discusses the impact of natural philosophy on views of angels, and the ways in which angels constituted thought experiments in natural philosophy. Milton's angels are objects of natural-philosophical knowledge. There was no divorce between mechanical and occult or spiritual philosophy; rather, it was the opponents of the Society, such as Hobbes, who doubted that spiritual beings were reliable evidence. Increasingly the ‘proof’ of the spirit world lay in descriptions and explanations of apparitions, such as those compiled by Robert Boyle, Glanvill, and More. The spirits concerned were predominantly demons because the age of miracles and angels was over. Still, there is no real division between the philosopher, theologian, and poet, because the story is ‘a complex narrative organism’ and the part and whole must be understood together.Less

Paleopathology and Taphonomic Modification of Mammalian Bones from Porcupine Cave

C. Suzane Ware and Elaine Anderson

in Biodiversity Response to Climate Change in the Middle Pleistocene: The Porcupine Cave Fauna from Colorado

This chapter discusses the paleopathology and taphonomic modifications evident in several specimens recovered from the Porcupine Cave deposits. It also provides background information about bone ... More

This chapter discusses the paleopathology and taphonomic modifications evident in several specimens recovered from the Porcupine Cave deposits. It also provides background information about bone accumulation in a cave setting. More than a hundred specimens from Porcupine Cave show signs of disease and trauma, and many more have been gnawed by rodents. In this chapter, the following categories of bone modification are discussed: carnivore digestion; raptor digestion; disease, injury, or trauma; and rodent gnawing.Less

Digesting in the long eighteenth century

Ian Miller

in Bellies, bowels and entrails in the eighteenth century

This essay investigates the emergence and evolution of philosophical and scientific inquiries into the nature of human digestion in the long eighteenth century. It suggests that shifting perspectives ... More

This essay investigates the emergence and evolution of philosophical and scientific inquiries into the nature of human digestion in the long eighteenth century. It suggests that shifting perspectives on digestion encouraged deep anxieties to form around the gut. Ultimately, these concerns underpinned a new set of therapeutic regimes designed to safeguard both dietary and bodily health.Less

Why Develop a Neck?

Carl Gans

in The Head-Neck Sensory Motor System

The Random House Dictionary defines the word “neck” as “the part of the body of an animal or man that connects the head and the trunk.” Therefore, in classical terms, the neck would only be expected ... More

The Random House Dictionary defines the word “neck” as “the part of the body of an animal or man that connects the head and the trunk.” Therefore, in classical terms, the neck would only be expected to happen in animals that have heads different from their trunks. Heads are expected to serve the organism in roles such as ingestion, mating, sensation, and defense. Trunks are expected to have roles in visceral function such as reproduction, digestion, circulation, and respiration. Other significant roles of trunks are transport, maintenance of posture, as well as attachment.Less

Form and Function

Judith S. Weis

in Walking Sideways: The Remarkable World of Crabs

This chapter looks at basic crab anatomy. It examines the biological aspects common to many crabs, such as their digestive processes, respiration, metabolic rates, biological rhythms, excretion, ... More

This chapter looks at basic crab anatomy. It examines the biological aspects common to many crabs, such as their digestive processes, respiration, metabolic rates, biological rhythms, excretion, osmoregulation, their five senses, their nervous system, and even their pigmentation. A crab’s major anatomical features are the boundary between the head and thorax, as well as the segments of the thorax and the attachment of the legs to the thorax. Furthermore, the chapter notes that while many aspects of crab anatomy and physiology are similar to those of other animals, some may come as a surprise, such as their blue blood, the taste buds on their toes, or even the kidneys in their head.Less

Digestion: Grass to Gas and Chips

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

A grassland's plants combine the energy from the sun with water and nutrients from the soil to grow and reproduce. These plants produce the stuff of life and growth for grass eaters. There are ... More

A grassland's plants combine the energy from the sun with water and nutrients from the soil to grow and reproduce. These plants produce the stuff of life and growth for grass eaters. There are carbohydrates for energy and protein for growth and repairing body parts. Digesting anything is a strictly chemical matter of subjecting it to an enzyme that breaks certain molecular bonds. Bison don't secrete an enzyme that digests cellulose either, but they enlist colonies of bacteria. The front part of their stomach is segmented off by a fold (the rumen) in which newly swallowed food is kept for a while. It serves as a place where some very helpful bacteria put their enzymes to work digesting the cellulose. The ruminants have enlisted a powerful ally in their arms race with grass.Less

Toward a Fermentive Politics

E. Melanie DuPuis

in Dangerous Digestion: The Politics of American Dietary Advice

This chapter explains how new ideas of the body can help in showing the possibilities of social change beyond the system of purity and order. Particularly, fermentive imaginaries represent a set of ... More

This chapter explains how new ideas of the body can help in showing the possibilities of social change beyond the system of purity and order. Particularly, fermentive imaginaries represent a set of alternatives that is occasionally resistant to both exalted and degenerated ways of life. It is necessary to move beyond ideas of ingestion and control to more complex and process-based ideas of digestion and fermentation. This kind of politics requires a different relationship to both the bodies and to political society. The idea of the body being made up of microbial ferments materializes new ideas about social justice and ways of knowing that perceives difference as potential, and breaking down borders as the best form of protection.Less

Diet, digestion, and defecation

Jill Lancaster and Barbara J. Downes

in Aquatic Entomology

This chapter begins with a general description of the structure and functions of the main parts of the insect alimentary system, and how they differ among taxa according to their diet. The alimentary ... More

This chapter begins with a general description of the structure and functions of the main parts of the insect alimentary system, and how they differ among taxa according to their diet. The alimentary system of most aquatic grazers and shredders is more similar to the relatively simple gut found in generalist terrestrial insects (e.g., cockroaches), than to the gut of terrestrial insects that consume solid plant tissues (e.g., lepidopteran larvae). This is related to the structural and nutritional differences between freshwater algae and terrestrial plants, and to the added nutrition from the microfauna and flora that is often with detritus in aquatic systems. Larvae and adults of the same species often have different diets and their guts differ morphologically and functionally. These differences are often extreme where adults are short-lived and do not feed, e.g. mayflies. Whether the guts served any function in non-feeding adults is unclear. Not all the food consumed by an insect is digested or absorbed and the undigested material is excreted, along with wastes of various metabolic processes. The final section considers the digestive processes and how these differ with the nutritional quality of food, the roles of microorganism in digestion, and the impacts of secondary plant compounds.Less

Diet and Growth

A. Peter Klimley

in The Biology of Sharks and Rays

This chapter discusses what cartilaginous fishes eat, their frequency of feeding, their rates of digestion and growth, and to what age they live. The composition of the diet of the cartilaginous ... More

This chapter discusses what cartilaginous fishes eat, their frequency of feeding, their rates of digestion and growth, and to what age they live. The composition of the diet of the cartilaginous fishes often changes as they grow larger and migrate from one geographical region to another. The diet can also differ among males and females because in many cartilaginous fishes, the sexes segregate from each other and occupy separate feeding grounds. The cartilaginous fishes are unique in their possession of spiral and scrolled intestines, which confers both advantages and disadvantages. Their compactness affords more space in the peritoneum to accommodate a larger liver and uterus. Yet the economy in mucosal surface results in a slower digestion rate and prolongs the interval between foraging bouts.Less

From Alchemy to Chemistry

in Inventing Chemistry: Herman Boerhaave and the Reform of the Chemical Arts

This chapter deals with Herman Boerhaave's experimental work in transmutational alchemy and the composition of metals, and reviews his published conclusions from his alchemical work “De Mercurio ... More

This chapter deals with Herman Boerhaave's experimental work in transmutational alchemy and the composition of metals, and reviews his published conclusions from his alchemical work “De Mercurio Experimenta.” The method that he developed, shaped by his academic context and pedagogical concerns, contributed to his rejection to his belief regarding the composition of metals, which he had held for most of his career. Boerhaave started a series of alchemical experiments that focused on the amalgamation and “digestion” of mercury with other metals. His alchemical career in the laboratory was one marked by failures. The accounts in “De Mercurio Experimenta” depicted actual experiments that Boerhaave had conducted, but they were highly sanitized depictions which often he had worked out through several experimental trials. His rejection of mercurialist alchemy in “De Mercurio Experimenta” proved to his faith in his method.Less

Ayurveda: “You Are the Medicine”

Stefan Ecks

in Eating Drugs: Psychopharmaceutical Pluralism in India

This chapter analyzes Ayurvedic practices in Calcutta and shows how, in traditional Indian medicine, food is medicine and medicine is food. Ayurvedic knowledge used to be passed down from one ... More

This chapter analyzes Ayurvedic practices in Calcutta and shows how, in traditional Indian medicine, food is medicine and medicine is food. Ayurvedic knowledge used to be passed down from one generation to the next, though nowadays Ayurvedic remedies are mass-marketed—via schools, etc.—and this is reflective of a continuing shift toward capitalist commodification through pharmaceuticalization. To diagnose illness, classic Ayurveda draws evidence from different sources: direct perception of the patient with all bodily senses (sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste), logical inference, analogical reasoning, and recourse to authoritative texts. Ayurveda has undergone many transformations over the years, but the centrality of food and digestion remains a constant. Questions about digestion are a routine part of the diagnostic process, and recommendations about diet and the maintenance of daily routines are part of the therapy.Less

Psychiatry: Medicating Modern Moods

Stefan Ecks

in Eating Drugs: Psychopharmaceutical Pluralism in India

This chapter shows how Calcutta psychiatrists position themselves vis-á-vis popular “superstitions” about psychopharmaceuticals, general physicians, practitioners of nonbiomedical treatments, and the ... More

This chapter shows how Calcutta psychiatrists position themselves vis-á-vis popular “superstitions” about psychopharmaceuticals, general physicians, practitioners of nonbiomedical treatments, and the pharmaceutical industry. Psychiatrists have shared the notion that Bengalis are too focused on their digestion, with the general opinion being that Bengalis take this concern to the extreme. For the doctors—almost all of whom are Bengalis themselves—“bowel obsession” is a cluster of ideas and practices that are centered on the fixed notion that if the belly is healthy, the whole body will be healthy, too. In that vein, the chapter reveals how psychiatrists try to manage “doctor-shopping” and overcome nonadherence to treatments, and focuses on how neurochemical imbalances are likened to humoral imbalances.Less

Conclusion

Stefan Ecks

in Eating Drugs: Psychopharmaceutical Pluralism in India

This concluding chapter returns to “mind food,” showing how psychiatrists are both trying to counter nonbiomedical notions of drug effects and the biomedical model of short-term targeted action ... More

This concluding chapter returns to “mind food,” showing how psychiatrists are both trying to counter nonbiomedical notions of drug effects and the biomedical model of short-term targeted action itself. “Mind food” after all echoes the popular centrality of digestion, so likening psychopharmaceuticals to food makes these drugs seem innocuous. These biomedical prescribers explain the action of psychopharmaceuticals as “mind food” and that they compare ill moods to a nutritional imbalance is deeply ironical if the paradigmatic opposition between specific etiology and humoralism in the history of medicine is considered. Calcutta doctors tend to evade explaining diagnoses and therapies when this causes resistance from patients, and there is no regulation that stands in their way. The chapter goes on to elaborate on the medical and ethical implications of these issues, highlighting the ongoing public anxieties regarding mind medications.Less