Sheer Humanity

Laconic Wit

Laconia is a region in ancient Greece, known for their extremely courageous warriors and military excellence, now that sounds like how you'd describe Sparta instead, it is true because Sparta was a city in Laconia.

Apart from their military prowess, the Laconians were known for something else - Their cold, blunt, concise manner of speech.

Here are the most popular incidents of their wit: -

When King Philip, father of Alexander the great was conquering everything on his path, he reached to Laconia and asked them to surrender, they replied with a single word "No".

Then he wrote to them again asking: when I visit Laconia should I come as a friend or a foe? again they replied with one word: Neither!

King Philip being furious wrote a third letter saying "If I invade Laconia, you will be destroyed never to rise again" and the Laconians replied him with the word:
"If".

This blunt, cold, concise method of using words is known to us today as the Laconic wit or Laconic speech and it is duly named after Laconia.

The Placebo effect.

There is a treatment which is not a treatment which sometimes cures people of their infirmities. It is called the placebo effect. What it is? And how is it used?

Placebo is a dummy treatment given by doctors. Sometimes it is clean water, saline water, sugar pills or even a fake surgery to make the patient believe that they've received actual medication. Many times, this belief goes on to actually cure them.

Most times, placebos are used when the real treatment is unavailable or when the sickness is incurable but the doctor wants to give their patient hope.

It is also used to test the effectiveness of a new treatment. For example: when a new treatment is launched, some patients will be given the real treatment while some will be given a placebo. If the new treatment is not more successful by a big margin, then it is just another placebo and not a real treatment, even though it cured some people.

You've also probably gotten a placebo at least once.

There are many reports of placebos curing incurable sicknesses, but placebos are unethical. Especially when there's an already existing treatment.

A short story of George Dantzig

While George Dantzig was pursuing a doctorate in mathematics at the university of California, one day in 1939, George came late to class and saw two questions on the board.

He wrote them down took them home and solved them thinking they were assignments. After some days, he submitted them to his professor and added that they were a little harder than usual.

His professor being excited and surprised told him that what he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems in statistics.

The solution was published and it earned Dantzig his PhD.

Red cross is about the most active and most impactful humanitarian organisation in the world today, but Red cross as big as it is today, was the small idea of one man. Who was he and how did Red cross come about?

His name is Henri Dunant and the year was 1859. Henri Dunant embarked on a business trip to meet Napoleon III in Solferino, Lombardi.

Henri Dunant arrived in the evening of June 18th 1859 and met a sight that changed history. There had been a war earlier that day and thousands of soldiers were littered on the battlefields in Solferino wounded, dying, and dead with no efforts to save struggling soldiers.

Dunant was shocked by what he saw so he mobilised women and children to help him take care of the wounded soldiers. He taught them to provide assistance to everyone irrespective of their side in the conflict.

Later, Henri Dunant returned to his country and wrote a book on his experience in the fields of Solferino. He named it: A memory of Solferino. In that book was the idea of Red Cross.

He wrote that a neutral organisation should exist to provide care to all victims of armed conflicts regardless of the victims affiliation.

This is how Red cross started. From the compassion of one man.

Black death of Childbed.

In the 18th century, there was a deadly disease that affected women shortly after they gave birth to a child. Within the first 3 days of childbirth, women would begin to suffer from fever and severe abdominal pains. In most cases, this led to the death of the mother.

The disease was dominant in Europe; It was so deadly that in some areas about 80% of women who went in for childbirth died shortly after.

It spread throughout Europe and in some corners of North America until a saviour came. His name is Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, he was a Hungarian physician.

In 1847, Dr. Semmelweis asked doctors to wash their hands before entering the maternity ward, he blamed doctors to be the cause.

They laughed at his suggestion but in 1884, one hospital which took his suggestion seriously recorded that the mortality rate of mothers in their hospital dropped from 98.4% to 12.7%. since then, hospital hygiene has been taken seriously like never before.

The disease is called puerperal fever and it is caused by an infection of the uterus during childbirth or abortions.

It was Dr. Semmelweis who first thought that washing hands could save lives. He was nicknamed "saviour of mothers".