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In the 1800s, humoral understandings of leprosy successively give way to disease models based on morbid anatomy, physiopathology, and bacteriology. Linkages between these disease models were reinforced by the ubiquitous seed/soil metaphor deployed both before and after the identification of M. leprae. While this metaphor provided a continuous link between medical descriptions, Henry Vandyke Carter's On leprosy (1874) marks a convergence of different models of disease. Simultaneously, this metaphor can be traced in popular and medical debates in the late nineteenth century, accompanying fears of a resurgence of leprosy in Europe. Later the mapping of the genome ushers in a new model of disease but, ironically, while leprosy research draws its logic from a view of the world in which a seed and soil metaphor expresses many different aspects of the activity of the disease, the bacillus itself continues to be unreceptive to cultivation.

Research has shown that there are a number of competing theories regarding the use of bereaved people for research purposes. One view emphasizes their vulnerability, weakness and inability to take part in decision-making. Another is that there is an infringement of rights if people are denied the freedom of choice to take part in research. This article considers issues concerned with data collection from recently bereaved relatives who were at some stage of the grieving process. The participants were interviewed as part of the OXMIS study which aimed to identify the incidence of myocardial infarction in Oxfordshire. A total of 142 interviews took place (59 home visits and 83 telephone interviews). Of the cases not interviewed, sufficient information was gained in 94% from other sources to fulfil the required criteria. The perceived benefit or apparent risk of vulnerable groups participating in research is discussed in light of the study results.

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Esse texto trata de significativa aquisição de documentos que complementam o acervo da Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine de Londres no que diz respeito à vida e obra de Stanley George Browne, especificamente suas atividades internacionais como consultor e seu trabalho no Congo Belga (de 1936 a 1959), em Uzuakoli, na Nigéria (1959 a 1966), e ainda em Londres, com o Leprosy Study Centre (1966-1980). O artigo também se refere a um acervo de documentos, fotos e correspondência, que corre o risco de se perder, e que se encontra em um pequeno museu do Sanatório de Culion, nas Filipinas. Essa pesquisa é parte das atividades do Leprosy Association Global Project on the History of Leprosy (Projeto Global da História da Lepra da Leprosy Association). Seus resultados podem ser conferidos no site <a href="http://www.leprosyhistory.org">http://www.leprosyhistory.org</a>.

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