Greek physician Galen (129–199 AD) speculated that there was a change in the composition of the air that caused harm when inhaled, and symptoms of CO poisoning appeared in Cassius Iatrosophistas Quaestiones Medicae et Problemata Naturalia circa 130 AD. Julian the Apostate, Caelius Aurelianus, and several others similarly documented early knowledge of the toxicity symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning as caused by coal fumes in the ancient era.Documented cases by Livy and Cicero allude to carbon monoxide being used as a method of suicide in ancient Rome. Emperor Lucius Verus used smoke to execute prisoners. Many deaths have been linked to carbon monoxide poisoning including Emperor Jovian, Empress Fausta, and Seneca. The most high-profile death by carbon monoxide poisoning may possibly have been Cleopatra or Edgar Allan Poe.In the fifteenth century, coal miners believed sudden death was caused by evil spirits; carbon monoxide poisoning has been linked to supernatural and paranormal experiences, witchcraft, etc. throughout the following centuries including in the modern present day exemplified by Carrie Poppys investigations.Georg Ernst Stahl mentioned carbonarii halitus in 1697 in reference to toxic vapors thought to be carbon monoxide. Friedrich Hoffmann conducted the first modern scientific investigation into carbon monoxide poisoning from coal in 1716, notably rejecting villagers attributing death to demonic superstition. Herman Boerhaave conducted the first scientific experiments on the effect of carbon monoxide (coal fumes) on animals in the 1730s.
In 1953, gamma globulin was shown to prevent paralytic polio.Being a product derived from bone marrow and lymph gland cells, gamma globulin injections, along with blood transfusions and intravenous drug use, can pass hepatitis C to their recipients. Once hepatitis C was identified in 1989, blood banks began screening all blood donors for the presence of the virus in their bloodstream. However, since hepatitis C is known to have been present since at least the 1940s, a gamma globulin shot received prior to the early 1990s put the recipient at risk of being infected. Intravenous gamma globulin was FDA-approved in 2004 to reduce antibodies in a patient with kidney failure to allow that person to accept a kidney from a donor with a different blood type (ABO-incompatible), or who is an unacceptable tissue match. Stanley Jordan at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles pioneered this treatment. Pathology
An excess is known as hypergammaglobulinemia. A deficiency is known as hypogammaglobulinemia. A disease of gamma globulins is called a "gammopathy" (for example, in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance). References
External links
gamma-Globulins at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)