Citation:
Jeremy J. Ramsden, The rôle of biology, physics and chemistry in human health, Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry, Vol 7, No 4, Dec 2007, pp153–158
Abstract:
Health is a perennially dominant preoccupation of man,
and must have been so since the earliest days of his
existence. One of the most ancient ritualized statements is
“To your good health!”, the literal equivalent of which can
be found in almost every language (“Zum Wohl!”,
“Santé!”, “Egészségére!”, etc.), whenever glasses are
raised and a toast is drunk at a social gathering. The
Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of
England, attributes his enduring good health to the
innumerable such toasts drunk to him, even in absentia,
as is the custom at a formal English banquet. Although in
Georgia a whole string of toasts is typically drunk,1 the
toast to good health is considered to be among the most
important; in other countries with a less developed
tradition of toasting, it is typically the only one.
This preoccupation might, upon first consideration,
appear to be superfluous. A living organism is healthy
almost by definition—simply because the sick are less
likely to survive, and in the long term therefore those
prone to sickness are less likely to leave descendants,
according to Darwin’s principle. Health should therefore
properly be seen as something privative, denoting the
absence of ill-health.