Experimental therapeutics in the Renaissance. (41/361)

Detailed accounts of therapeutics at the time of the European Renaissance written by the participants have not survived in large numbers. One manuscript, dated 1562, was written by friars in a religious order in Italy dedicated to the care of the sick. Their remedies, methods of preparation, and uses were detailed by the friars and offer a glimpse into the beginnings of experimentation with drugs and rejection of tradition and authority in determining the effectiveness of a remedy. These developing concepts were combined in the manuscript with traditional treatments dating back through the Middle Ages to the medical methods of Greece and Rome.  (+info)

Touch during childbirth: yesterday and today. (42/361)

Birth helpers touch the parturient woman in many ways. They make physical contact to diagnose difficulties and manipulate safe delivery. They may also touch the woman in non-physical ways, with special words, as they help a woman to give birth. Some hope also for a divine touch, as Jewish tradition teaches that God is a partner in the birth process. This paper takes a historical look at the different forms of touch used by birth attendants to ease the safe arrival of a healthy infant. We hope that this short retrospective will encourage today's birth helpers, especially doctors and midwives, to notice how they themselves touch birthing women. We hope to promote awareness of the verbal and non-verbal language of touch and to encourage the use of the art of touch among medical staff who are now more skilled than ever before in applying scientific touch to patients.  (+info)

The interchange of disease and health between the Old and New Worlds. (43/361)

A review of the five centuries since Columbus discovered America helps us understand the mutual contributions of the Old and the New Worlds to the history of diseases and their treatment. It also shows the consequences of this "mutual discovery" as they are currently emerging in the fields of health, culture, and the environment. To evaluate the multiple aspects of the interchange between the Old and New Worlds, this paper discusses the following: the causes of the rapid decline of the original American populations; the diffusion of communicable diseases between the two civilizations; the health consequences of nutritional changes on both sides of the Atlantic; drug addictions, as they developed through the centuries and as they exist today; the ways diseases were and are evaluated, prevented, diagnosed, and treated; and the mutual impact of different models of health services. Arguing that a major global change following the discovery of America was the transition from isolation of the two worlds to communication, and, more recently, to global interdependence, the paper also discusses some problems of bioethical relevance and the possible impact of new epidemics. Finally, it suggests that a critical analysis of the past may help stimulate future cooperation and solidarity.  (+info)

THE SPECIAL ORTHOPEDIC HOSPITAL--PAST AND PRESENT. (44/361)

Pioneer orthopedic institutions established in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and in the U.S.A. in the second half of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century, can trace their ancestry in ideas back to the practice and teachings of Hippocrates. Experience in treatment of great numbers of injured soldiers in the First World War opened a new era in reconstructive surgery of the locomotor system.After the Second World War, in advanced nations the pattern of crippling diseases showed a spectacular change. Problems that justify the existence of large special orthopedic hospitals are, in children, the more complex congenital deformities, cerebral palsies, and the increasing number of injuries due to hazards of modern life; in the adult, the reconstructive surgery of trauma and of arthritis.In modern orthopedic hospitals physicians have joined orthopedic surgeons in the study of the natural history of the various forms of arthritis. These centres provide facilities for biomechanical research and postgraduate training which acute general hospitals cannot offer.  (+info)

Dr William Coley and tumour regression: a place in history or in the future. (45/361)

Spontaneous tumour regression has followed bacterial, fungal, viral, and protozoal infections. This phenomenon inspired the development of numerous rudimentary cancer immunotherapies, with a history spanning thousands of years. Coley took advantage of this natural phenomenon, developing a killed bacterial vaccine for cancer in the late 1800s. He observed that inducing a fever was crucial for tumour regression. Unfortunately, at the present time little credence is given to the febrile response in fighting infections-no less cancer. Rapidly growing tumours contain large numbers of leucocytes. These cells play a part in both defence and repair; however, reparative functions can also support tumour growth. Intratumoural infections may reactivate defensive functions, causing tumour regression. Can it be a coincidence that this method of immunotherapy has been "rediscovered" repeatedly throughout the centuries? Clearly, Coley's approach to cancer treatment has a place in the past, present, and future. It offers a rare opportunity for the development of a broadly applicable, relatively inexpensive, yet effective treatment for cancer. Even in cases beyond the reach of conventional therapy, there is hope.  (+info)

Being there: the library as place. (46/361)

The value of the library as place is examined in this Janet Doe Lecture. The lecture, which is intended to focus on the history or philosophy of health sciences librarianship, presents an overview of the library as a place in society from ancient times to the present. The impact of information technology and changes in the methods of scholarly publication from print to digital are addressed as well as the role of the library as the repository of the written historical record of cultures. Functions and services of libraries are discussed in light of the physical library facility of the future. Finally, librarians are asked to remember the enduring values of librarianship in planning libraries of the future.  (+info)

Absence of Yersinia pestis-specific DNA in human teeth from five European excavations of putative plague victims. (47/361)

This study reports the results of a collaborative study undertaken by two independent research groups to (a) confirm recent PCR-based detection of Yersinia pestis DNA in human teeth from medieval plague victims in France, and (b) to extend these observations over five different European burial sites believed to contain plague victims dating from the late 13th to 17th centuries. Several different sets of primers were used, including those previously documented to yield positive results on ancient DNA extracts. No Y. pestis DNA could be amplified from DNA extracted from 108 teeth belonging to 61 individuals, despite the amplification of numerous other bacterial DNA sequences. Several methods of extracting dentine prior to the DNA extraction were also compared. PCR for bacterial 16S rDNA indicated the presence of multiple bacterial species in 23 out of 27 teeth DNA extracts where dentine was extracted using previously described methods. In comparison, positive results were obtained from only five out of 44 teeth DNA extracts for which a novel contamination-minimizing embedding technique was used. Therefore, high levels of environmental bacterial DNA are present in DNA extracts where previously described methods of tooth manipulation are used. To conclude, the absence of Y. pestis-specific DNA in an exhaustive search using specimens from multiple putative European plague burial sites does not allow us to confirm the identification of Y. pestis as the aetiological agent of the Black Death and subsequent plagues. In addition, the utility of the published tooth-based ancient DNA technique used to diagnose fatal bacteraemias in historical epidemics still awaits independent corroboration.  (+info)

Is osteoarthritis a systemic disorder of bone? (48/361)

OBJECTIVE: To describe the osteologic findings associated with osteoarthritis (OA) of a variety of joints. METHODS: We performed visual examination of 563 skeletons of which >/=80% of the skeleton was available, from an archaeologic site in England. The surfaces and margins of several different joints (shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, hands, knees, and ankles) were studied for evidence of eburnation and osteophytes, respectively, and the entire skeleton was examined for evidence of generalized enthesophyte formation. Associations between changes in different joint sites and between enthesophyte formation and evidence of OA were sought. RESULTS: Eburnation and osteophyte formation at the hand, hip, and knee were strongly associated with eburnation and osteophytes at other joint sites not commonly thought to be prone to OA, including the elbow and wrist. Only the ankle was rarely involved. There was also a strong relationship between both bone eburnation and osteophytes and generalized enthesophyte formation. These findings remained statistically significant after adjustment for the age, sex, and historical period of the skeletons. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that skeletal OA is more widespread in the body than is apparent from clinical studies and are consistent with other data suggesting that OA is a disease that is primarily dependent on systemic predisposition to a particular type of bone response to mechanical stress.  (+info)