Ethics--dental registration in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.
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In the histories of dentistry, some mention is made of the licensing of tooth-drawers, and those who provided dental healthcare before the term Dentist started to become general in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. One of the most striking references to licensing appears in a little piece of doggerel printed under a 1768 print by Dixon after Harris. (+info)
Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516): paleopathology of the medieval disabled and its relation to the Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010.
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BACKGROUND: At the start of the Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010, a paleopathologic study of the physically disabled may yield information and insight on the prevalence of crippling disorders and attitudes towards the afflicted in the past compared to today. OBJECTIVE: To analyze "The procession of the Cripples," a representative drawing of 31 disabled individuals by Hieronymus Bosch in 1500. METHODS: Three specialists--a rheumatologist, an orthopedic surgeon and a neurologist--analyzed each case by problem-solving means and clinical reasoning in order to formulate a consensus on the most likely diagnosis. RESULTS: This iconographic study of cripples in the sixteenth century reveals that the most common crippling disorder was not a neural form of leprosy, but rather that other disorders were also prevalent, such as congenital malformation, dry gangrene due to ergotism, post-traumatic amputations, infectious diseases (Pott's, syphilis), and even simulators. The drawings show characteristic coping patterns and different kinds of crutches and aids. CONCLUSION: A correct clinical diagnosis can be reached through the collaboration of a rheumatologist, an orthopedist and a neurologist. The Bone and Joint Decade Project, calling for attention and education with respect to musculoskeletal disorders, should reduce the impact and burden of crippling diseases worldwide through early clinical diagnosis and appropriate treatment. (+info)
The development of fetal surgery.
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The history of fetal surgery features an absolute dependency upon the possibility of diagnosis before birth. Powerful new imaging methods, the techniques of sampling amniotic fluid and fetal tissue, and modern molecular genetics for the prenatal diagnosis of various congenital diseases have removed the veil of secrecy from the fetus. Even though most prenatally detected congenital malformations can be managed after maternal transport, a few simple anatomic defects require fetal surgery, albeit with predictably poor results. The understanding of intrauterine physiology and pathophysiology in several congenital malformations has been worked out in animal model study, and the natural history of congenital defects revealed by prenatal observations on human fetuses. Selection criteria for intrauterine intervention have been developed. Over the last two decades, surgical techniques for open and endoscopic fetal surgery have been defined and anesthesia and tocolysis for fetal surgery improved. As we enter the 21st century, this field of surgery will surely expand. (+info)
Megadrought and megadeath in 16th century Mexico.
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The native population collapse in 16th century Mexico was a demographic catastrophe with one of the highest death rates in history. Recently developed tree-ring evidence has allowed the levels of precipitation to be reconstructed for north central Mexico, adding to the growing body of epidemiologic evidence and indicating that the 1545 and 1576 epidemics of cocoliztli (Nahuatl for "pest") were indigenous hemorrhagic fevers transmitted by rodent hosts and aggravated by extreme drought conditions. (+info)
The start of life: a history of obstetrics.
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Obstetric intervention originally consisted of extraction of the baby, usually by the breech, to save the mother's life in obstructed labour. Forceps, introduced in the 17th century, were later refined by men-midwives like William Smellie. In Victorian times, Simpson championed chloroform anaesthesia, Lister pioneered antisepsis, and caesarean section was introduced. In 1935, however, Britain's maternal mortality rate was still around 400/100,000. It fell dramatically after antibiotics appeared and is now 11.4. In the 1960s ultrasound and electronic fetal monitoring became widely used. In 2000 the British caesarean section rate reached 20%. Worldwide, childbirth still causes 600,000 maternal deaths a year. (+info)
Animal experimentation in sciences: sadistic nonsense or indispensable necessity?
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The history of biomedical research clearly shows that, with exception of a very few, scientific findings could be realised only with the help of animal experiments. Unfortunately, in the past the life of animals was treated negligently and, at times, in fact criminally. Only the researchers' willingness to apply ethical principles toward laboratory animals could create a climate in which research is opening up to constructive, active animal protection and is ready to co-operate through the implementations of such programmes as the 3R-principle into daily practice. Using a number of examples, the article at hand tries to show that the dimensions concerning animal protection is very old indeed and that only a change of consciousness by the public and in research has created a situation in which a gentler treatment of life and life conditions of laboratory animals could be realised. A further development of "constructive" animal protection within the industrialised nations is only possible with this back ground. Without such a development, biomedical research is bound for deficits in one way or another. It will be loosing it's medical and economical opportunities and with it, it's meaning for man. (+info)
Arthropathy in art and the history of pain management--through the centuries to cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors.
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Preserved human remains, artefacts and works of art contain records of the existence and prevalence of arthropathies, even in the absence of medical texts or formal written accounts, although these also exist for some epochs and cultures. Example objects from the Museum of Medical History in Brussels have been used to illustrate the magnitude of the burden of pain throughout the ages and how rheumatic diseases have indiscriminately afflicted people regardless of their positions in life or occupations. These include both osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as well as the seemingly ubiquitous gout and various skeletal deformities. Adequate pain management has been severely hampered, historically, by obstacles to a comprehensive and systematic classification of diseases posed by the social, religious and philosophical mores of the time, which made differential diagnosis almost impossible to achieve. However, despite this shortcoming, serendipitous events meant that precursors of modern medicines, such as willow bark extracts, were in routine use from the earliest recorded times. It has taken several millennia, however, before empirical treatment has given way to pharmacological rationale. The first clinically acceptable synthetic derivative of the active principle in willow, aspirin, became available only at the turn of the nineteenth century, while non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) did not arrive on the market until some 60 yr later. At the cusp of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, physicians have a wider choice of analgesics available than ever before, including the cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors, which represent the first major advance in NSAID development since the synthesis of the latter compounds themselves. (+info)
African rice (Oryza glaberrima): history and future potential.
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The African species of rice (Oryza glaberrima) was cultivated long before Europeans arrived in the continent. At present, O. glaberrima is being replaced by the introduced Asian species of rice, Oryza sativa. Some West African farmers, including the Jola of southern Senegal, still grow African rice for use in ritual contexts. The two species of rice have recently been crossed, producing a promising hybrid. (+info)