The earliest mention of a black bag.

A black bag, needed especially for home visits, has been used since the time of Hippocrates who, in his treatise "On good manners", gave the first detailed description of a medical bag with guidelines for the required equipment and structure. Ancient Egyptian and Palestinian references also date back at least two millenniums

Alexandre Yersin's explorations (1892-1894) in French Indochina before the discovery of the plague bacillus.

Alexandre Yersin, the great French discoverer of yersinia pestis, was a keen explorer of unknown lands. At the age of 30, a member of the French Colonial Health service, he set off to fulfil his intimate dream and explore other continents. For almost two years and three long expeditions, he journeyed through widely unknown regions in the province of the French Indochina, in southeast Asia, territories of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. This article presents vignettes from his explorations. During his difficult travels, he carefully planned and noted his itineraries; designed new routes, but also observed and recorded sociodemographic and environmental data and unidentified diseases. The immature science of late 19th century geography had the strength to allure such an influential medical figure and place him among the early medical geographers. His journeys, observations and recordings brought to Yersin great experience, and he made his most important scientific contributions after he had concluded his explorations

Pheidias Apollonius (oko 4. stoljeća pr. Kr.), otkrivajući drevnu grčku medicinsko-filozofsku školu otoka Rodosa

The ancient Greek medico-philosophical school of the island of Rhodes was lost in the fog of history. However, the discovery of a stone column dedicated to Pheidias unveiled somehow some parts of its tale. The Island of Rhodes became in the 4th century BC a place of significant process in philosophy and medicine. Having both an Asclepieion and a Medical School with a rich library, the Rhodian Asclepiades transmitted their knowledge to future schools. Pheidias Apollonius was a member of the School of Rhodes, who was celebrated for his practise by the city-state of Athens. His magnitude testified in a way the supremacy of the school that he originated from.Drevna grčka Medicinsko-filozofska škola otoka Rodosa bila je tijekom povijesti zaboravljena. Međutim, otkriće kamenog stupa posvećenog Pheidiasu otkrilo je dijelove priče njezine povijesti. U 4. stoljeću prije Krista otok Rodos postao je mjesto značajnih zbivanja u filozofiji i medicini. Imajući i Asklepijeve hramove i Medicinsku školu s bogatom knjižnicom, Asklepijadi otoka Rodosa prenosili su svoja znanja budućim školama. Pheidias Apollonius bio je član rodoske škole, a grad-država Atena slavila ga je zbog njegova djelovanja. Njegova je veličina na neki način svjedočila nadmoći škole od koje je potekao

Trepanation practices in Asclepieia: systematizing a neurosurgerical innovation.

As ancient Greeks started looking for deities that could fulfil the pragmatic needs of common people, local heroes started being mythologized and worshipped through cults. The most widespread such example was Asclepius, possibly a skilled war surgeon who followed military expeditions to Colchis and Troy. He was worshipped at religious temples called Asclepieia where certain specific medical and surgical techniques were followed. The most advanced must have been skull trepanation, most likely done as an acute operation to release intracranial pressure. The contemporary Hippocratic corpus provided extensive descriptions of the technique and archaeological evidence have shown that many patients survived the operation. Decompressive craniectomy techniques have been practiced for millennia but it is possible that they were first systematized as a neurosurgical innovation through the Ancient Greek religious cult followed in Asclepieia

The “torpedo” effect in medicine

The natural electrical phenomena fascinated humans since antiquity. The electrical discharges produced by the torpedo fish were highly appreciated among ancient physicians as Hippocrates, Scribonius Largus and Galen and were prescribed for headache, gout and prolapsed anus. In the medieval period, torpedo’s electrical properties were attributed to occult powers, while Renaissance physicians’ and scientists’ studied the anatomy and mechanical nature of the provoked shock paving the way for the discovery of the electrical nature of torpedo’s activity and the evolution of electrotherapy

An aperture in the sagittal plane of the dorsal wall of the sacrum

The dorsal wall of the sacrum presents various anatomical variations, while the dorsal bony wall of the sacral canal suffers more. We report a case of a sacrum with a series of variants in the midline due to abnormal ossification and a bizarre aperture on the sagittal plane between the 1st and the 2nd sacral spinous processes. A failure of the ossification patter during embryological life, or an ossification of the supraspinous ligament may result in such an aperture. Sacrum variety is of great importance for the daily proper medical practice

An unusual case of asymmetrical combined variations of the subclavian and axillary artery with clinical significance

In a Greek Caucasian male cadaver, a combination of the following arterial variations were observed: an aberrant right subclavian artery originating as a last branch of the aortic arch and coursed posterior to the oesophagus, a right non-recurrent laryngeal nerve, an atypical origin of the left suprascapular artery from the axillary artery, an unusual emersion of the lateral thoracic artery from the subscapular artery and a separate origin of the left thoracodorsal artery from the axillary artery. According to the available literature the corresponding incidences of the referred variants are: 0.7% for the aberrant right subclavian artery, 1.6–3.8% for the origin of the suprascapular artery from the axillary artery, 3% for the origin of the left thoracodorsal artery from the axillary artery and 30% for the origin of the lateral thoracic artery from the subscapular artery. Such unusual coexistence of arterial variations may developmentally be explained and has important clinical significance

Infection, contagion and causality in Colonial Britain: the 1889-90 influenza pandemic and the British Medical Journal.

The influenza pandemic of 1889 was the first truly global flu outbreak in scope. Characterised by high morbidity and low mortality, it spread rapidly across Europe and the rest of the world along trading routes. It reached mainland Britain in December 1889. The responses of medical practitioners in Britain and the British colonies to the pandemic were heavily featured in the British Medical Journal and reveal a confusing picture around causality, contagion and infection. Cases from the colonies (Cape Town, India, Australia, Samoan Islands, Hong Kong) as presented in the journal are explored in an attempt to reconstruct the mainstream medical belief of the time. The evidence sadly shows a lack of confidence in contagionism, almost complete absence of monocausalism and a vague picture of the epidemic constitution. Original case studies from colonial medical officers as well as editorials triggered a debate in the pages of the BMJ. In this context, the journal succeeded in playing a key role in recording the first thoroughly documented attack of influenza. In a world that was only learning to be interconnected, the BMJ became the point of reference for the British medical establishment, which ranged from London to Scotland and from Africa and India to Oceania

Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) Sensor Validation and Verification on National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Lockheed WP-3D Aircraft

As part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Aviation Safety and Security Program, the Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting project (TAMDAR) developed a low-cost sensor for aircraft flying in the lower troposphere. This activity was a joint effort with support from Federal Aviation Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and industry. This paper reports the TAMDAR sensor performance validation and verification, as flown on board NOAA Lockheed WP-3D aircraft. These flight tests were conducted to assess the performance of the TAMDAR sensor for measurements of temperature, relative humidity, and wind parameters. The ultimate goal was to develop a small low-cost sensor, collect useful meteorological data, downlink the data in near real time, and use the data to improve weather forecasts. The envisioned system will initially be used on regional and package carrier aircraft. The ultimate users of the data are National Centers for Environmental Prediction forecast modelers. Other users include air traffic controllers, flight service stations, and airline weather centers. NASA worked with an industry partner to develop the sensor. Prototype sensors were subjected to numerous tests in ground and flight facilities. As a result of these earlier tests, many design improvements were made to the sensor. The results of tests on a final version of the sensor are the subject of this report. The sensor is capable of measuring temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and icing. It can compute pressure altitude, indicated air speed, true air speed, ice presence, wind speed and direction, and eddy dissipation rate. Summary results from the flight test are presented along with corroborative data from aircraft instruments