Feet and fertility in the healing temples: A symbolic communication system between gods and men?

Anatomical ex-votos of feet have always been interpreted as representing the unhealthy part of the body for which patients were asking healing. However, according to the archaeological data and literary sources, another interpretation is also possible: the purpose of this article is to focus on the strong relationship between feet and fertility in the ancient world by cross-referencing the available archaeological evidence with the scientific data relating to this topic. That shed light on an important aspect of the Healing Temples in Greek and Roman medicine

ELECTROTHERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS AFFECTED BY RABIES: EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED AT THE “MAGGIORE” HOSPITAL OF MILAN IN 1865

During the nineteenth century, the scientific context of rabies treatment was weak due to the lack of the literature on specific nosology of the rabies disease, and unspecific and ineffective therapy approaches. Electrotherapy already represented an important therapeutic approach for nervous system diseases, although not specifically for rabies. In the present paper, the authors discuss the use of electrotherapy in the treatment of humans affected by rabies in an experimental study conducted at the Maggiore Hospital of Milan, with the aim of establishing the discovery of a possible specific therapy. By analyzing the printed scientific sources available in the Braidense Library of Milan, the authors describe four experiments conducted on patients of different ages. Symptoms and effects both during and after the electrotherapy are also highlighted. The experiments demonstrated that electricity is not an effective therapy in the treatment of rabies, being rather able to cause serious functional and organic alterations in all the patients. Analyzing the Milanese experiments, the authors reported specific Italian history of a scientific and medical approach to rabies at the end of the 18th century, which led to the promotion of health education, reinforced prevention strategies and opened the way to the vaccination era

DE CARBONE, SIVE CARBUNCOLO IL CARBONCHIO NELLA PUBBLICISTICA ITALIANA DALLA RESTAURAZIONE ALL’UNITÀ

At the origins of the bacteriological debate, many paths cross medical and veterinary history all over Europe. Reading the Annali Universali di Medicina, an Italian Journal published in Milan between 1817 and 1888, allow us to underline the perceived social role of Hygiene, the newborn medical specialty interpreting epidemics and zoonosis as consequences of wrongful economical, social and health politicies. In the issues of Annali printed just before the unity of Italy, anthrax can be assumed as a paradigmatic model to reconstruct the scientific and medical debate about aethiopathogenesis of infectious diseases crossing the nineteenth century; its reflections in the printed journals and magazines pages (we particularly refer to) provides interesting informations about the public perception of medical theories concerning the concept of contagion, the idea that infectious diseases can derive from a bodily poisoning, the theory of ‘poisonous fields’, according to which animals can contract anthrax by simply herding in high nitrogen content soils

Maschile e femminile nella trasmissione dei caratteri ereditari. Da Atene a Sparta

The selection of individuals through eugenic criteria was a widespread habit in the ancient Greek society, especially at Sparta where εὐγενέτης is a very meaningful word: it expresses both the social high rank of Spartiates and the physical perfection the community requires. Not surprisingly the same term referred to animals means “well breeding”. However, though in Athens the patrilineal transfer of hereditary characters has a higher juridical value, according to the oldest embryological beliefs, at Sparta woman’s role in the eugenic determination of the race turns out to be more active and not limited to that of mere container. Thereafter, came the necessity of physical training and of a diet during pregnancy to offer the community a healthy birth. As the male trains himself for war and his glory consists in returning victorious or dying for his fatherland, similarly also the Spartan woman prepares to her utmost challenge, that is: her delivery, which may even lead to death

Prima dell'erotomania:lettere, cura del corpo e mal d'amore in età moderna

A short Italian text dating the end of XVIII century examines the problem of convulsions of women relating them to the ancient topic of love sickness. Ancient Greek and Roman medical and non medical literature, together with literary texts are used by the author Giovanni Pirani to draw the picture of a moral illness strictly related to a physical dimension

"E le donne altrimenti". Gravidanze anomale nella medicina antica

In ancient Greek medicine female physiology is determined by a particular state of non-steady equilibrium, largely based on pregnancy and lactation, presented as the only balanced and healthy periods in women’s life. Nonetheless, pregnancy can be also a pathological moment, in particular referring to specific alterations of its ‘normal time’ (‘seven-months’,’ eightmonths’ and ‘ten-months’ children). The article analyzes the well-known case of myle, an abnormal pregnancy developing in three and sometimes four years, non resolving in a normal delivery, but often in a dramatic haemorrhagic flux. The author compares Hippocratic and Aristotelic testimonies about myle and abnormal pregnancies with the evidence fournished by the historical-religious recent studies about Hera and her parthenogenetic, monstrous children

Once again on the Empress Zoe: Women, dermatology, cosmetics, and materia medica (medical matter) in the ancient world

An article published in 2012 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology discussed the historical sources presenting the Byzantine Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita as an expert in cosmetic and pharmacological remedies that could give their users a youthful appearance and a kind of eternal youth. However, it did not take into account a dermatological recipe attributed to Zoe which text transmission has preserved

Mythology and rational explanation in the history of medicine. The case of molar pregnancy

Molar pregnancy is a specific kind of gestational trophoblastic disease which originates from the placenta. There are two types of molar pregnancy, complete and partial. Complete molar pregnancy derives from a defect in maternal eggs, while an incomplete one derives from a defecting fertilization by paternal sperm. Molar pregnancy drawn the attention of ancient physicians from the classic period and they widely discussed maternal and paternal roles in causing this condition. Classic doctors drawn from mythology several suggestions and ideas, which indicates that the issue of normal and abnormal conception was a crucial problem since the most ancient past Current scientific studies on molar pregnancy are free from ancient prejudices about male and female \u201cnature\u201d and their reciprocal role in embryogenesis. However, an awareness of the cultural biases that could drive scientific researches, might be useful for scientists and physicians even today

L'ippocratismo di Bernardino Ramazzini. Per la costruzione di una “medicina sociale”

Neo-hippocratism is a rational and mechanic method to explain pathological phenomena and discover the causes of diseases. Bernardino Ramazzini uses Hippocratic empirical observation to investigate the relations between the alterations of the air - due to mephitic vapours, of organic and inorganic origin - and the development of pathological processes. His notion of corruption of the atmosphere as the origin of epidemics and specific diseases, and that of prevention as the main strategy of modern medicine, is developed in medical literature and in the public medicine projects of the end of the Seventeenth century