Journal of Medical Biography最新文献

JEH Roberts was a leading figure in the new specialty of thoracic surgery before Second World War. His interest in this branch of surgery began during First World War when he served as a Major in a casualty clearing station and operated under local anaesthesia and without X-ray facilities. He reported a series of 199 cases of severe chest injury in which operation had been carried out in 67 patients - of whom 34 had made a complete recovery, a remarkable achievement in 1917. He was the first to use negative pressure suction drainage of the chest to encourage full expansion of the lung after thoracotomy, and he developed a plastic operation on the chest wall to treat chronic empyema. Together with HP Nelson, he described one-stage lobectomy for lung resection and developed a new lung tourniquet for use during this operation.

Bernard Bornstein (1900-1975) was one of a few Polish-Jewish neurologists who escaped the tragic fate of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. Educated at the University of Vienna and practicing until the war in Cracow, Bornstein in his scientific work dealt comprehensively with various neurological topics, bringing to Israeli medicine the best of pre-War European neurological diagnostics and combining them with the latest achievements of genetics. He was a teacher of many prominent Israeli neurologists. On the basis of previously unknown archival sources, the fate of Bornstein and his family during World War II was reconstructed.

The political lives of our founding fathers and mothers have been examined in great detail by many historians, but their experiences with medicine, health, and disease have generally received only cursory attention from most biographers. Yet focusing a lens on their often dramatic encounters with epidemics, disease, and medical treatments of their time lends them a corporeal presence that is absent from most historical accounts and serves to humanize them as flesh and blood individuals. James and Dolley Madison serve as prime examples of American icons who both dealt frequently with health challenges in the trajectory of their daily lives. This essay reflects the "health biographies" of James and Dolley Madison, which opens a revealing window into eighteenth century society and medicine, demonstrating graphically that even the elite, who had access to the best of contemporary medicine and physicians, were far from immune to debilitating illness.

Server Kamil became one of the most prominent doctors during the period of the Ottoman Empirey. Server Kamil, who specialized in bacteriology and sanitation, made a name for himself primarily through his fight in the memories against epidemic diseases on the Caucasus front during World War I. He was sent to the Caucasus front as chief physician of Erzurum Red Crescent (Hilâl-i Ahmer) Hospital, and made great efforts to prevent the disease typhus-which was a major problem in the region-as soon as he reached the front line. He worked long and hard to develop a vaccine to prevent typhus, which affects thousands of soldiers and civilians. He also played a pioneering role in establishing important institutions such as the Sivas Smallpox Vaccine Laboratory and the Rabies Treatment Centre, which accomplished significant work and achieved great success both during the World War I and in the period that followed. This article attempts to clarify the activities of Server Kamil on Caucasus front during World War I based on the documents of the Turkish Red Crescent Archive, the reports of the Red Crescent Society.

Kashmir's oldest Neolithic settlement dates back to 3000 BC. It stood as the centre of Buddhism and Hinduism for centuries, till the arrival of Islam in thirteenth century. Although Muslims ruled Kashmir under different empires for about four centuries and ever since there has always been a significant Muslim populace in Kashmir with or without Muslim rule, yet the literature about the history of health care in Kashmir and particularly the history about Muslim contributions to healthcare is sparingly limited. This paper aims at a) historical contextualization of healthcare in Kashmir, b) finding Muslim rulers` contributions if any to the healthcare system and c) exploring places of healing 'shafa-khanas' in Kashmir. In order to achieve these objectives, the methods used were data collection through locating key historical resources, by searching local libraries and bookshops and searching online academic databases, thereafter, subjecting the collected data to thematic analysis. Three themes emerged during data analysis, which corresponds to the objectives of this paper, these are a) 'Historical context of healthcare in Kashmir', b) 'Muslim contributions to healthcare in Kashmir' and c) 'Places of healing 'Shafa-khanas' in Kashmir'. The analysis shows that healthcare during Muslim rule was integrative, progressive, robust, indigenous, specialized, and efficient/accommodative. We conclude that though 'shafa-khanas' existed in medieval Kashmir, there is however not much literature available.

Ruggero Oddi was a talented scientist who initiated the modern era of biliary system physiology, not only with the anatomical discovery of the hepatopancreatic sphincter, but also with the detailed description of its spinal center and nerve regulation. However, his personal and scientific life were determined by an incredible series of unfortunate circumstances. Until now most of these events have been unknown, while the few known have produced biographies distorted by fake interpretations. The purpose of this article is to document Oddi's biography and scientific production in detail, comprehensively framing the scientific environment in which his discoveries occurred. It clears many misinterpretations about events in Oddi's life and academic career, bringing to a new light his figure as scientist in gastroenterological field.

Here we present newspaper accounts from the Sussex Advertiser to consider hitherto largely unknown Brighton doctors active between 1800 and 1809. This body of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries comprised Brighton's 'Gentlemen of the [medical] Faculty', whom the newspaper also dubbed the 'Disciples of Aesclepius'. Members are considered under three broad categories. First, are Brighton-based clinicians (Mr Barratt, Mr Bond, Charles Bankhead, Thomas Guy, John Hall, John Newton, Benjamin Scutt and Sir Matthew Tierney). Second are London clinicians, probably in attendance to the Prince of Wales (John Hunter and Thomas Keate), More widely, two dentists (Dr Durlacher and Mr Bew) and two Royal Navy surgeons (Robert Chambers and Thomas Thong) also recorded at Brighton are considered. Other aspects of medical life are described: recruiting an apprentice, anatomy training at Joshua Brooke's London museum, midwifery, a description of a surgeon's bag and the last reference to the Royal Sussex Jennerian Society (which disappears from the newspaper record in 1807). Clinical cases described include: resuscitation from near-drowning, post-mortem examinations, death from the 'gravel and stone' and accounts of suicide. The primary sources presented in this paper offer rare glimpses into medical life in Brighton at the very start of the nineteenth century.