Acta Medico-Historica Adriatica最新文献

The article describes health and health care development in Zagreb in the 19th century, with special attention to the last period of the century, using articles from Liječnički vjesnik for analysis. The development of the hospital and public health system is being considered, as well as the modernisation of other areas - pharmacy and dentistry. In addition, the paper presents basic health enlightenment thoughts as well as their authors. In the end, a brief analysis of treatment success is made on several separate examples.

Electrotherapy is the use of electrical energy as a medical treatment. In the nineteenth century, the "golden age" of electrotherapy, the development of this discipline was part of a historical-scientific context characterized by the affirmation of neurology as an autonomous branch and, finally, detached from psychiatry. After a period of limited scientific interest and development, in the second half of the 20th century, electrotherapy underwent a revival. Nowadays, the use of electrotherapy has been researched and accepted in various fields of medicine, including but not limited to rehabilitation, neurology, pain management, and oncology. From its first applications, electrotherapy joined neurology which used it for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. In Italy, several scientists carried out experiments on the subject, and an important contribution to the development of the discipline was provided by the "Neapolitan school of electrotherapy". This improvement was made above all by Francesco Vizioli (1834- 1899) and his pupil Francesco Paolo Sgobbo (1860-1936). Despite these premises, however, the decline of electrotherapy as an autonomous science soon came. Meanwhile, radiology, associated initially with electrotherapy, developed rapidly. When Mario Bertolotti (1876- 1957), former professor of Radiology at the University of Turin and one of the founders of Italian radiology, succeeded Sgobbo in 1935, the name (and the discipline) "electrotherapy" was deleted from the diction of the new chair, and from that of the department, which was indicated only as "Radiology". Radiodiagnostic devices, supplies, and roentgen therapy equipment replaced the numerous devices used for electrotherapy. This manuscript is focused on the Neapolitan school of electrotherapy from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. The work of the leading figures who have given the greatest impetus to the study and application of electrotherapy is described. Finally, the electrotherapy devices used are briefly illustrated.

The maternity ward at the Rebro Hospital in Zagreb was established in the newly opened new hospital on 12 May 1942. It operated discontinuously at the gynaecology and obstetrics department during three periods between 1942 and 1946, when it was closed. It was located on the second floor of the eastern part of the hospital with 24 beds. During the activity of the maternity ward from 13 May 1942 to 16 December 1942, 24 May 1944 to 28 August 1945, and from 6 February 1946 to 28 July 1946, there were 1,337 births. They were registered as live births, stillbirths and aborted children weighing 450 grams or more, so perinatal mortality was therefore significantly higher (38.89 ‰) because, in addition to physiological, a significant number of pathological births were performed in the hospital. The head of the newly established ward was Assoc. prim. Dr Filip Dražančić, who worked alongsideward doctors and midwives. Most of the women who gave birth were from Zagreb, with a smaller number of women from other parts of Croatia, primary housewives aged 20-30. In the mentioned period, three mothers died. All obstetric procedures, episiotomies, caesarean section, assistance during breech delivery, rotating of a baby, forceps, and treatment of perineallacerations were performed under local infiltration, spinal (lumbar) or general inhalation anaesthesia using ether. Along with a significant number of home midwifery deliveries and the already established hospital maternity wards in the Petrova and Merkur sanatoriums, the maternity ward at the Rebro hospital, until now only sporadically mentioned as an institution, had an important place in the development of hospital obstetrics in Zagreb and Croatia.

In the period from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, electrotherapy was applied worldwide with various incidence and different results. The application of electrotherapy is an indicator of the acquisition and transfer of knowledge from the basic sciences (physics) to medicine and the transfer and adoption of treatment procedures from foreign environments to our own. In Croatia, the earliest information on electrotherapy came from advertising electrotherapy devices in the daily newspapers. It was followed by lessons on electricity, as well as the possibilities of its application mostly written by physicists in their popular publications. Croatian doctors’ publications about their experiences were first uncovered in 1897 on the pages of the professional journal Liječnički Vjesnik. This paper elaborates on the publications written during the first half of the 20th century. From the very beginning, this method has been accompanied by debates about its effectiveness and justification for its use, which have continued until today. The preserved electrotherapeutic devices presented in this paper are an important addition to medical historiography and a valuable segment of material medical culture, traces of which have been preserved in Croatia.

John Keats (1795-1821), besides being the famous English poet, was a student of medicine at the United Hospitals in London. On the occasion of the bicentenary of his death, we would like to pay tribute to this versatile figure with a photographic itinerary of his medical life. This article, in connection with the project "Himetop - The History of Medicine Topographical Database", retraces objects and places where the poet lived, studied, worked, and prematurely died, showing the importance of material culture. The photographic journey starts in London with the birthplace of the poet and continues through the places of his infancy and youth, the school in Enfield, the lodgings at 8 St. Thomas Street, the United Hospitals, etc. After giving up medicine to devote to poetry, the itinerary proceeds in the Hampstead and, as the ultimate destination, in Rome, where John Keats spent his last months of life due to tuberculosis. To conclude the path at the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, where he was buried, surrounded by grass and flowers. The material memories left by John Keats, as well as preserving his memory, take on a significant educational and inspirational role for everybody and, in particular, literary people and medical students.

The founding of the School for Nursing in Zagreb in 1921 marked the beginning of the profes-sionalization of nursing in Croatia. Nurses founded an association and started a professional newsletter. The Sestrinski vjesnik (Nursing Journal) was preceded by the Sestrinska riječ (Nursing Word). The journal articles were analyzed regarding the permanent and occasional sections to which they belonged or regarding the topics they covered. The regular columns were: Nurses write to us, From the Association and From the editorial board, Changes in the service of the nurses of the General Directorate of Health, We read, Grains, Home visits, and the occasional column was What others write. Other contributions are grouped according to the following topics: The position of nurses in the country, Nursing, Nursing as a promoter of social medicine and work in institutions, Nursing work in the countryside, Protection of women (mothers) and children, Diseases and injuries, and Stories from nursing practice. The authors of most of the articles were nurses, while in the thematic section, Diseases and injuries, the authors were doctors. The journal had several functions: informative, educational, and promotion of professional solidarity. Together with minutes of the Association of Graduate Nurses from 1940 to 1945, it makes exceptionally valuable material for analysis of the nursing work of that time.

Scientific meeting review / Prikaz skupa.

Antique traditional medical theories created by old medical doctrines and their historical background have been significantly mentioned today by medical historian scholars. Persia and India had many interactions in different perspectives, such as knowledge, religion, and traditions. One of the most considerable aspects of the relationship between Indians and Persians is the transmission of basic theories of their medical doctrines. As it is reported in many historical texts from the first ages of the Islamic era in Iran, a large number of medical texts were gathered from contiguous civilizations in Iran by order of the Abbasid Caliph. They were then translated into Arabic, Syriac, and Persian. So, Persian physicians and authors used them that way. One of the earlier physicians who reflected the viewpoints of Indian medicine in his famous medical textbook entitled "Paradise of Wisdom" is Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari (3rd century A.H./9th century A.D.). Persian physicians in the Islamic golden age (8th to 16th A.D.) played an astonishing role in the development of medical knowledge in several aspects through physician innovations and expression and evaluation of different ideas about medicine. In this regard, some of the Indian medical theories were expressed by a famous Persian physician, Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari. Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari was a Persian physician of the 3rd century A.H./9th century A.D. He wrote the book Firdous al-Hikmah (or Paradise of Wisdom), the first encyclopedia of Islamic medicine in Iran. The book introduces and describes the basics and therapeutic procedures adopted in Indian medicine, along with procedures of Persian and Greek medical doctrines, by discussing the basic medical theories in these three doctrines. In this paper, we discuss the reflection of traditional Indian medicine as described in Firdous al-Hikmah and its influence on later medical texts.

The authors of the paper aim to present the foundation of the Department of Pathology at the University of Zagreb. The first years of the Department of Pathology, from 1918 to 1922, will be analysed in the paper. The emphasis is on the construction of the Department and the difficulties encountered at the same time. Also, persons who were crucial for the establishment of the Department of Pathology will be discussed. So far, the literature has mostly stated that the initiator of the Department of Pathology was Sergej Saltykow, a pathologist of Russian descent. Although Saltykow’s role is unquestionable, the aim is to present more persons who have more or less contributed to the establishment of the Department. Thus, more will be said about Vaclav Neumann, Đorđe Joanović, Walter Berlinger and others. Besides, the paper will provide a brief context focusing on the establishment of the School of Medicine and pathology in Zagreb before the foundation of the Department of Pathology. The Pathoanatomic Service of The Public Health Divisions in the City of Zagreb and Ljudevit Jurak, the first head of this institution, should certainly be pointed out. The Pathoanatomic Service played a key role in the development of forensic medicine and pathology in Croatia. In addition to available literature, the paper is based on archival materials found in the School of Medicine University of Zagreb archive.

The dermatoglyphics are signs of the human variety, as they are absolutely different from one human being to another. For this reason, and for their characteristics of uniqueness, classification, and inalterability, the papillary ridges on the fingertips represent elements of a sure differentiation between one person and another. Fingerprints are, therefore, very helpful in identifying a human being. Salvatore Ottolenghi was the first to utilize the fingerprinting system to identify individuals, and he introduced this system in his “Cartellino di riconoscimento (identification card)” in 1902. He was sure about the scientific validity of this method, which he considered to be free from potential personal interpretation. According to hi definition, “fingerprints, by their nature, form special drawings from birth; these will not change throughout life and will be absolutely different from one human being to another”. This fingerprint identification method was immediately refined by Giovanni Gasti, whom Salvatore Ottolenghi had chosen as his personal assistant at the Scuola di Polizia Scientifica (School of Forensic Science). Gasti, adapting the classification method of Francis Galton and Edward Henry, developed the “Sistema Gasti (Gasti System)”, which was in use throughout the 1900s.