Acta Medico-Historica Adriatica最新文献

This study presents the first full translation from Latin to English of the Linnaean dissertation Morbi Artificum or Occupational diseases, submitted by Nicholas Skragge in 1765. It consists of an essay that places the dissertation in historical and scientific context and of the translation. Skragge's thesis has not only significance in the history of occupational medicine but also provides a perspective on Linnaeus' thinking on dietetics. Skragge's doctoral thesis is one of the 186 academic dissertations defended by students of Carl Linnaeus. Prior to the present study, only three of these 186 dissertations have been translated from Latin to English in our own times. The first extensive compendium on occupational diseases by Bernardino Ramazzini, with the title De Morbis Artificum Diatriba, served as a blueprint for Skragge's thesis. The background for Skragge's thesis was Linnaeus' general interest in systematizing objects according to certain norms in biology, which methodology he also applied when classifying diseases in medicine. Also, Linnaeus' life-long emphasis on the importance of dietetics is evident in the thesis. Finally, in the era when Linnaeus lived (Age of Liberty), Sweden focused greatly on improving the country's economy. Since trade and industry were prioritized by the state, it was reasonable to map the diseases workers were prone to.

It is not easy to analyse a complex figure like Silvio Palazzi (1892-1979). Without a doubt, he was one of the most prominent figures in the Italian odontostomatology scene for about fifty years and one of the absolute protagonists of the transition of Italian dentistry from the pioneering era to the scientific. He was certainly a precursor and a man with an open mind, endowed with a broad vision. Palazzi had an eclectic, versatile personality, from certain points of view even brilliant but also unpredictable and difficult to understand. He was at the centre of Italian dentistry’s academic and professional life; few can boast of a didactic, clinical, scientific activity like his. Having become, at a young age, the director of a clinic that was still little more than a dental practice, he was able to make it grow, revitalise it, bring it to a level of excellence that had no comparison in Italy but that could be compared to that of the great European dental clinics. He was the author of a “Treaty of Odontology” (which had seven editions) on which entire generations of dentists were formed, and he wrote over five hundred scientific publications in all the fields of Odontostomatology. He particularly favoured histological and histochemical investigations, as he often recalled, for having been trained in this sense by his attendance at the Institute of General Pathology of Pavia directed by Camillo Golgi (1843-1926, Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1906). In the clinical field, every sector of the dental discipline saw him as an attentive and passionate scholar, in particular of Endodontics and Periodontology. Furthermore, he was a pioneer of implantology when this branch received more criticism than success and began research on the prophylactic action of fluoride when many were against it. He fought assiduously for a different Italian dental legislation: he was a convinced supporter of a special Degree Course for the preparation of the future dentists, already in the Fifties. Since this project seemed difficult to carry out, he proposed, if nothing else, the requirement of a post-graduate specialisation to guarantee suitable training to dental practitioners. Despite this, due to his often aggressive and argumentative attitude, he lost the friendship of many colleagues and created numerous enemies. Certainly, he was a character who cannot go unnoticed and who, forty years after his death, deserves a careful historical evaluation.

More than eighty years ago, the so-called Racial Laws banished Italian Jews from all their properties and places. The authors analyze the biography of Salomone Enrico Emilio Franco (1881-1950), a cosmopolite pathologist. Born in Trieste but raised in Venice, he had his medical degree in Padua and was a pathologist at the Venice Hospital, and then he went to Portugal. Franco founded the Institute of pathology of Lisbon University. He studied leishmaniosis and hematology. During WWI, he served as a volunteer in the Italian Army. He was then a full professor of pathology at the Universities of Sassari, Bari, and Pisa. However, he was obliged by the so-called Racial Laws to leave Italy and go to Palestine. He fought as a volunteer for the realization of the State of Israel and directed the Institute of Pathology in Jerusalem.

Exhibition / Museum Review

The Austrian emperor and the Croat-Hungarian king Franz Joseph I (1830/1848-1916) was the longest-serving ruler of the Habsburg dynasty. Among his properties was Osijek, which since 1809 enjoyed the status of a free royal city. In the period under review, it was the seat of the Virovitica County and the capital of the Kingdom of Slavonia until its incorporation into the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia after the Croat-Hungarian settlement of 1868. Because of this, Osijek was not only a political, economic and cultural centre but also a health care centre. At the beginning of the reign of Franz Joseph I, two hospitals were operating in it: a military one in the baroque military garrison Tvrđa and a civilian one in New Town. The most significant role in the further development of the Osijek and Slavonian health care was played by the trust established in 1806 from the legacies of innkeeper Johann Kolhoffer, tanner Josef Huttler and Jesuit Cristian Monsperger. Although originally intended for the establishment of an orphanage, due to a number of unfavourable political circumstances, the trust, until then with multiple interests attributed to the principal, came under the administration of the city of Osijek only in 1867. Along with the new orphanage opened in 1874, a new hospital was completed as well in 1868, also with the money from the trust. Huttler-Kohlhoffer-Monsperger Foundation Hospital was the largest and most modern hospital in the Triune Kingdom, and despite later constructions of various hospital wards, its building has remained the most representative building within the Clinical-Hospital Centre Osijek.

The Second World War created a caesura in various spheres of life, including medical care. Many doctors and nurses in Slovenia joined the Partisan movement and helped organise medical care. The first activities were undertaken in 1942, followed a year later by the development of the first rudimentary, clandestine partisan medical stations acting as hospitals. Nearly 15 000 patients with injuries and illnesses were treated in such partisan medical facilities. The staff included 244 doctors and dentists, 260 medical students, 38 nurses and more than 3 000 ad hoc trained medics. This article presents the "Celje" partisan hospital from the Upper Savinja Valley, focusing on the testimonies of Partisan doctors and other witnesses who provided first-hand accounts about everyday life in this and other Partisan medical facilities. The main source of information was the notes of surgeon Dr Robert Kukovec, which date from the final year of the war. Dr Kukovec was among the few individuals who left behind a written account of the wartime events they had witnessed, offering an insight into the tragedy of war. His account also depicts many sombre moments but also rare bright ones, in particular the yearning for the freedom that destiny prevented Dr Kukovec from experiencing, given that he was killed less than a month before the end of the war.

Reviewing ancient manuscripts of Persian medicine (PM) reveals that there have been some basic principles for decision-making in epidemic infectious diseases that existed in the past. These PM rules for clinical reasoning were applied through a personalized approach along with public health advice in such situations. Currently, the coronavirus pandemic has been the biggest problem in the world. Its mainstay of treatment is based on preventative measures and symptomatic treatments. Meanwhile, traditional medical systems for providing preventive, supportive, and rehabilitative care to patients have received more attention than before. Thus, the specific individual approach considered by PM scholars for clinical courses of epidemic infectious diseases may help shed more light on the spread of knowledge on epidemic diseases in ancient Persia.

This review describes the first medical article written by an author from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The article was published by Fr. Franjo Gracić (1740-1799), in Latin, under the title: "Analysis theorico-practica de viribus virus febriferi, pestiferi, atque serpentin", and printed in Padua in 1795, translated as: "A Theoretical and Practical Presentation of the Effects of Fevers, Infectious Diseases, and Snake Poison". From today's standpoint, it may be said that it was a review article about some of the most frequent diseases of that time. The paper is of exceptional importance for the history of medicine in Bosnia and Herzegovina because it is the first documented medical article whose author was from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper contains observations of the course of diseases and treatment, in line with the medical insights of the time. The author refers to the authorities of that time, such as Samuel Auguste André Tissot, the Swiss physicist and doctor, Georg Bauer, the German doctor, and Lodovico Antonio Muratori, the Italian scholar, which makes this article a link between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the knowledge of the Europe of that time. This paper represents the beginning of medical writing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and has a very important place in the history of medicine in this country.