Medical Compendium Research Articles

Clinical experience in late antiquity: Alexander of Tralles and the therapy of epilepsy.

Alexander of Tralles, writing in the late sixth century, combined his wide-ranging practical knowledge with earlier medical theories. This article shows how clinical experience is used in Alexander’s works by concentrating on his therapeutic advice on epilepsy and, in particular, on pharmacology and the group of so-called natural remedies. I argue that clinical testing is used not only for the introduction of new medicines but also as an instrument for checking the therapeutic effect of popular healing practices. On another level, this article discusses Alexander’s role as the author of a medical compendium; it suggests that by marking the cases of clinical testing with a set of recurrent expressions, Alexander leads his audience to reflect on his medical authority and personal contribution.

Reflexos de Alice: Corpo, Gênero e escrita em Alice no Espelho, de Laura Bergallo

Por via de aportes teóricos vários, porque interdisciplinar se nos apresenta a produção epistemológica voltada ao exame do gênero literário infantil e juvenil, importa investigar a obra Alice no espelho (2005), de Laura Bergallo, com ilustrações de Edith Derdyk. Na narrativa juvenil em questão, a autora contempla a história de Alice, uma adolescente que desenvolve um processo doloroso e angustiante de anorexia nervosa. A partir de um intenso e constante processo de intertextualidade com o clássico de Lewis Carroll, a escritora trata de forma bastante literária o tema, em muito distanciando sua obra de um mero compêndio médico dos sintomas e do tratamento da doença. Por via do presente trabalho, objetivamos investigar a representação literária do corpo e o investimento intertextual realizado pela autora como um dos procedimentos estilísticos que conferem literariedade à obra.DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/elos.1.1727

Neurosurgery in the Byzantine Empire: the contributions of Paul of Aegina (625–690 AD)

Paul of Aegina (625-690 AD) was born on the island of Aegina and was one of the most prominent physician-writers of the Byzantine Empire. His work Epitome of Medicine, comprised of 7 books, was a comprehensive compendium of the medical and surgical knowledge of his time and was subsequently translated into multiple languages. Paul of Aegina made valuable contributions to neurosurgical subjects and described procedures for the treatment of nerve injuries, hydrocephalus, and fractures of the skull and spine. His work combined the ancient knowledge of Hippocrates and Galen with contemporary medical observations and served as a bridge between Byzantine and Arabic medicine. He is considered to be one of the great ancient Greek medical writers and his work has influenced the subsequent evolution of Western European and Arab medicine. This paper provides an account of his contribution to the management of neurosurgical pathologies during the Byzantine era, as described in his medical compendium, Epitome of Medicine.

Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine: The Telling Touch by Elisabeth Hsu (review)

Reviewed by: Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine: The Telling Touch by Elisabeth Hsu Michael Nylan Elisabeth Hsu . Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine: The Telling Touch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. xv + 404 pp. Ill. $120.00 (978-0-521-51662-4). This book is a welcome if odd contribution to the expanding field of Chinese medicine. Elizabeth Hsu is a reader in social anthropology at Oxford, and her previous publications include the well-received books titled The Transmission of Chinese Medicine (1999) and Innovation in Chinese Medicine (2001). Hsu's translation of Sima Qian's Shiji "biography" of Chunyu Yi appears in volume 9 of William Nienhauser's The Grand Scribe's Records (2011). By her own telling, Hsu has been working since 1987 on this text, which is mainly a medical casebook detailing twenty-five case histories and eight dialogues on medical rationale and transmission. This protracted history may account for some of the book's oddities, since the field of early China studies has made great strides recently, not all of which are reflected in this volume. (Few items in the bibliography postdate 2002 anyway.) Still, a contribution to the field of pulse diagnosis, especially one comparing the contents of excavated manuscripts with this well-known Shiji chapter, is bound to excite considerable interest. My chief concern is that the book does not (cannot possibly?) deliver on its initial promise to provide a study free of anachronisms and ethnocentricity. The book's undeniable strengths include these: Hsu does a memorable job of separating Chunyu Yi the historical actor from Chunyu Yi the exemplary healer portrayed in Sima Qian's chapter, proving the formulaic nature of the these case histories in three parts, the (1) disorder's name, (2) disorder's cause, and (3) diagnostic quality indicating the disorder. Hsu should be applauded, too, for insisting that Chunyu Yi's treatments are not "primitive magic" (in the style of Frazer), nor "occult thought" (contra Harper), nor "natural philosophy" (despite legions of scholars) (pp. 7, 17), since all the foregoing characterizations presuppose the superiority of modern Western modes of thinking supposedly premised on rationality and reason. Hsu posits three overlapping ways to view the body: (1) the rather static "bodily architecture" of muscles and skeleton; (2) what Hsu calls "the body ecologic," which presumes seasonal change and humoral transformations; and (3) her "sentimental body," whose two main sentiments of grief/joy and anger are generated in the heart and liver respectively, which organ systems then produce the feelings we moderns tend to dub "psychological." Sense perception, especially touch (with visual perception cast as contact/impact in early China),1 plays a key role not only in guiding the body's workings but also in making it readable to technical experts and diagnosticians.2 Equally useful, [End Page 115] if perhaps somewhat overdrawn, is Hsu's observation that Chinese technicians are more interested in synchronicity and cycles than in mechanical causation. ("Knowing how" meanwhile trumps "knowing that.") Crucially, Hsu realizes that qi in Sima Qian's account does not always refer to something that permeates the entire universe; often it operates more locally. At the same time, there are undeniable weaknesses in this book. First, there is a paucity of references to modern Chinese and Japanese secondary literature on classical-era medical treatises, aside from the original reports of excavated finds. Second, having noted—quite correctly—that Chunyu Yi's biography is not really a medical treatise, Hsu quickly proceeds to treat it as such when fashioning her analysis. Far too often she resorts to external evidence from the Huangdi neijing medical compendium for determining the right way to read her text of centuries earlier, when reference to closer analogues, for example, other Shiji chapters, early legal casebooks, and the vast literature devoted to the technical arts, might have shed greater light on the preoccupations threading through in Chunyu Yi's "biography." Third, Hsu is more positivist than the extant sources allow; as we have but one-one thousandth of what once existed, by some estimates, one is inclined to query such definite statements as "the inner aspect of the 'sentimental body' comprised only two feelings, joy/grief and...

Manger en Égypte : multiples témoins

Eating in Ancient Egypt: manifold evidence. The analysis of the Ancient Egyptians’ diet dates back to the beginning of egyptology. It is based on rich and varied testimonies. Administrative or private writings, inscriptions on monuments, literary fictions, sapiential books or medical compendium, as well as three or two dimensional figures, give vital information. The archaeological evidence, architectural structures, kitchen utensils, and food remains preserved by a particularly dry climate, provide additional elements. Human remains show characteristic pathologies due to some specific diet. The combination of all this data allows us to restore some of the Egyptians’ habits : eating places, customs related to and what is eaten and drunk. However, sometimes, different sources seem to contradict each other.

Making Women's Medicine Masculine: The Rise of Male Authority in Pre-Modern Gynaecology

Monica Green has produced another spectacular history of women's medieval medicine. She is well known among medieval historians of medicine and society as the translator and editor of The ‘Trotula’: A Medical Compendium of Women's Medicine (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001) and for her articles on female healthcare in medieval Europe. Not surprisingly, the Trotula figures prominently in her latest work on Making Women's Medicine Masculine. Green examines how women were excised from their own healthcare, both physically and theoretically. The goal of her book is to “explore the cultural situation and strategic functions of the Trotula texts” (12), which Green accomplishes with exacting skill and acumen. She explains that the texts making up the collection contained in the volume often called the Trotula were not all written by women. Instead, though Trota or another woman wrote at least one of these texts, learned men authored the majority of these texts on theoretical female obstetrics or gynecology for male audiences.

Evaluating Off-Label Uses of Anticancer Drugs: Time for a Change

The articles in this issue by Abernethy and colleagues, Gillick, and Tillman and associates shine a bright light on a weak point in our efforts to inform clinical practice by the best possible evid...

Sex, Aging, & Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52, Its Texts, Language, and Scribe, ed. M. Teresa Tavormina

Sex, Aging, & Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52, Its Texts, Language, and Scribe, ed. M. Teresa Tavormina

Treatment of nasal fractures by Paul of Aegina

The most exact description of the management of nasal fractures given by any physician of ancient times belongs to Paul of Aegina (AD 625-690). The goal of this article is to describe the therapeutic methods and surgical techniques used by Paul of Aegina in the treatment of nasal injuries. We studied the original Greek texts and the translation published in Venice, titled "The seven books of excellent doctor Paul of Aegina." The sixth book of his medical compendium is devoted to surgery. We identified the treatments and techniques applied to the restoration of injured noses. In this historical article we present the management of nasal fractures by Paul of Aegina. Paul of Aegina's conservative and surgical management for each form of injury was adopted by later physicians and influenced European medicine, a management surprisingly identical with the way nasal fractures are managed nowadays.

IV * Later Medieval: Chaucer

This chapter has four sections: 1 . General; 2 . Canterbury Tales ; 3 . Troilus and Criseyde ; 4 . Other Works. The ordering of individual tales and poems within the sections follows that of the Riverside Chaucer edition. Mark Allen and Bege K. Bowers have again produced ‘An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography 2004’ ( SAC 28[2006] 349–423); for the even more useful electronic version see the New Chaucer Society webpage: http://artsci.wustl.edu/~chaucer/orhttp://uchaucer.utsa.edu . The most significant step forward in Chaucer studies this year must be Linne Mooney's much-celebrated identification of ‘Chaucer's Scribe’ ( Speculum 81[2006] 97–138), the copyist responsible for the Ellesmere and Hengwrt manuscripts. Mooney's recognition of the same hand in a number of documents from the 1380s and 1390s, including accounts for the Mercers’ Company, has allowed her to attach some factual details to the figure previously known only as the notorious ‘Adam Scriveyn’ but now named as Adam Pinkhurst, a member of the Scriveners’ Company of London. Discovering the identity of this scribe has long been a major goal of palaeographers and codicologists, since knowledge of his connection with Chaucer, and of his background and career, tells us more about Chaucer's manner of working and about the people with whom he made contact in his work as a poet. The activities of another later copyist of Chaucer's works, John Shirley, are examined by Margaret Connolly and Yolanda Plumley in ‘Crossing the Channel: John Shirley and the Circulation of French Lyric Poetry in England in the Early Fifteenth Century’ (in Godfried Croenen and Peter Ainsworth eds., Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris Around 1400 , pp. 311–32). M. Teresa Tavormina's comprehensive study of Sex, Aging, and Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52, Its Texts, Language, and Scribe will also be of interest to Chaucerians, partly because this codex was produced by yet another later copyist of Chaucer's works, the prolific Hammond scribe, and also because the manuscript contains extracts from the Treatise on the Astrolabe ; an account of these is given in Edgar S. Laird's chapter, ‘Texts Concerning Scientific Instruments’ (pp. 607–86). Other references to Chaucer, especially to the availability of contemporary medical knowledge and its evidence in Chaucer's works, occur throughout.

Notes on Uighur Medicine, Especially on the Uighur Siddhasāra Tradition

There are many primary sources that allow us to reconstruct Old Uighur medicine. This article considers those that demonstrate the following influences: folk medicine, Syriac medicine, Indian and Chinese medicine. The article includes general remarks on the Uighur translations of the Siddhasāra and its role in the history of Uighur medicine: the bilingual version, a list of the preserved parts of the monolingual Uighur version, medicinal plant names, and comments on general translation methods. The Uighur translation deviates considerably from the Sanskrit, but it exploits the medical knowledge it contains in interesting ways. A translation of such a medical compendium like the Siddhasāra was, nor is, an easy task. That we observe equivalents, substitutes and Turkic equivalents in the Uighur version is no wonder. Each of these has to be evaluated carefully. Much scholarly work has already been carried out by H. W. Bailey, R. Emmerick and D. Maue. In particular I would like to mention the contriburion of the first editor Reşid Rahmeti (Arat) [Rachmati] who read the texts first and translated them without knowledge of their real source. At that time he had already surmised that the model for the translation must have been a substantial work.

Sex, Aging, and Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52, Its Texts, Language, and Scribe. M. Teresa Tavormina

<i>Sex, Aging, and Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52, Its Texts, Language, and Scribe</i>. M. Teresa Tavormina

M. Teresa Tavormina (Editor). Sex, Aging, and Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R. 14.52, Its Texts, Language, and Scribe. 2 volumes. xxvi + 930 pp., bibl., apps., index. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medical and Renaisance Studies, 2006. $110 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewM. Teresa Tavormina (Editor). Sex, Aging, and Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R. 14.52, Its Texts, Language, and Scribe. 2 volumes. xxvi + 930 pp., bibl., apps., index. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medical and Renaisance Studies, 2006. $110 (cloth).PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 98, Number 2June 2007 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/521513 Views: 11Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

AL-MAˇGŪSĪ'S KITĀB AL-MALAKĪ AND ITS LATIN TRANSLATION ASCRIBED TO CONSTANTINE THE AFRICAN: THE RECONSTRUCTION OF PANTEGNI, PRACTICA, LIBER III

Constantine the African's significance as the first important translator of medical texts from Arabic into Latin is indisputable due to the fact that his work contributed decisively to the enlargement of medical knowledge in the Latin West. Among his considerable œuvre the translation of al-Maˇgūsī's Kitāb al-Malakī under its Latin title Pantegni, the first real medical compendium in Latin, holds a particularly important position because of its popularity. The Pantegni is divided into the two parts Theory and Practice with ten books each. Yet while the Theorica Pantegni corresponds basically to the Theory in the Kitāb al-Malakī, this is only partly the case for the Practica Pantegni. The content of the differing parts has been put together mainly from other medical texts. The identification of these other medical texts was the aim of some important researches while the last ten years (see especially the articles in Charles Burnett and Danielle Jacquart [eds.], Constantine the African and ‘Alī ibn ‘Abbās al-Maˇgūsī: The Pantegni and Related Texts [Leiden / New York / Cologne, 1994]). The aim of this article is to present the sources of the Pantegni, Practica’s third book and to give some indications on the person who made the compilation who – as it seems – wasn't Constantine the African himself.

Rhinological, laryngological, oropharyngeal and other head and neck side effects of drugs

Following a previous paper in which we documented the otological side effects of drug therapy, we here review other drug side effects that ENT surgeons may encounter when dealing with patients. Although otological drug side effects such as hearing loss and tinnitus are well recognized there are many rhinological, laryngeal, oropharyngeal and other head and neck drug side effects. Our data were sourced from the British National Formulary and Electronic Medical Compendium websites.

Ein mittelalterliches Kräuterbuch aus dem 14. Jahrhundert, eine neue Version des lateinischen Macer?

A medical compendium of “Melleus liquor physicae artis” has survived under the name Alexander Hispanus; it is in codex Ms. 8769 of the Biblioteca nacional in Madrid. Therein a herbal from the 14th century is integrated. However, today people must think that we have one herbal and two authors: Alexander Hispanus and Henrik Harpestraeng (died 1244), a physician from Scandinavia. First of all, the parts of the medical compendium are presented. We do not know which parts originally belong to the medical compendium. The examination of many handwritings suggested that the discourses about consumption and dropsy were not originally included in the compendium; that seems certain. Further it was shown that probably Alexander Hispanus did not live after all and we must see him as a fictional person. Nevertheless we should not automatically regard Henrik Harpestraeng as the author of the herbal although it contains typical plants of the North like Angelica. The oldest codex of the herbal was probably written in Bavaria or Austria because it contains old Bavarian words. This handwriting can be seen as a piece of evidence that the knowledge about Angelica was spreading from the South. We should explore the connection with handwritings of the Macer, too. The herbal could be a Latin version of the Macer, in which the original verses are abandoned. An analysis of the medical plants made it clear that the herbal is probably directed to a male readership. Especially the chapter on Galganum elucidates that. In the 14th century Galganum was thought to have a contraceptive effect, but this was kept secret from women! All in all

Otologic side effects of drugs

Otolaryngologic symptoms are common and patients presenting to the otolaryngologist will often be taking drugs for the treatment of unrelated diseases. As a doctor, one must not forget the potential of these drugs to cause otologic side effects and, in some cases, to be the cause of the presenting symptom. We performed a comprehensive search of the British National Formulary and Electronic Medical Compendium websites to classify the otologic side effects caused by drugs. Not all the data were found at both websites. We have compiled all the data together, subclassified them and produced a review of the otologic side effects of drugs, in table form.

Shem Ṭov Ben Isaac, Glossary of Botanical Terms, Nos. 1-18

This article provides a critical edition and translation of the first eighteen items of the letter Aleph in the first list of the medico-botanical glossary compiled by Shem Ṭov ben Isaac of Tortosa in the second half of the 13th century. It is part of his translation into Hebrew of Book 29 of the medical compendium entitled Kitāb al-taṣrīf , whose original author is the Arabic physician al-Zahrāwī (10th century). The glossary is actually an autonomous one, composed by Shem Ṭov ben Isaac himself, containing two alphabetical lists of synonyms. The lemmata of the first list are Hebrew or Aramaic plant names gleaned from the Bible or rabbinic literature, in which each entry gives the Arabic, Latin, and Occitan synonyms. The second list is organized according to Old Occitan names of drugs and offers their Arabic, biblical/rabbinic, and sometimes also the Latin equivalents. For an Arabic equivalent to a rabbinic term Shem Ṭov ben Isaac consulted (as he tells us) medieval commentators, while for an equivalent to a biblical term he consulted Saʿadya Gaon (882-942) and R. Jonah ibn Janāḥ. The edition of the complete glossary is part of an interdisciplinary project at the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies of the University of Cologne and at the Department of Romance Philology of the Free University of Berlin, the goal of which is the edition and the analysis of unedited texts of medico-botanical literature written in Middle Hebrew.

Das Giftbuch des anq: eine Literaturgeschichtliche Untersuchung

THIS book contains the Arabic text, with an annotated German translation, of the “Book of Poisons” of S £n £q, that is, C £nakya (Chanakya), the minister of King Chandragupta (fourth century B.C.). The Arabic version is not a direct translation of an Indian original, but is rather a compilation from both Indian and Greek sources. It was apparently based on a Persian translation of an Indian “Poison-book of Chanakya” made by an Indian physician, Mankah, of the celebrated hospital at Jundi-Shapur. Mankah also translated other Indian medical books, such as a treatise on the names of drugs, and a medical compendium of Susruta. The Arabic version of the “Poison-book” was made from the Persian by one Ab ¼ H £tim of Balkh, about whom we have no information. It was later re-edited by Al-Abbas ibn Sa’ ed al-Jauhar, who was probably responsible for the introduction of the Greek material. Das Giftbuch des anq: eine Literaturgeschichtliche Untersuchung Von Bettina Strauss. (Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin, Fortsetzung des Archivs für Geschichte der Mathematik, der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, Herausgegeben vom Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, Band 4, Heft 2.) Pp. 64 + 66. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1934.) 15 gold marks.

XXIV. Studies in Ancient Indian Medicine

The fact of the Caraka Saṁhitā, or the Medical Compendium of Charaka, being a composite work is well known at the present day. The work is the joint production of two medical men, Charaka and Dṛiḍhabala, both natives of Kashmir, and living in that country, probably one in the second, the other in the eighth century of our era. Charaka's share itself claims to be no more than an edition of an earlier work by Agniveśa. This man, being one of the traditional six disciples of Punarvasu, called Ātreya or son of Atri, is said to have reduced to writing the oral teachings of his master, an event which must have occurred at some time in the sixth century before our era. Charaka's edition of Agniveśa's work bears the name of Saṁhitā, or Compendium, while the earlier work of Agniveśa is called a Tantra, or treatise or textbook.