Medical Ideas Research Articles

A Chinese Doctor in Eighteenth-Century Naples and the Practice of Pulse Diagnosis

Abstract Diagnosing a patient on the basis of their pulse alone is an impressive demonstration of medical ability for which early modern Chinese doctors were famous. This article looks at the early history of Chinese medicine in Europe by examining the encounter between Xu Shizhi, who travelled to Naples to study for the Catholic priesthood but became a sensation as a doctor, and Domenico Cirillo, a prominent physician who met him through a patient and became interested in Chinese medicine. Although Chinese pulse manuals had been translated into European languages, the sense of touch is impossible to convey in words, but when Xu met Cirillo, he was able to demonstrate how to feel the pulse. Cirillo then combined elements of Chinese medicine and new vitalist theories of the nervous system to produce a system of his own, published as the Tractatus de pulsibus, which he taught to his students and which became widespread across southern Italy. Recent work on the global circulation of medical ideas in the early modern period has focused on texts and pharmaceuticals, and on encounters in colonial spaces. Xu and Cirillo’s story suggests the importance of personal interactions in conveying tacit knowledge as a key part of this circulation.

The Echo of Revolution: The Influence of War on Benjamin Rush’s Medical Theory

ABSTRACT During the American War for independence, young and ambitious medical men entered the ranks of the Continental Army. Philadelphia physician and chemistry professor Benjamin Rush was one such American practitioner who went on after the conflict to argue for a uniquely American medical practice. However, Rush’s wartime experiences have largely been treated in a vacuum with little connection to his later medical work. Despite this disconnect, much of Rush’s own writing and teaching directly or indirectly is pulled from wartime experiences. His interpretation of those experiences changed from a means of supporting British medical ideas in the 1770s to challenging them in the 1800s. This change mirrors and engages with other changes in American identity and use of science to craft that identity in the wake of the Revolutionary War.

The Challenge and Necessity of Talking About Weight at Work

The topic of weight at work is challenging to discuss because of strong cultural, medical, and social ideas about what health means, how body size relates to work capacity, and the malleability of weight. Yet people in larger-sized bodies report economic and interpersonal mistreatment at work at alarming rates. This necessitates that employers begin thinking more deeply about the lived experiences of their larger-bodied workers. To aid their consideration, this article describes how the objectification of body size creates a situation where judgment and punishment of people based on their body size is normalized, and how victims of weight-focused mistreatment rarely speak about their experiences because they feel in some way deserving of their mistreatment. When the objectification process is better understood, employers stand ready to make more precise and meaningful changes to how they approach the problem of weight stigma at work, and entry points for this change are discussed here.

Brain Tumor Detection and Classification Using Fine-Tuned CNN with ResNet50 and EfficientNet

Accurate and timely diagnosis of brain tumors is critical for successful treatment of the disease. Early detection not only aids in the development of better medication, but it can also save a life in the long run. The domain of brain tumor analysis has efficiently applied medical image processing ideas, particularly on MR images. This paper presents segmentation using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) architecture with ResNet50 and EfficientNet as backbones on the Figshare data set, with an accuracy level of 0.xxx.

Professor Nikolaos Louros, a concerned scientist in twentieth-century Athens

The personal papers of Nikolaos Louros present an invaluable source of information on Louros’s place in the medical, social, cultural and political history of twentieth-century Greece. A royalist, liberal and keen observer of scientific and social developments, he participated actively in the shaping of the country’s post-war progress in medical education, institutions and ideas.

Magic Matters: Engaging with Nathan Sivin on the History of Divination, Medicine, and Popular Religion in China

Abstract In this essay, the author seeks to highlight some of the many ways that Nathan Sivin’s academic work and personal advice have helped to shape his current book project, titled Magic Matters: Science and Medicine in Chinese Popular Culture, 1800 to 1850). Smith’s essay discusses the conceptual framework of Magic Matters, focusing on the ways that Chinese commoners perceived, represented, and understood the natural world, in all of its variety and complexity. It identifies the historical and cultural context in which traditional Chinese medicine and the mantic arts flourished, even after the introduction of new scientific and medical ideas and practices from the West and Japan post-1850. Along the way, Smith identifies a number of Asian and Western scholars who, together with Sivin, have done extremely productive and stimulating work on Chinese science, medicine and technology. He also provides bibliographical suggestions for further China-focused and comparative research on these topics.

Medical science and pedophilia: Knowledge, discourses, and representations of pedophilia in medical books from 1910 to 1990 in a Brazilian public library

Pedophilia is defined as a multifaceted and complex phenomenon associated with various domains of knowledge. This article investigates the representation of pedophilia in medical literature from 1910 to 1990, focusing on a Brazilian public library’s collection. Through documentary analysis, the study examines the evolution of medical discourse surrounding pedophilia and its impact on societal perceptions. Medical ideas about pedophilia and pedophile in the twentieth century were constructed upon concepts of pathology, perversion, and crime. However, the findings also reveal a shifting understanding of pedophilia over the examined period, transitioning from moral deviation to a complex psychological phenomenon. Initially framed as a moral issue, pedophilia gradually came to be understood within the realms of clinical psychology and psychiatry, highlighting the interplay between medical discourse and societal attitudes. In conclusion, this research elucidates the intricate relationship between medical discourse and societal perceptions of pedophilia. By acknowledging historical shifts and current challenges, policymakers and practitioners can develop more informed strategies for addressing pedophilia and safeguarding children and adolescents.

Skodsborg Badesanatorium: An Adventist Health Resort on the Fringe of Danish Public Healthcare 1898–1992

Summary Today healthcare in Denmark is overwhelmingly public, but around 1900 much was left to religious institutions. One of the largest and most long-lived was Skodsborg Badesanatorium, which survived from 1898 to 1992. Founded on the Seventh-day Adventists’ health principles, the sanatorium introduced therapies and medical ideas, which were frowned upon in Denmark around 1900. The sanatorium had to navigate between alternative and orthodox medicine, constantly defining itself as alternative enough to provide what patients could not get at the public hospitals, but orthodox enough to be scientifically reliable. The article analyses how the therapy at the sanatorium was presented, comparing alternative and orthodox medicine. Likewise, the sanatorium’s relation to public healthcare is analysed from its extensive administrative material. This article sheds light on private healthcare institutions, which are largely neglected in Danish historical health research, and thereby explores the space between public and private healthcare and orthodox and non-orthodox medicine.

IoT-based centralized wireless patient tracking and surveillance system with a cutting-edge approach for advanced healthcare oversight and data-driven analysis

The construction of smart cities has been progressing quickly due to advancements in 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Smart transportation systems and smart medical ideas are also being explored alongside smart city initiatives. Integrating the two mentioned technologies, a smart navigational method for ambulances is being developed. When severe patients arrive via ambulance, significant time is wasted in relaying data, and the hospital needs to gain prior knowledge of the patient's condition. An efficient system called the IoT-based Wireless Patient Tracking Method (IoT-WPTM) is proposed to diagnose patients quickly by recording vital metrics such as heartbeat, temperature, and breathing rate using detectors. These variables are transmitted wirelessly to the healthcare before the ambulance is dispatched, allowing doctors to begin medical care promptly. If necessary, the patient monitors the ambulance's position to anticipate arrival and get immediate directions to the closest hospital. The user carries the gadget and is also placed in the ambulance. The gadget allows IoT devices and Android apps to enhance user interaction and streamline information delivery. IoT-WPTM can be surpassed with ease and in a more effective manner for smart medical surveillance systems.

CREATING A DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR THERAPY DEPARTMENT

Over the past few decades, medical ideas and technologies that were previously considered science fiction have rapidly burst into basic and clinical medicine, allowing it to make a transition from standardized treatment methods to individual selection of medicines, taking into account the genetic characteristics of each individual patient. In addition, the generation of ideas at the intersection of medicine and information technology is changing the usual approaches to health monitoring and treatment. In this context, considering medicine as a complex and specific field of activity, which is characterized by a very high level of heterogeneous medical and economic information, two tasks are updated - optimization of the clinical and economic activities of a medical institution. The ultimate goal of these tasks is to optimize the performance of the healthcare system in general and any medical institution in particular. The introducing of automatic systems for processing and analyzing large volumes of data is relevant not only in clinical practice, but also in the healthcare system as a whole for planning the financing and management of medical organizations, monitoring the circulation of medicines and pricing throughout the country, taking into account the characteristics of each region, for achieving better efficiency. The article is devoted to the creation of functional circuit medical department disease, data processing, definition of technological schemes of the department,describe the history of the disease formatting. Keywords: database (DB), IS (information systems), EJ (extract journal)

Convenient Frailty: Medical Contestations of Asthma and Hay Fever in African Americans in Late Nineteenth-Century America.

Post-Emancipation medical and social science scholars extensively theorized Black susceptibility to illness, disease, and death. Most studies of late nineteenth-century medical ideas about the relationship between race and disease have highlighted the construction of medical beliefs that associated Black physical weakness with a proclivity to ill health. This study presents an alternate narrative, one where certain diseases - asthma and hay fever - reflected an opposing racialized understanding of disease that instead centered on White frailty. Based on an examination of turn-of-the-century asthma and hay fever medical literature produced by George Miller Beard, the professionalization of the United States Hay Fever Association, and the publication and dismissal of the first recorded case of asthma in an African American man in 1884, this article argues that late nineteenth-century asthma and hay fever physicians, who themselves often suffered from the conditions, defined the typical asthma patient along racial lines to protect the exclusivity of their own professional and social identities. As a result, asthma and hay fever in Black communities, particularly in the North, where asthma and hay fever scholars primarily lived and worked, remained obscured and untreated until the mid-twentieth century.

Genesis of a Fact: Tay-Sachs Disease as a "Simple Recessive".

"Obvious" recessive inheritance of Tay-Sachs disease (TSD; OMIM # 272800) took over half a century to be established. Points now taken for granted were problematic, that: (1) TSD is a biological entity, not an artificial selection of concurrent findings, (2) manifestations have narrow limits, (3) it was not part of a spectrum of disorders, and can be differentiated from other conditions, (4) it will not change to another disease, (5) it is due to a single specific gene, (6) there are no secondary causes, (7) the gene has no apparent clinical effects unrelated to TSD, and (8) the gene is inherited only as a clinical recessive. To a large extent, resolution reflected biochemical understanding that took until mid-20th century, and beyond, to change how physicians viewed diseases in general. With this, biochemical carrier screening and prenatal biochemical diagnosis have become routinely available, and it is a model for carrier population screening, while gene therapy for the disease has been reported with some degree of success. Here, the history of medical ideas about TSD and its inheritance are reviewed to show how it achieved its current status as a distinct recessive disorder.

The Solitary Mind in the Anatomy of Melancholy

The Solitary Mind in <i>the Anatomy of Melancholy</i>

Characteristics of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in Tibetan medicine based on Medical Canon in Four Sections

By tracing to the origin of Tibetan medicine, it is known that Tibetan medicine absorbs a variety of medical ideas such as traditional Chinese medicine, Vedic medicine, Persian medicine and Byzantine medicine, and forms a unique theoretical system. The meridian-acupoint system and the characteristics and application of external therapies such as bloodletting and moxibustion in Tibetan medicine are analyzed by elaborating the relevant aspects of acupuncture and moxibustion involved in treatment of diseases listed in Medical Canon in Four Sections. The paper emphasizes the introduction of ironing moxibustion and huo'er moxibustion of fire moxibustion and the application of separation-action decoction and ghee therapy in bloodletting, as well as alternative therapy. Besides, by taking the external treatment of cirrhotic ascites and head trauma as an example, the idea of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in Tibetan medicine embodied in the Medical Canon in Four Sections is explained so as to benefit the development of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in Tibetan medicine.

Characteristics of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in Tibetan medicine based on Medical Canon in Four Sections

By tracing to the origin of Tibetan medicine, it is known that Tibetan medicine absorbs a variety of medical ideas such as traditional Chinese medicine, Vedic medicine, Persian medicine and Byzantine medicine, and forms a unique theoretical system. The meridian-acupoint system and the characteristics and application of external therapies such as bloodletting and moxibustion in Tibetan medicine are analyzed by elaborating the relevant aspects of acupuncture and moxibustion involved in treatment of diseases listed in Medical Canon in Four Sections. The paper emphasizes the introduction of ironing moxibustion and huo'er moxibustion of fire moxibustion and the application of separation-action decoction and ghee therapy in bloodletting, as well as alternative therapy. Besides, by taking the external treatment of cirrhotic ascites and head trauma as an example, the idea of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in Tibetan medicine embodied in the Medical Canon in Four Sections is explained so as to benefit the development of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in Tibetan medicine.溯源藏医学发展由来，可知其吸收了中医学、吠陀医学、波斯医学、拜占庭医学等多种医学思想，形成独有的理论体系。通过撷取解析《四部医典•秘诀续》所列疾病中涉及针灸的相关内容，对藏医学脉穴体系以及放血、艾灸等外治疗法的特色与应用进行分析，重点介绍火灸法之烙灸、霍尔灸，放血中分离汤、油治法的应用以及交替疗法。同时，以水鼓痼疾、头部创伤所用外治法为例，说明《四部医典》所体现的藏医针灸疗法思路，以期对藏医学针灸疗法的发展有所裨益。.

Life expectancy in Japan (17&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; – first half of the 20&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; centuries)

Life expectancy is the most important indicator of the state of society and the quality of life of the people who live in it. It depends on many factors that affect mortality: nutrition, physical activity, epidemic and other diseases, natural, social and anthropogenic disasters, the level of public anxiety, the state of the environment, healthcare, hygiene, etc.In Japan during the Tokugawa period, the body did not belong to the person himself. His mission was to “serve” – to the overlord and parents. This was possible only if the person was healthy for as long as possible. During the Tokugawa era, the Japanese were taught that only a healthy person could fulfill his duty. Healthcare was entrusted to the person himself, there was no public health system. Despite the huge differences in natural conditions, lifestyle, nutritional diet, scientific and medical ideas, in terms of life expectancy, Japan was approximately on the same level as major European countries.After the Meiji revolution, the concept of “service” did not disappear, but now the main object of service became the state represented by the emperor. The state made serious efforts in the field of healthcare, but the negative consequences of modernization for a long time did not allow to increase life expectancy. Its slow but steady growth begins only in the second half of the 1920s. However, before the Second World War, Japan lagged significantly behind the developed countries of the West in terms of life expectancy. The expansionist policy of Japan demanded to increase the number of Japanese people. Since increasing life expectancy is a time-consuming task, the choice was made in favor of a policy of increasing the birth rate.

Unguaranteed Remedies

By examining an array of sources from seventeenth century England, This article studies the medicines and medical community in a disease-ridden context. I chose the seventeenth century as the field of this research, particularly because plague eruptions occurred frequently in England throughout this period of time. The article serves as a material-culture history, for it is built around the materiality of medicines: Their distinct characters, their manufacturing, and their retailing. This article contends that seventeenth-century English medicines reflect the general stagnation in the development of medical ideas and serious divisions within the medical community. People’s preoccupation with scents indicate their reliance on ancient doctrines, and the lack of consensus regarding manufacturing methods manifested the rifts within the medical community. The disputes also existed in regards to medicine-selling, as two prominent professions of the medical industry, the physicians and apothecaries, antagonized each other due to profit conflicts in the medical market. The fogyish ideas, endless disputes, lack of consensus, and the poor effects of medicines reflect a stagnated and chaotic era during which medicines were an essential source of controversy.

Huang Yuanyu's Disciples

Huang Yuanyu (1705-1758), as the representative of the classic school of Chinese medicine, was a well-known doctor in the Qing Dynasty. This paper examined the life, medical career and achievements of Huang Yuanyu's students based on the local chronicles, recordings and relevant literature. The paper aimed to clarify Huang's academic thoughts and provide references for current medical education training. It was found that Huang Yuanyu had many students who kept spreading his medical ideas for five generations. His disciples were Huang Hongmo, Huang Hongxun, Bi Wuling, Yu Puze and Yu Zhao. Eight students including Chen Lian, Ma Jinglie, Hou Pimo, Hou Renyao, Hou Zhaifen, Li Futan, Li Dongping and Li Dingchen were known to spread his ideas. Then, a further twelve students including Zhang Qi, Zhang Yaosun, Bao Cheng, Sun Yanbing, Cao He, Liu Ruhang, Jiang Xiangnan, Zhang Chaoqing, Gao Hongxiao, Qing Shu, Peng Ziyi and Lu Peng continued on his work.

Critiques, ideals and blueprints in the historical geography of Scotland’s lunatic asylums, 1857–1872

ABSTRACT The historical geography of Scotland’s nineteenth-century lunatic asylums has only been lightly researched to date, and particularly under-studied is what might be termed Scotland’s ‘Asylum Age’ – c.1857 into the 1870s – when publicly-funded and purpose-built district asylums started to appear across the Scottish landscape. This was a period of therapeutic optimism about what these asylums could achieve, as curative institutions buttressed by medical and moral ideas about how lunacy should be treated. Using Annual Reports of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland over a fifteen-year period, 1857–1872, this paper explores ‘expert’ criticisms directed at the perceived geographical failings of the pre-1857 establishments housing lunatics (royal asylums, private licensed houses and Poor Law facilities). Attending to the macro and micro-geographies discussed in these Reports, the Commissioners’ ideal for asylum location and architecture is reconstructed, noting how this became a geographical blueprint for the emerging district asylum system. Over the fifteen-year study period, ideas about the ideal site and building shifted once more as lunacy numbers increased and money dwindled, suggesting that the ideal was soon to be overtaken by a more pessimistic turn less sure about the curative benefits of rural sites or homely buildings.

‘Meanders of [the] Purple Flood’: Blood and Bloodletting in Eighteenth‐Century Literature and Medicine

AbstractThis essay considers understandings and representations of blood and bloodletting in a range of eighteenth‐century medical and literary texts. Reflecting a historical moment of complex and uneven transition, these texts present models of blood that are variously orthodox, idiosyncratic, and imaginative. Representations of bloodletting, in particular, show doctors and laypeople, including women, contesting, welcoming, and orchestrating the therapy, which could both injure and soothe. Taken together, the texts this essay explores reinforce, refute, and enlarge humoral, mechanist, rational–empirical, vitalist, and other master paradigms, commonly conceiving body, mind, spirit, and earth as intricately connected and illustrating how medical ideas in this period were formed not merely through the consensus of an elite group of male authorities but also through the co‐existence of a range of variable, oftentimes conflicting, theories; through dissent and debate; through the voices of non‐experts; and through a reliance on the creative imagination.