HISTORY OF MEDICINE

Urinary tract infection in history

2012-02-21T17:40:00.006-08:00

Infections of the urinary tract have been known since antiquity. The ancient Egyptians mentioned urinary tract infections in the EBers Papyrus, and they dealt with them using herbs.

The papyrus of Kahun, dated 1900 BC contains a hieroglyphic suggested that hematuria was due to ‘worms in the belly’.

Ancient Egyptians were aware of the importance of bloody urine in the diagnosis of bladder disorders that were later identified as cancer caused by the parasitic Schistosoma haematobium. The relationship of schistosomiasis to bladder cancer was established by Ferguson in 1911.

The Arabs introduced ‘uroscopy’ and the Romans introduced surgery for kidney stones.

From the times of Hippocrates into the nineteenth century, the examination of urine was thought to be important diagnostic procedure.

Hippocrates in 387 BC first documented an association between urinary tract infections, urinary stones and groin abscesses.

In 1856, Wilhelm Duschan Lambl, a Czech physician, published remarkable paper on the use of the microscope for the examination of the urinary sedimentation.

Urinary tract infection in history

Discovery of Vitamins B

2012-02-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

Beriberi, was endemic for centuries and finally proved to be deficiency disease. In 1890 Eijkman developed a polyneuritis by feeding polished rice to hens. This was cured by feeding rice polishing by Dr. Casimir Funk in 1911.

Casimir Funk born in 1884, had grown up in a Poland that was then under a Russian government.

His father, a physician, was able to send Casimir at the age of sixteen to continue his studies in Switzerland, first in Geneva then moving to Berne to specialize in organic chemistry and obtain a doctoral degree at the early age of twenty.

He began his career in Warsaw before moved in 1904 to Pasteur Institute in Paris; then in 1906 to Berlin to work on amino acids and again in 1901 to the Lister Institute in London.

In London, he managed to extract from yeast a compound that was very effective against beriberi, which he called vitamin because its amine content,

He made a great advances in 1912 when he hypothesized that certain diseases such as beriberi, scurvy, pellagra and rickets are caused by deficiency of nutrients.

Casimir Funk coined the word “vitamine”. He describe an organic compound ‘thyamin’ as a ‘vital amine’ and it became known as vitamin B.

He believed that all these substance were ‘vital amines’, however, it was soon shown that most of the vitamins are unrelated chemically and that only a few of them are amines.

Later, as each vitamin was isolated in pure form and its chemical structure was determined, it was given a chemical name.
Discovery of Vitamins B

High blood pressure in history

2012-02-06T21:21:00.001-08:00

In 2600 BC the Chinese ‘Yellow Emperor’ Huang Ti Nei Ching associated salt with a ‘hardened pulse’. The Nei Ching written down long after his death, ‘ If too much salt is used for food, the pulse hardens.’

Another ancient text from Sumeria 2000 BC mentions that potassium should be included in the diet.

In 1706, the structure of heart was first describe by French anatomist Raymond de Viessens.

In 1733 the Reverend Stephen Hales was the first person to measure blood pressure in vivo in unaesthetic horses by direct cannulation of the carotid and femoral arteries.

In 1896, the Italian physician Scipione Riva-Rocci invented a simple device for measuring blood pressure – a rubber bag that went around the arm, which was then filled with air in order to block the circulation in the brachial artery and determine at what pressure the blood was passing through.

Later in 1902, ECG of electrocardiogram was invented by the Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven.

In 1903, Codman and Cushing introduced the concept of routine intra-operative blood pressure measurement, which at the time was a revolutionary concept. In 1924 Canadian Physician W. L. T Addison had reported that giving calcium reduced the blood pressure in many of his hypertensive patients.

In the 1950s and 1960s, American doctors began to realize that too much salt in the diet can contribute to high blood pressure.

High blood pressure in history

History of psychotic depression

2012-01-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

One of the earliest about depression can be found in Homer’s Iliad in the 9th century BC. Zilboorg points out ‘the Homeric tradition was theurgic: man becomes mentally ill because the gods take his mind away.’

Hippocrates, in the fourth century BC, included melancholia in his classification of psychiatric disorders.

Description of psychotic depression can be found in ancient texts including the Bible. In the book of Job, Job depressed and feels that he has fallen from high status and has lost prestige.

He has delusions of poverty and the nihilistic delusion that his children are dead and he believes that he is giving off unpleasant smell.

In nineteenth century psychopathology, disorders of thought were identified in patients classified as manic depressive insanity, involuntional and melancholic depression, dementia praecox, and dementia paralytica.

They recognized melancholia as circular insanity, as manic depressive illness and in the past few decades as endogenous, endogenomorphic, autonomous or psychotic depression.

By late nineteenth century, psychotic had come to indicate conditions in which the patient manifested a disturbance in higher-level mental functions, including language, orientation, perception and thinking.

During the first half of this century, psychiatrist delineated melancholia, and the term ‘psychotic depression’ was applied rather loosely to melancholia associated with hallucinations, delusions or suicidality.

In 1970s, effective doses of tricyclic antidepressants failed to relive psychotic patients, although were very effective in the nonpsychotic depressed.

Simultaneously, hypercortisolemia was shown to be a characteristic finding in melancholia and the dexamethasone suppression test was its effective marker.

History of psychotic depression

Discovery of vitamin K

2012-01-20T23:26:00.000-08:00

Vitamin K was discovered by Danish researcher Henrik Dam. Vitamin K is nutrient that plays a crucial role in blood clotting.

The discovery was a result of investigations into the cause of an excessive bleeding disorder in chickens fed on a fat free diet. The study was carried out on the possible essentiality of cholesterol in the diet of the chicken during the years of 1928-1930 in the Biochemical Institute of the University of Copenhagen.

Henrik Dam noted that the chicks exposed to food that had been extracted with non-polar solvents to remove sterols, developed subdural and muscular hemorrhages and that blood taken from these animal clotted slowly.

He concluded that a non-polar component responsible for hemorrhagic was remove from the diet by the extraction and focused his research on identifying this component.

In 1934, Henrik Dam reported the existence of the new accessory food factor and then went on to show in the following year that this was fat soluble but different from vitamin A, D or E.

He proposed that the anti-hemorrhagic factor was a new vitamin. He named it vitamin K for ‘koagulation’ according to the Scandinavia and German spelling.

The existence of vitamin K was promptly confirmed by Almquist and Stokstad at the University of California, Berkeley.

Beginning in the early 1960s, studies of prothrombin production in humans and experimental animals eventually led to an understanding of the metabolic role of vitamin K.

Discovery of vitamin K

History of Vitamin C

2012-01-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

From 1875 to 1905, there was, growing confusion over the cause of scurvy. It has remained a constant threat to humans, causing death and misery.

In 1747, the British physician, J. Lind, found that two oranges and one lemon a day could relieve the symptoms of scurvy.

Even though Lind had proven the scurvy was due to the missing nutrient, the exact nature of this vital nutrient continued to puzzle scientists for the next two centuries.

Vitamin C was first isolated in 1928, and in 1932 it was proved to be the agent which prevents scurvy. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi identified ‘scorbutic principle’ in 1928 and isolated hexuronic acid as the factor that preventing browning of decaying fruit. He was awarded the Nobel prize for this feat.

The name was changed to vitamin C following structural identification and to ascorbic acid in recognition of it ability to prevent scurvy.

The name for vitamin C that derives from the Latin word ascorbic, which means ‘without scurvy.’

In 1974, Cameron and Pauling suggested that vitamin C might play a role in the supportive care of cancer patients.

History of Vitamin C

The discovery of cholera

2012-01-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

Cholera is a severe diarrheal illness caused by certain types of Vibrio cholerae, which can lead rapidly to dehydration and death.

The term first seen in the works of Hippocrates was believed to have been believed form Greek worlds chole (bile) and rein (to flow), thus meaning flow of bile.

The disease has a homeland in Bengal basin, the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers.

The modern history of cholera began in 1817, when cholera spread out of India in what the literature describe as the first of seven pandemics.

In 1884, Robert Koch summarized his study on the etiology of cholera. He isolated in pure culture and called ‘comma –bacillus’ now known as Vibrio cholera O group 1.

At that time, he was in the German Cholera Commission as a member. He investigated cholera in Egypt during the fifth pandemic.

The seminal work that led to the discovery of cholera toxin was made by SN De in 1959. This done by injecting of living Vibrio cholerae or cell free filtrates into the lumen of a ligated loop of rabbit ileum caused accumulation of large amount of fluid having gross similarity to cholera.

It was 17 years later the putative enterotoxin was isolated and purified in 1969 by Finkeltein and his co-workers.

Epidemic cholera has appeared relatively recently on the global stage. It spread throughout the word early in the 19th century, causing severe epidemics in the crowded cities of the newly industrializing Europe , and has since recurred in massive multicontinental pandemics.

Cholera struck London in 1832, claiming around 7000 lives and it was believed that the disease were transmitted through air. However it was discovered by Dr. John Snow that cholera is a waterborne disease after having closely observed the cholera epidemics of 1848 to 1849 in Lambeth.

The discovery of cholera

History of SARS

2012-01-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome ,first reported case of atypical pneumonia, occurred in Guangzhou, China in November 16, 2002.

The disease was characterized by the lack of response to conventional antibiotic therapy and the occurrence of clusters of cases within a family or healthcare setting.

Before the end of February 2003, a total of 11 index cases occurred independently in 9 cities of Guangdong Province, which was the early phase of the SARS epidemic.

In these cities the cases of SARS were reported, which included 3 cooks, 3 officers, 2 farmers, 2 workers, 2 retired people and 1 businessman.

Their age ranged from 18 to 84 years and the majority 77% were between 30-50 years.

In 21 February 2003, a 65 old professor of urologist who visited Hong Kong from Guangzhou, stayed at Hong Kong’s Metropole Hotel was thought as the infections source that leaded to SARS global transmission.

He had treated patients with ‘atypical pneumonia’ in Guangzhou and had been ill himself since 15 February.

Dr. Carlo Urbani, an epidemiologist and expert on communicable disease was the first World Health Organization officer to identify the outbreak of SARS.

History of SARS

History of Cyclospora cayetanensis

2012-01-01T18:58:00.000-08:00

This parasites of this genus were reported in the late 19th century and since have been describe in insectivorous mammals, nonhuman primates and snakes.

One of the oldest documentation published in 1979, describing a parasite with microscopic characteristics of immature Cyclospora oocysts. It was reported the first known human cases.

Although the organism has been known since 1979, it was first isolated from patients in Peru in 1985.

Cyclospora has been demonstrated as a cause of diarrhoea in travelers returning from Nepal and Pakistan.

In addition, it has also been identified form patients with protracted diarrhoea in various places, including Bangladesh.

Cyclospora has been associated with ingestion of imported raspberries from Guatemala in the spring of 4 consecutive years 1995-1998.

The first outbreak of cyclosporiasis involved contaminated water in the United States was recorded in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois.
History of Cyclospora cayetanensis

West Nile Virus

2011-12-23T06:27:00.000-08:00

Scientists learned of the West Nile virus in 1937 when they were studying an entirely different disease. The disease was African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness.

They discovered the new virus and named it West Nile virus since it was first isolated from a 37 year old woman from Omogo, West Nile district, Northern Province of Uganda. The woman displaying febrile illness.

Since its discovery, West Nile virus has been recognized as the causative agent of infrequent disease outbreaks in humans.

The ecology was characterized in Egypt in the 1950s. The virus became reconsider as a cause of severe human meningoencephalitis in elderly patients during an outbreak in Israel in 1957.

The first report of antibodies against West Nile virus in humans came from Bombay in 1952. In 1980 and 1981, West Nile virus was isolated from three children in the Karnataka state, all of whom suffered fatal encephalitis.

The largest known human epidemic before the US outbreaks in 2002 and 2003 occurred in 1974 in Cape Province, South Africa. The 1974 outbreak had approximately 3000 human cases.

In 1999, the virus appeared in North America for the first time, and the following year the virus was reported in 12 states along the East coast.

The outbreaks in 2003 was the largest in history when more than 10000 people in North America developed symptoms after being infected with West Nile virus.

The source of the initial introduction is unknown. Genetic studies point to origins in the Mediterranean or Middle East.

West Nile Virus

Discovery of red Blood Cells

2011-11-27T22:00:00.001-08:00

Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680) in Amsterdam first identified red cells with a light microscope and he described them as ‘ruddy globules’.

As early as 1658 he described them in the blood of the frog, but his observations were not published till fifty-seven years after his death by Boerhaave. It was published in Biblia Naturae in 1738.

In 1661, Marcellus Malpighi observed the red blood corpuscles however he failed to recognized their nature mistaking them for fat globules.

In 1674, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek was first recognized red blood corpuscles as the elements responsible for the redness of the blood.

Credit for the discovery of the first cells is given to the English scientist Robert Hooke (1635-1701) who described the microscopic compartments of cork cells in 1665. He was the first person talk about cells.

Throughout the 17th and 18th century naturalist describe a wide variety of cell types, including human cells such as spermatozoa and red blood cells.

Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) in Silesia, Germany and a pathologist, Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) from Pomerania, Germany made great contribution in establishing a method for dry smear preparations of blood cells in peripheral blood and staining methods for these blood cells.

In 1897, the Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner discovered that there were four types of blood. He found that humans have four blood types A, B, AB and O.
Discovery of red Blood Cells

History of Tay-Sachs disease

2011-11-13T06:47:00.001-08:00

The search for the enzymatic defect in Tay-Sachs disease began just over 40 years ago with a simple galactose tolerance test in a patient with Gaucher disease.

Tay-Sachs disease is fatal and currently has no cure. Most victims die before the age of five. Due to one inactive enzymes Hexosaminidase A, the baby’s central nervous system begins to shut down.

It is rare, hereditary disease. The disease leads to a buildup of fats in nerve and brain cells.

This causes the gradual destruction of nerves in the brain and body, leading to the loss of mental and psychical abilities such as speech, movement, sight and ability to learn new skills.

The disease was not describe until the 1880s. Undoubtedly it had existed before but its clinical singularity went undetected in the crowded Jewish community of the European tsarist pale.

In 1881, the Scottish ophthalmologists Warren Tay, practiced medicine in East London was the first described degeneration of the macular region of eye in one year old child.

Tay noted some distinctive changes on the retinas of these infant and published his ophthalmological finding in 1881.

Six years later, the American neurologists Bernard Sachs published the clinical and pathological findings. In studying additional cases, Sachs noted the familial nature of the condition, which he called amaurotic familial idiocy.

Other physicians published case reports and Tay-Sachs’ disease was established as an entity.

Tay-Sachs mostly is found affects Jews of Eastern European ancestry – known as Ashkenazi Jews. About 1 in 30 Ashkenazi Jews carry the Tay-Sachs gene worldwide.

Beginning of the biochemical studies of in the late 1930’s increased amounts of gangliosides were discovered in the brains of patients with this disease.

In 1970, a neuroscientist named Robert O’Brien developed an enzymes serum assay that could be used to detect those who were affected by and those who were carriers of the Tay-Sachs mutation.
History of Tay-Sachs disease

Pecquet John (1622-1674)

2011-11-11T04:09:00.000-08:00

Pecquet John, a celebrated anatomist, was born at Dieppe in 1622.

He received a medical education at Montpellier, from which university he obtained the degree of MD.

He afterwards went to Pairs, where he became associated with Mentel and other anatomist in their scientific pursuits.

In 1647 he discovered the thoracic duct while working on animal dissection. He was an anatomist of Paris at that time.

Pecquet reported in his findings in ‘Experiment nova anatomica’ in 1651.

Pecquet actually rediscovered the thoracic duct traced to the lacteal vessels, and demonstrated the passage of the cycle through the duct onto the subelavian vein.

This discovery soon gave his name a celebrity throughout Europe and added important confirmation of the Harveian account of the circulation.

Pecquet also wrote some papers on anatomical subjects, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, in which society he was admitted a member in 1666 and in the Journal des Savans.
Pecquet John (1622-1674)

The Great Hospitals of Al-Mansur

2011-10-29T18:49:00.000-07:00

The glory of Arabic medicine was its hospitals, founded and endowed by rulers and the nobility who inspired by Islamic teaching.

In 766, al-Mansur summoned Jurjis b. Bakhtishu to become court of physician in his newly built capital, Baghdad.

Within the availability of trained physicians, two hospitals were then founded.

One rather short lived while the other, which has been more significant, was founded by the illustrious caliph Harun Ar-Rashid as a state hospital.

It as headed by Jibril, a grandson of Jurjis, to supervise its establishment.

The best and largest of the Arabian hospitals were at Damascus (1160) and at Cairo (1276).

In 1284, Caliph Al –Mansur Qalawun built Al-Mansur Hospital. The Great Hospital of Al-Mansur at Cairo in 1284 was the largest hospitals ever built with beautifully decorated.

Condition were luxurious. It employed male and female nurses. It was open to all the sick, rich as well as poor; it contained wards for both men and women.

The hospital had also different wards for different diseases e.g. for surgery, fevers and eye disease. It also equipped with outpatients clinics.

The hospital had its pharmacy, library, and lecture halls. Medical teachings were probably given at Bagdad, Damascus and Cairo. The principle courses were clinical medicine, pharmacology and therapeutics. Anatomy and surgery were neglected, chemistry was given social important.
The Great Hospitals of Al-Mansur

Father of Anatomy – Herophilus of Chalcedon (335-280 BC)

2011-10-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

Often called the father of anatomy. Herophilus of Chalcedon was a well respected physicians and teacher of medicine in Alexandria.

Herophilus was born at Chalcedon, Greek city on the Propontus, nearly opposite to Byzantium.

Herophilus received his early training as physician from Chrysippus, a widely known Stoie philosopher, who had taught at the school of Cnidus and had also written on medical topics.

Herophilus showed a decided learning toward the study of anatomy. He was the pupil of Praxagoras of Cos. He was an original investigator and the first of the Hippocratic school to distinguish himself as an anatomist.

Herophilus lived during a period in Greek medical history when human dissection was allowed, and he greatly advanced the study of scientific anatomy through his extensive dissections of human cadavers.

He experimented on living animals and even on condemned criminals placed at his disposal in the prisons.

Some of the books written by Herophilus have been used for several centuries but only a few fragments from his texts have survived.

He had a good picture of the nervous system, including the connection between the brain, spinal cord and nerves.

He argued that the brain was the center of the nervous system, rejecting Aristotle’s claim that the heart was the seat of intelligence.
Father of Anatomy – Herophilus of Chalcedon (335-280 BC)

History of iron deficiency anemia

2011-10-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

The Papyrus Ebers, and Egyptian manual of therapeutics from 1500 BC, describes a disease characterized by pallor, dyspnea and edema that may have been iron deficiency anemia. This ancient disease possibly was due to chronic hookworm infestation.

In 1554, a disorder called chlorosis – derived from the Greek word for green, was first described; this was probably a type of iron deficiency anemia. It was describe by 16th and 17th century physicians as a disorder most prevalent in adolescent girl who has inadequate dietary intake of iron and high requirement for iron due to increased loss from menses.

In 1825, the red coloring matter of blood was reported to have an iron content of 0.35% a value very close to that calculated by modern methods. About the same time, anemia was recognized as being due to low levels of iron in the blood and as reduction in the number of red cells.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s another form of iron deficiency anemia was recognized, ‘chronic hypochromic’ anemia.

Iron is incorporated into a large number of cellular proteins. Many are involved in enzyme catalysis and electron transport, whereas others are involved in carrying oxygen or storing and transporting iron itself.

It may also result from inadequate dietary iron intake, malabsorption, blood loss or rarely intravascular hemolysis with hemoglobinuria.

The clinical manifestations of chronic iron deficiency anemia include fatigue, anorexia, headache, lassitude, tachycardia, neurologic disorders, pallor of the skin and mucosae and koilonychia.

The value of dietary iron has been known for centuries It is said that Persian physician Melampus in 4000 BC gave iron supplements to sailors who led in battle.

Other account of iron as therapy date to ancient Egypt and Rome. Hippocrates, used iron to cure chlorosis. Iron continued to be used to treat various illness during the following centuries, but without any real understanding of its function.

The role of iron became apparent in the 17th century when iron therapy was used as a ‘cure’ for chlorosis, or ‘green sickness’, in France. Thomas Sydenham, recognized as the father do English medicine, recommended iron or steel fillings, steeped in cold Rhine wine.

There were a studies at that time that the presence of iron in blood and that blood iron levels could be increased by the feeding of iron-rich foods.
History of iron deficiency anemia

History of Anorexia

2011-10-10T18:24:00.001-07:00

Anorexia nervosa is sometimes called the “starvation.” Obsessed with food, weight, and thinness, people suffering from anorexia deny their hunger and refuse to eat – even after extreme weight loss.

Anorexia ranks as the third most common chronic illness among adolescents, following obesity and asthma.

As they consume too few calories for their basic needs, their bodies slowly waste away. By starving themselves, people with anorexia don’t get the nutrients they need for normal bodily functions.

The term ‘anorexia nervosa’ was coined by Sir William Gull during the nineteenth century but the phenomenon of self starvation has a long history.

In the Address in Medicine to the British Medical Associations in 1868 he had referred to some cases of emaciation without evident organic cause in young women.

In 1689, Sir Richard Morton, British physician published what is now considered the first medical description of anorexia, although it had little impact at the time.

He reported of two adolescent cases, one female and one male, which he described as occurrences of ‘nervous consumption,’ a wasting away due to emotional turmoil.

Sir William Gull and Charles Lasegue of France in 1874, introduced anorexia nervosa as a clinical diagnosis. Each emphasized varying aspects of the conditions in their clinical report, yet they both described as a ‘nervous’ disease characterized by self starvation.

They were the first to recognize the illness as a distinct clinical diagnosis. After World War II psychoanalytic thinking was popular and anorexia was thought of a fear of oral impregnation.

In the late 20th century anorexia nervosa evolved from a rare and little known clinical entity to a fashionable disorder of great interest to the general public.
History of Anorexia

Medical Culture of Mohammedans

2011-10-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

The Arabic medicine alone tended the lamp of the intellect in Europe during the Middle Ages. Filtered across the Pyrenees from Spain, Arabic culture was a stimulating force.

The great majority of the medical treatises of the classical period up to about 1000 AD were written on Arabic. During the first three or four centuries after the Hijra, Arabic was the scientific language all over the Islamic world.

The Arabians derived their knowledge of Greek medicine from Nestorians monks and many practical details from the Jews and their astrological conception from the Egyptians and from the east.

The translation of the Greek books into Arabic, either directly or through intermediate Syriac versions, was effected for the most part under the enlightened patronage of the early Abbasid Caliphs at Baghdad between the middle of the eight and ninth centuries.

The essential features of Arabians physicians training was that most had extensive knowledge of Mohammedan theology, Law, Philosophy, astronomy, astrology, other part of Arts, science and medicine.

The introduction of arithmetic alone was exciting, but Islam’s influence on medicine was deep and lasting.

Their diagnosis of internal diseases were founded upon from canons:
*The patients action
*His or her excreta
*The nature of the pain
*Its site
*Swelling
*Effluvia of the body; further information were cited from the fell of the hand, yellowness of the eye and bending of the back

Some four or five centuries later European seekers after knowledge, cut off from the original Greek sources, betook themselves with ever increasing enthusiasm to this Arabian presentation of the ancient learning and rehabilitated it in a Latin dress.

The transmission of Arabian science and medicine to the Occident began with the Crusades, though earlier a filtering of important knowledge in mathematics and astronomy had reached Southern and Middle Europe through Spain.
Medical Culture of Mohammedans

Abu Mansur

2011-10-02T04:16:00.001-07:00

Abu Mansur Muwaffaq b. Ali al-Harawi flourished in 10th century was a man of repute. His book on material medica was the important Persian work on Pharmacology.

The Book of the Foundation of the True Properties and Drugs considered to be the most important of Persian works on pharmacology.

It is the oldest scientific works in modern Persian. The book contained description of 585 drugs of which 466 were vegetables, 75 minerals and 44 animals origin. The author has collected data from Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Persian and Indian sources.

The Arabic writing on Toxicology up to the end of 12 century was considered as an exhaustive and authenticated one.

Abu Mansur is to a large extent responsible for having brought Indian pharmacology to the serious attention of the workers in Arabic.

In his time, many physicians were Persians and so his work spread to the Near Eastern scientific workers.
Abu Mansur

History of Alzheimer’s disease

2011-09-21T05:09:00.001-07:00

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, a clinical disorder characterized by a loss of memory and other cognitive abilities.

Alois Alzheimer and Emil Kraepelin are usually seen as the founders of the modern concept of Alzheimer’s disease.

Emil Kraepelin was one of the few 19th century researcher in medicine who recognized the connection between brain pathology and mental dissolution in the elderly. He referred to ‘Morbus Alzheimer’ as early as 1908.

Alzheimer first described the disease that would eventually be named for him at a meeting of the South West German Psychiatrist in Tubingen in 1906.

Neurofibrillary tangles had been detected in brain specimens before Alzheimer described them. Fragnito in 1904, observed neurofibril degeneration and damage in cerebral cortical cells, of brains from patients with senile dementia, and three years later Fuller also described neurofibrillary accumulations in senile dementia.

In Alzheimer 1906 and 1907 papers, he described Auguste D, a 51 year old woman from Frankfurt who had exhibit progressive cognitive impairment, focal symptoms, hallucinations, delusions and psychosocial incompetence.

By the time of her admission to hospital, which she never left, she suffered from weakening of memory, persecution mania, sleeplessness, restlessness had an ‘amnestic writing disorder’ was unable to perform any mental or physical work and was rarely free form fear and agitation.

At postmortems she exhibited arteriosclerosis changes, senile plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles.

Alzheimer described the now familiar distinctive pathology in his original 1907 articles.
History of Alzheimer’s disease

Averroes

2011-09-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

He was a Spanish muslim. His Arabic name was Abu al-Walid Muhammad bin Ahmad ibn Rushd al-Maliki.

Averroes was born about the middle of the twelfth century, of a noble family at Cordoba, the Capital of the Saracen dominions in Spain.

Averroes produced about twenty books about medicine. He defined medicine as ‘an art, based on true principles and concerned with preserving man’s health and abating disease, as far as possible.’

He was more noted as a philosopher and as a free thinker than a physician. His Kitab-al-Kuliyat was an attempt to find a system of medicine upon the customary neo-Platonic modification of Aristotle’s philosophy.

The book transliterated in the Latin West as Colliget which a resume of medical science, is divided into seven parts and was translated into Latin by the Jew Bonacosa at Padua in 1255 and a Latin translation was published at Venice in 1482.

Averroes idea in writing about medicine was to apply his particular system of philosophy to medical science.

In 1182, Averroes was appointed as the physician to the royal court in Marrakesh.

He died in 1198.
Averroes

Medicine during ancient Mesopotamia

2011-09-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

The oldest known ancient Mesopotamian medical text is a therapeutics manual, written in Sumerian, which dates from the Ur III period (2112-2004 BC).

During the Mesopotamia era, there two types of healers, namely sorcerers who belonged to the clergy and physicians.

The former, known as the ashipu, believed that disease was caused by demons and employed magic, incantations, charms and exorcism to expel them, while the latter the asu, followed a therapeutic tradition of using animals, vegetable and mineral remedies in pragmatic manner.

Ashipu were generally associated with temples and in addition to their medical duties, performed purification rites in connection with calendric or the consecration of cult statues.

The asu or physicians of ancient Mesopotamia were careful observes of clinical symptoms, frequently visiting patients in their houses and questioning them and those who had attended them in the illness.

Asu was the kind of doctor who as a rule relied upon medical substances to effect a cure.

Four thousands year old tablets excavated at Nippur contained more than a dozen prescription with ingredients from animal, vegetable and mineral sources, but there was no indication of their uses.

The most common mineral agents were potassium nitrate (or saltpeter), known as astringent, and sodium chloride (or salt) a recognized antiseptic, while from the animal kingdom, milk, snakeskin and tortoise shell were favored.

When a person became ill in ancient Mesopotamia, he had many options. He might go himself on the mercy of the gods, he could repair directly to the pharmacy, or he could first call in a physically to diagnose his problem and them arrive at the pharmacist’s shop armed with a doctor’s prescription.
Medicine during ancient Mesopotamia

History of Goiter

2011-08-22T03:44:00.000-07:00

The first records of goiter and cretinism date back to ancient civilization, the Chinese and Hindu cultures and then to Greece and Rome.

Ancient Hindu accounts of medical literature likewise contain references to goiter from the period around 2000 BC. Tumors of the neck were known and treated surgically in ancient Egypt, according to the Eber papyrus – 1500 BC.

Galen wrote of the thyroid in the first centuries AD and the Roman satirist Juvenal observed ‘swollen neck’ around the same time in the Alps.

Ancient treatments for goiter included the administration of animal thyroids and iodine containing Sargasso weed.

Chinese physicians of the Tang dynasty (618-907) were the first to give the iodine rich thyroid glands from animals such as sheep and pigs in dried and powdered forms or mixed into wine to treat people with goiters.

The nineteenth century marked the beginning of serious attempts to control the problem, however, not until the latter half of the twentieth century was the necessary knowledge for effective prevention acquired.

At first there was the discovery of the significance of the functioning of the thyroid gland.

Between 1000 and 1100 AD, two Persian physicians, Avicenna and later Zayn al-Din-al-Jurani, first described the association of goiter and bulging of the eyes in the Cannon of Medicine.

Although ancient Chinese doctors prescribed seaweed to treat goiters, it was not until Bernard Courtois isolated iodine from seaweed in 1811 and Jean-François Coinder of Geneva hypothesized that he could use iodine to treat goiters in 1819.

Eugen Baumann (1846-1896) of Freiburg chemically analyzed the thyroid gland for the presence of iodine and found considerable quantities of it, which he called ‘thyreoidone’ in 1896, a crucial discovery providing the essential link in the pathogenetic chain.

Iodization of salt as a method of preventing goiter was first suggested by the French scientist Boussingault in 1831; however, mass prophylaxis was first attempted in Switzerland and Michigan (1922 to 1924).
History of Goiter

History of Bulimia Nervosa

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Although the term ‘bulimia nervosa’ is of recent origin, reports on morbid hunger may be found under a multitude of different labels as far back as medical records exist.

Instead of the self starvation that is characteristic of anorexics, bulimics engage in periodic bouts of binge eating that are always followed by a period of contrition during which the bulimic tries to undo the effects of the binge, either by purging, abusing diuretics or laxatives, of fasting and/or exercising to the extreme.

In ancient Egypt the practice of emesis was described in detail in Eber’s Papyrus. The papyrus lists several means of emptying the stomach, using anything from cow’s milk to concoctions of fennel and honey.

Egyptian purged themselves every month for 3 days in succession, to preserve health because they thought that food could cause disease.

The Romans used vomitoriums to eliminate their excesses. It was the designated site for forced vomiting between banquet courses.

The word bulimia is derived from a Greek word that can be literally translated as “ox hunger.” The word had been used medically for hundreds of years. It is denoting hunger of such intensity that a man had the capacity to eat an entire ox.

Descriptions resembling what we know as bulimia today – bingeing followed by purging – began to emerge in the 1930s.

Some 18th century clinical distinguished several forms of bulimia, some of which were viewed as being primary or ‘idiopathic’ bulimia, including bulimia helluonum (excessive hunger), bulimia syncopalis (fainting from hunger) and bulimia emetica (overeating with vomiting).

The incidence of this behavior increased after World War II, and by the 1960s, bulimia was described as a feature of some anorexic patients.

An epidemic-sized increased in the 1970s among college age women led to the recognition of bulimia as a distinct eating disorder.

In 1979, the term “bulimia nervosa” was officially coined to describe this eating disordered behavior.

The diagnosis of bulimia nervosa was introduced by British psychiatrist Professor Gerald Russell at the same year. He associated the term with a subgroup of patients with anorexia nervosa who displayed a chaotic pattern of eating, with episodes of fasting or extreme weight control, in contrast to patients who restricted their food.

He defined bulimia nervosa as an ominous variant of anorexia nervosa. Gradually the clinically picture has change so that the majority of cases of bulimia nervosa have not had a previous episode of anorexia nervosa.
History of Bulimia Nervosa

Rhazes

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His name is Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi. He was known one of the greatest physicians of the middle ages.

Known as Rhazes, this man was regarded as an influential alchemist, philosopher and Persian scholar.

Rhazes (854-925), a native of Ray, near modern Tehran, became the Caliph’s personal physician in Baghdad.

He seems to have had a liberal early education in philosophy and in philology and literature. He did not take up medicine until later in life.

His of medicine were made in Baghdad, where Ibn Zein el-Taberi was his teacher. He returned to his native town and was for some time the head of the hospital there.

The fame of Rhazes spread through the lands of the caliph and his services were in constant demand even in distant cities. He attended most of the nobles and princes of the minor Persian courts.

He wrote extensively, gave a careful account of smallpox. Which he differentiated from measles and produced the largest and heaviest medical book printed before 1500.

Rhazes advocated for the practice of evidence-based medicine in the middle ages. He developed standards of question and practice that provided the foundation for modern thought on evidence based medicine.

For his patron al-Mansur, governor of Ray, Razes wrote a comprehensive treatise on therapeutics. It was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona on the late twelfth century as the Book for Al-Mansur.

By the fourteenth century a book 9 of treatise – a head to toe survey of diseases- had firmly established place in the medical curriculum.

Among other works priority in importance and in interest must be given to his al-Hawi or Continens. In its Latin form it is available in the edition translated by Faraj ibn Salem or Farraguth for King Charles of Anjou in 1279 and printed at Brescia in 1486.

In this book Rhazes quotes widely and extensively from many Galenic works, including ‘De demonstratione’ and it is so large a book that no full index of his authorities has yet been made.

Rhazes also produced the text Secret of Secret. It included a great deal of practical and useful chemistry. It was suggested that the preparation of pure hydrochloride acid, nitric and sulfuric acids by Europeans in the thirteenth century depended crucially in the technology described by Razes.
Rhazes