Schizophrenia: four examples of historical retrospective diagnosis.

It is difficult to know precisely the history of a functional disease, unlike the natural history of infectious agents, tumour processes or poly-malformative syndromes. In the case of psychiatry, and especially schizophrenia and psychotic disorders, a retrospective look at artistic productions (writings and drawings) makes it possible to reconstitute a whole section of this pathological context. Through four medieval and modern examples, we will see how it is possible to do a paleo-psychiatry: Opicinus de Canistris (14th c.), the Voynich manuscript (15th c.), Hieronymus Bosch (15th-16th c.), and the Codex Seraphinianus (20th c.).

[Protestant clergymen among Hahnemann's clientele. Patient histories in letters]. / Evangelische Geistliche in Hahnemanns Patientenschaft. Krankengeschichten in Briefen.

As part of the research project, developments in the history of science and in the regional and ecclesiastic history of the late feudal petty state of Köthen-Anhalt have been assessed and numerous documents of the Nagel and Mühlenbein family histories examined that place the transcribed patient letters of the two Protestant clergymen within the context of the Hahnemann Archives. These findings complement and extend previous insights into Hahnemann's Köthen clientele, especially when it comes to the structure and milieu of the local clerical elite. Inspired by the interpretive methods of sequential textual analysis, form and content of the letters of the two clergymen and their relatives were also investigated as methodically structured lines of communication. The body of sources published here presents--embedded in the body-image (of sickness and health) prevalent at the time--the medical cultures of educated patients as well as the increasingly professionalized medical practices of Samuel Hahnemann in a flourishing urban doctor's surgery. The correspondence between the pastors Albert Wilhelm Gotthilf Nagel (1796-1835) and August Carl Ludwig Georg Mühlenbein (1797-1866), presented here in a standard edition, has been investigated at Fulda University as part of the project 'Homöopathisches Medicinieren zwischen alltäglicher Lebensführung und professioneller Praxis' ('Homeopathic medicine between everyday use and professional practice'). Of the altogether 78 transcribed documents, 53 are letters written by either of the two pastors, 16 are patient journals by Samuel Hahnemann, 9 letters by the pastors' wives and Mühlenbein's mother. The two series of letters, originally composed between 1831 and 1833 in old German cursive script, can now be used as sources for research into the history of homeopathy.

Sebastian Kneipp and the Natural Cure Movement of Germany: Between Naturalism and Modern Medicine.

This study discusses the historical significance of the Natural Cure Movement of Germany, centering on the Kneipp Cure, a form of hydrotherapy practiced by Father Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897). The Kneipp Cure rested on five main tenets: hydrotherapy, exercise, nutrition, herbalism, and the balance of mind and body. This study illuminates the reception of the Kneipp Cure in the context of the trilateral relationship among the Kneipp Cure, the Natural Cure Movement in general, and modern medicine. The Natural Cure Movement was ideologically based on naturalism, criticizing industrialization and urbanization. There existed various theories and methods in it, yet they shared holism and vitalism as common factors. The Natural Cure Movement of Germany began in the early 19th century. During the late 19th century and the early 20th century, it became merged in the Lebensreformbewegung (life reform movement) which campaigned for temperance, anti-tobacco, and anti-vaccination. The core of the Natural Cure Movement was to advocate the world view that nature should be respected and to recognize the natural healing powers of sunlight, air, water, etc. Among varied natural therapies, hydrotherapy spread out through the activities of some medical doctors and amateur healers such as Johann Siegmund Hahn and Vincenz Prie ßnitz. Later, the supporters of hydrotherapy gathered together under the German Society of Naturopathy. Sebastian Kneipp, one of the forefathers of hydrotherapy, is distinguished from other proponents of natural therapies in two aspects. First, he did not refuse to employ vaccination and medication. Second, he sought to be recognized by the medical world through cooperating with medical doctors who supported his treatment. As a result, the Kneipp cure was able to be gradually accepted into the medical world despite the "quackery" controversy between modern medicine and the Natural Cure Movement. Nowadays, the name of Sebastian Kneipp remains deeply engraved on the memories of German people through various Kneipp spa products, as well as his books such as My water Cure and Thus Shalt Thou Live! Wörishofen, where Kneipp had served as catholic priest as well as hydrotherapist for 42 years from 1855, changed its name to "Bad Wörishofen" ("Wörishofen Spa" in German). The Kneipp Cure and the Natural Cure Movement became a source of ecologica l thought which is currently gaining more and more sympathy from German people. It is regarded as a lieu de mémoire (site of memory) reflecting the collective identity of German people.

[The diseases of Bossuet]. / Pathographie de Bossuet (1627-1704).

Jacques Bénigne Bossuet--nicknamed 'the Bright Eagle from Meaux' by Voltaire--died at 77, in his Parisian place of residence, on April 12th 1704. Which disease so took this robust prelate of Burgundian origin, bishop since he was 53 and whose active life had been filled with important duties and honours. If bibliography about his life is copious we owe before any trusting the testimony of his private secretary, priest François Le Dieu, whose diary describes everyday life in detail. Thus we know his fevers, skin rashes in 1699, and his bronchial and digestive problems and we can follow the evolution of his vesical lithiasis complicated with purulent, necrosing cystisis which led to the lethal evolution in spite of the efforts of renowned praticians.

Natureza, colonização e utopia na obra de João Daniel / Nature, colonization, and utopia in the works of João Daniel

Este artigo analisa alguns aspectos do Tesouro descoberto no rio Amazonas, obra composta pelo padre João Daniel (1722-1776), missionário jesuíta no Estado do Maranhão e Grão-Pará entre 1741 e 1757, desterrado para Lisboa dois anos antes do banimento da Companhia de Jesus da América portuguesa. A obra, registro singular da Amazônia de meados do século XVIII, oferece um compêndio das riquezas e potencialidades da região. Sobretudo, apresenta um projeto para a colonização crítico ao modelo então em vigor e que se apresenta como um conjunto integrado que considera as condições ambientais, a técnica e as relações sociais na organização da sociedade local. Ao colocar no centro de seu projeto a questão do trabalho, João Daniel recupera, como metáfora, a idéia - marcante na literatura missionária do século XVII e praticamente abandonada no século XVIII - da Amazônia como paraíso terrestre.

The article analyzes certain aspects of "Tesouro descoberto no rio Amazonas" (Treasure discovered on the Amazon River), written by João Daniel (1722-76) during his time in the State of Maranhão e Grão-Pará as a Jesuit missionary between 1741 and 1757; the priest was banished to Lisbon two years before the Company of Jesus was expelled from Portuguese America. This unique record of the mid-eighteenth-century Amazon is a compendium on the region's wealth and potential. Most importantly, it put forward a colonization project that was critical of the model then in place; the new proposal was an integrated whole which took environmental conditions, technology, and social relations into account in the organization of local society. In centering his project on the issue of labor, João Daniel revives, as a metaphor, the idea of the Amazon as an earthly paradise-a notion that had characterized seventeenth-century missionary literature but was practically abandoned in the eighteenth century.

The Stathams of Stone and Islington.

The story of the Statham family and their connections with Buckinghamshire and London centres around the figure of Sherard Freeman Statham (1826-1858), the founder of the Royal Northern Hospital. Born into an impoverished branch of an ancient landowning family, his circumstances were abruptly bettered when his clergyman father (a somewhat controversial character) made a lucrative marriage. Statham qualified in medicine with high honours and went on to become a brilliant young surgeon and teacher, and his future seemed assured. But his hasty and aggressive nature led to his dismissal from University College Hospital. Unsatisfied by private practice, he almost single-handedly founded a new hospital to serve the poor of North London, which went on to flourish as a well-respected surgical centre until its eventual closure in 1992. However, Statham never saw the success of his enterprise as he died from tuberculosis at the age of 32.

[Priesthood and pharmacy in France after the French Revolution]. / Le clergé et la pharmacie en France après la Révolution française.

Contrary to Tournier's assertion (thesis of 1938), the law of germinal (the seventh month of the eleventh year of the French Republican Calendar) had not been respected by the regular/secular priesthood because it was so ambiguous that they could seize the opportunity to carry on practising the art of medicine or manufacturing and selling drugs. In fact there were three reasons for the lack of steadiness of authorities: the practice of charity, financial concerns and the rise of the science which incited to illegal practice of pharmacy although professionals protested against. On the other hand, the priesthood officials tardily took the decision of forbidding the practice of medicine, surgery and pharmacy until 1936 when it was anew forbidden after a meeting of French cardinals and bishops. In 1941, with the agreement of all concerned persons the problem came to its end.