ABSTRACT
The Singapore Medical Journal (SMJ) has in the past 55 years reflected the phenomenal socioeconomic progress of Singapore. Publications in the pre-independent years were mainly on diseases like cholera, diphtheria, leprosy, tetanus and worm infestation. In the new millennium, the research papers included molecular genetics, health economics, obesity, Internet medicine, cancer, cosmetic surgery and palliative medicine. The annual SMA Lecture published in the SMJ provides an ethical compass for doctors to remind them of primum non nocere.
Subject(s)
Research/trends , Societies, Medical/history , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Periodicals as Topic , SingaporeABSTRACT
In this article by Juan de Azua, published in the second issue of Actas Dermosifiliográficas in 1909, the author reports his experience in 139 patients, most of them from Hospital San Juan de Dios, Madrid,Spain, and states he is sure that leprosy is a contagious disease. He discusses the factors related to contagion,which occurs in a closed and family environment, emphasizing socioeconomic factors such as hygiene and promiscuity. He considers direct contact to be important, though also recognizing indirect contact through drinks and food; he totally rejects a hereditary mechanism. Epidemiologically, he draws attention to the higher prevalence of the disease in Andalusia, though not forgetting "La Lepra de Ultramar [leprosy from distant lands]"-32 cases in Spaniards in Cuba and the Philippines. He believes isolation in hospitals or special sanatoriums, such as San Juan de Dios or San Lázaro in Santiago, Granada, and Seville, to be the best prophylaxis, and he considers it would be appropriate to create "Hospitals for poor lepers".
Subject(s)
Dermatology/history , Leprosy/history , Academies and Institutes/history , Female , History, 20th Century , Humans , Leprosy/transmission , Male , Models, Biological , Periodicals as Topic/history , Societies, Medical/history , SpainABSTRACT
The article describes the creation of the rare books' collection of Professor Francisco Eduardo Rabello Library at Brazilian Society of Dermatology.
Subject(s)
Dermatology/history , Societies, Medical/history , Books/history , Brazil , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Libraries, Medical/historyABSTRACT
O artigo descreve a formação da coleção de obras raras da Biblioteca Professor Francisco Eduardo Rabello da Sociedade Brasileira de Dermatologia.
The article describes the creation of the rare books collection of Professor Francisco Eduardo Rabello Library at Brazilian Society of Dermatology.
Subject(s)
History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Dermatology/history , Societies, Medical/history , Brazil , Books/history , Libraries, Medical/historyABSTRACT
More than every second Norwegian 19th century physician made one or more study trips abroad. Some of them were probably more inspired by love of adventure than by the prospect of gaining new medical insight. This was probably also true of my great-grandfather, Eyvind Kraft. Shortly after completing medical school in 1879, he left Norway on the "Musca", an emigrant vessel, bound for Hawaii. He returned home approximately six years later to establish a sanatorium. In the meantime he worked as a ship's doctor, made a contribution to the understanding of the contagiousness of leprosy, and was among the founding members of the first medical society in the state of Wisconsin. Back in Norway he worked at the sanatorium, but also as a general practitioner and among fishermen during the seasonal fisheries. He had to travel to the Continent in an attempt to cure his "nerve disease". Eyvind Kraft's life tells an exciting story of exotic places and of the view of disease in his time.
Subject(s)
Family Practice/history , Epidemiology/history , Hawaii , Health Resorts/history , History, 19th Century , Humans , Leprosy/history , Norway , Preventive Medicine/history , Societies, Medical/history , Travel/history , WisconsinABSTRACT
The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin's most important work, was published in London in 1859. The first presentation in Norway, by P. Chr. Asbjørnsen, appeared in the journal Budstikken. About 30 years passed before it was translated into Norwegian, and it took some time before Darwin's theories were debated in Norway. The zoologist Michael Sars introduced them in the Scientific Society in Christiania (i.e., Oslo) in 1869, but he was not met with a great deal of interest. However, a new generation of scientist saw this differently, mainly the botanist Axel Blytt, the zoologist G.O. Sars and the geologist W.C. Brøgger. Two prominent professors of medicine were also involved in the debate, on different sides. The Darwinist Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen, who discovered the lepra bacillus, wrote several books and articles about Darwinism, while Professor Ernst Ferdinand Lochmann, though admiring Darwin as a prominent naturalist, strongly rejected Darwinism as a scientific theory.