ABSTRACT
By means of the analysis of three works (Dell'anima de' bruti [Of the soul of beasts], Sofilo Molossio, and Sofilo senza maschera [Sofilo without a mask]) of Alessandro Pascoli (1669-1757), the psysician and philosopher from Perugia, the article reconstructs his fluctuating thought with regard to the problem of sensation in animals, indicated as the problem of the "soul of beasts." Regarding this question, Pascoli oscillates between, on the one hand, the Cartesian theory, which considered animals similar to mechanical automatons, devoid of the capacity to experience sensations (that is say, devoid of "sensitivity"); and, on the other hand, the Church's scholastic-peripatetic doctrine that attributed to animals the capacity to feel, thus affirming the presence in them of a "sensitive soul," considered -as compared with the human one -imperfect, material, and mortal. In expounding the reasons and argumentations of the Cartesians, on the one hand, and of the ecclesiastic teachings, on the other, Pascoli manifests a substantial convergence with the former, but also the need, inasmuch as Catholic professor of medicine at the Sapienza University of Rome, to not deny the possibility of the latter. In this tormented and contorted alternation of opinions, between the thesis of the animal-machine and that of the animal gifted with a sensitive soul, he introduces conceptual elements that, further developed, will end up by conducting to the ideas of "vital property" and of "vital principle" typical of the vitalistic thought of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Subject(s)
Behavior, Animal , Catholicism/history , Mammals/psychology , Philosophy/history , Vitalism/history , Animals , Behavior, Animal/ethics , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , Life , Psychological Theory , Religion and ScienceABSTRACT
Manuscripts containing collections of folk recipes for treatment of deseases were written mostly by Catholic priests especially Franciscians in Croatia in the past centuries. They were used as manuals for preparation of remedies and gave directions for their use. These writtings provide valuble data for etnographers and historians of ethnomedicine. The paper describes the manuscript "Many different remedies for headache treatment" written by unknown author probably in 18. century in Sinj, Dalmatia. The manuscript was found in the archives of Sinj Friary. The collection contains 16 recipes for headache treatment. Materia medica of the manuscript is composed of drugs of plant origin. Valuable information is given about the folk names for medicinal plants as well as descriptions of the ways of preparing remedies. Latin as well as contemporaly croatian names are attributed to the plants species mentioned in the manuscript. Use of the plants for treatment of the specific deseases were compared with their use in modern fitotherapy.
Subject(s)
Catholicism/history , Headache/history , Manuscripts, Medical as Topic/history , Mass Media/history , Materia Medica/history , Croatia , History, 18th Century , HumansSubject(s)
Catholicism/history , Materia Medica/history , Plants, Medicinal , Reference Books, Medical , Religious Missions/history , Americas , Herbal Medicine/history , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , Humans , Pharmacies/history , Religion and Medicine , SpainABSTRACT
During the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, the monks of the Franciscan Order were the only representatives of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem and they provided medical treatment for Christians. This article looks at the activities of the Franciscans, in particular in their pharmacy, which was associated with the production of Jerusalem balsam, famous both in the East and in Europe. It compares these activities with those of Jewish physicians in Jerusalem and looks at the relationships between the two groups and their effects on medical development in the Levant.