Ancient voices on tinnitus: the pathology and treatment of tinnitus in Celsus and the Hippocratic Corpus compared and contrasted.

OBJECTIVE: The object of the paper is to analyse the treatment of tinnitus in two ancient works, Celsus De Medicina and the Greek Hippocratic Corpus. Whilst reviews of historical references to tinnitus have identified this material, this is the first detailed treatment of the subject in these authors. DESIGN: The paper considers the material relating to tinnitus and suggested treatments in the Roman medical writer Celsus (mid first century AD) in contrast with those found in the Greek Hippocratic Corpus (late fifth, early fourth century BC). RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The lifestyle change, diet and pharmacological treatments suggested by Celsus are analysed and shown as likely to be effective. Celsus is shown to be remarkably modern in his understanding of the aetiology of the disease and his suggested dietary and pharmacological treatments appear to be soundly based. Celsus' pharmacological approach differs from the more theoretical stance of the Hippocratic Corpus based on humoural theory. The Hippocratric Corpus is more detailed in its descriptions of otological pathology and more concerned with a humoural explanation of the disease, but offers useful advice on diet and regimen and also provides the first detailed description of what appears to be Ménière's Syndrome.

The virtues of balm in late medieval literature.

This article argues that balm, or balsam, was, by the late medieval period, believed to be a panacea, capable of healing wounds and illnesses, and also preventing putrefaction. Natural history and pharmacological texts on balm from the ancient and late antique periods emphasized specific qualities of balm, especially its heat; these were condensed and repeated in medieval encyclopedias. The rarity and cost of balsam, from antiquity through the medieval period, and the high rate of counterfeiting also demonstrate its high demand and significance in medicine and religious ritual. Travel writing and itineraria from the early and central medieval periods added a new layer to ideas about the capabilities of balsam: that it originated from a Christian miracle and was a particularly Christian plant.

The relation between Greek and Islamic materia medica.

Many studies have been made on the exact data of the introduction of Greek sciences to the Arabic culture. During the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. a big progress was done in the Arab-Islamic sciences, when the Caliphs of the Omayad and Abbasid dynasties invited many scientists, researchers and translators for translation of all sciences into Arabic. The Arabs paid special attention to the Greek natural sciences such as botany and pharmacy. Greek materia medica was a major common basis for Arab-Islamic medicine and pharmacy which in turn paved the way to the modern pharmaceutical therapy.

[Benedictus Textor and the teaching of Dioscorides' De materia medica]. / Benedictus Textor y la enseñanza de la "Materia Médica" de Dioscorides.

Exhaustive study of Benedictus Textor's Stirpium differentiae (1534), a work endeavouring at this time to convey systematically to students of medicine the Galenic properties of plants; a scientific adaptation of the meaning of Dioscorides' work.

The rules of drug taking: wine and poppy derivatives in the ancient world. I. General introduction.

Many believe that the public attitude toward psychotropic drugs is easy to change because it depends upon transient socioeconomic and cultural contingencies. This belief is here tested by analyzing literary sources on the use of wine and poppy derivatives in the Greek and Roman civilizations. As expected, the existence of elaborated myths about the discover of wine supports the view that wine drinking played an important social role in the ancient world. Contingencies in which drinking was considered illicit were carefully selected with the ultimate aim of maintaining sobriety. Rules of drinking were often enforced by law. This first part of the study lists drunkenness outcomes considered particularly harmful by the Ancients.

Some salient features of 'Kitabul-Hashaish' with special reference to the manuscript preserved in Khuda Baksh O.P. Library, Patna.

The contributions of Dioscorides in the field of materia medica and pharmacology are unparalleled in the history of medicine. This great botanist of the 1st century A.D. made personal observations of the specific properties of drugs and presented them through illustrations for the first time. Almost all the physician authors of Unani system of medicine from Galen to Azam Khan have quoted Dioscorides. Kitabul-Hashaish was rendered into English and arabic and published repeatedly in the West. The book has great value and is quoted widely due to its authenticity. This unique work needs to be edited critically and afterwards translated into Urdu and other languages for the benefit of the present day students and scholars.

The rules of drug taking: wine and poppy derivatives in the Ancient World. IX. Conclusions.

Evidence of a ritual use of poppies becomes more and more rare during the late Roman age, until only the medical usage of poppies seems to survive. In the meantime, a complete lack of evidence of a hedonic use of opium persists. As a whole, this study shows a remarkable continuity in the modalities of wine and poppy derivative use from the Ancient World to the present, particularly in that the hedonic use of psychoactive drugs remained restricted to alcoholic beverages. This observation challenges the opinion that drug-taking behavior is under the control of transient cultural contingencies. In addition, it imputes that the attribution of any documented prehistoric or historical nonmedical use of psychotropic drugs for the aim of experimenting with their pleasant effects is a stereotype.