[Eponyms and epilepsy (history of Eastern civilizations)]. / Eponimi i epilepsija (istorijat istocnih civilizacija).

The history of eponyms for epilepsy in the lands of the Eastern globe present the portrait of the attitudes of both the laymen and skilled people towards the disease and patient, as well as to the Nature itself. As opposed to the West which during the Middle ages changed its concepts of epilepsy as the organic brain disease for the sublime 'alchemic' position, the people of the East were more prone to consider from the beginning of their civilization till the XIX century that epilepsy is the consequence of the evanescent spiritual and extracorporal forces which by themselves were out of their reach. As compared to the western civilization, the historical resources are, often as a consequence of a linguistic barriers, more scarce-as consequently is the number of eponyms, but are nevertheless picturesque. The medical science from Babylonian period presumed that epileptic manifestations are the consequence of the demonic or ill spiritual actions. There existed an attitude that at the beginning of an epileptic attack the patient was possessed by a demon (the Akkadic, i.e., Babylonian verb "sibtu" denoting epilepsy, had the meaning "to seize" or "to be obsessed"); at the end of the clonic phase the demon departed from the body. Different demons were responsible for different forms of epilepsy such as nocturnal and children epilepsy, absence epilepsy and pure convulsions, simple and complex automatisms, and gelastic epilepsy. Thus, the doctors from the period of Babylon aside from making primordial classification of epilepsies, knew about their clinical picture (prodromal symptoms and aura, Jackson's epilepsy. Todd's paralysis), postictal phenomena and intericatl emotional instability; provocative factors were also known (sleep deprivation, emotions, as well as alcohol, albeit in a negative sense-as a cure for epilepsy). There is no doubt than in the period of Babylon the clinical picture of serial fits and its progress to status epilepticus were clearly recognized and considered as life threatening events. Persian history of epilepsy, except from the 6th century Zoroastrian "Avesta" document, lacks the written or spoken medical heritage untill the 7th century A.D. and the Arabic conquest of the entire Moslem world. On the other hand, Islamic medicine should be freed from the simple prejudice that the Moslem authors were only the translators of Greek medicine; contrary to such a view, their work contains a high degree of individuality. Although Mohammed introduced a lot of novelty into medicine, Khoran and the Sayings do not explicitly refer to epilepsy. Of importance is to notice that Moslem medicine did not have demons in the "repertoire" of direct causes of epilepsy. The causes and the cures of epilepsy were more magic-mystical and occult in nature, which is reminiscent of the European, as well as Serbian Middle age attitudes. Avicenna recognized difference between children and adult epilepsy. He considered insomnia and afternoon siesta as well as intensive sounds and light to be a provocative factors, whereby we see that at least empirically he knew of sleep (deprivation), startle and reflex epilepsy. The XIII century invasion of Mongols brought about the recession in Moslem Medicine; it recovered only in the XVIII century under the strong influence of European medicine handed over to us through Jewish doctors of various nationalities. The story of the China history of epilepsy has its debut approximately in the 8th century B. C. Medical texts from this period name epilepsy "Dian" and "Xian" which meant "the falling sickness" and "convulsions", respectively. Chinese medical terminology often interchangeably used the words "mania", "madness" and "psychosis" for "epilepsy" which, aside from a prominent language barrier, brings additional confusion. Although Chinese documents gave the first description of the grand mal epileptic attack already in the 8th century B. C. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

[Epilepsy, eponyms and patron saints (history of Western civilization)]. / Epilepsija, eponimi i pokrovitelji (istorijat zapadnih civilizacija).

From a historic point of view, epilepsy and its eponyms were in an ontogenetic symbiosis throughout their history. Epilepsy is a disease with a history of eponyms presenting the frame of mind of both streetwise as well as skilled "authors" about its origin and nature. From ancient times the names for epilepsy, archetypal Hippocratic disease, just as rich in number as varied in their implication, reflected the local folkways of thinking. In this article we briefly presented more than 50 eponyms and patrons of epilepsy. As the source of information we used both the apocryphal, canonical and hagiographic as well as heretic literature, legends and iconography from the Middle Ages of domestic and foreign origin. Pre- and post-Hippocratic era, apart from stemming from the oldest written medical sources, point to the position that the disease had organic origin located in the brain. The period of Rome adopted the attitudes set by Galen which remained en vogue throughout the emerging Middle Ages and Renaissance. These eras generated new eponyms which reflected a downfall in the manor, stating that the disease is the consequence of supernatural forces. In the "Age of darkness" eponyms for epilepsy reflected more the relation of men to the Nature than to the disease or a sick man; this is evidenced through the generation of number of patrons for the disease. The most famous patron of patients with epilepsy was St. Valentine (after conversion from pagandom he died in Rome as a martyr, c. 270). He was allotted a patronage either due to the phonic resemblance of his name with the (past participle of the) verb "fallen"-as Martin Luther claimed, or due to a cure of epilepsy of the son of a Roman rhetor who built for him a chapel in which he continued to cure the sick. The emergence of a flamboyant personality of Paracelsus on the historic scene of the XVI century represents a less successful attempt to revoke the way of thinking set by the old Greek doctors; however, it brought about the precipitous decay of attitudes that started with Romans and inaugurated the way of thinking characteristic of Renaissance and the ages thereafter. Serbian literature of the Middle Age was strongly impacted by influences that fanned from Italy (Salerno) and south France (Montpellier), reflecting the attitudes of medical schools and universities prevailing at that time Europe. The name [symbol: see text] from Hilandar Medical Codex No 517 (XV-XVI century) is obviously taken from Byzantine medicine, which was founded on the works of Hippocrates, Galen and Dioscurides. It came down to us through the Serbian folk Byzantine codices named "latrosophia of Hilandar", preserved mostly from the author Michail Pselos (XI century). On the other hand, the name [symbol: see text] or morbus magnus, reflects its Roman origin. The name [symbol: see text] meaning fainting, loss of consciousness or syncope, stems from the same source. The name [symbol: see text] designated epileptic disease in Serbian monks, monasteries probably being the only niche where epileptics could find refuge. Children's epilepsy or convulsions are expressed as [symbol: see text] No mention is found of epileptic status except for the notion [symbol: see text] meaning "to be without consciousness for a longer period of time'; it does not, however, refer directly to epilepsy or convulsions. It is worthy noting that already in the XIV century Serbs had their medical literature translated to their own language, and were the only one of all Slavic peoples that did so. Nevertheless, both apocryphal and canonical, as well as consecrated medicine were based on magic, astrology and occultism. The magic formulas used in Middle Age Serbia for the cure of epileptics as well as sick in general, were basically irrational; still, as a trace of its descension they contained unintelligible words of the eastern origin (Greek, Persian or Jewish). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)