VOJNA LJECILISTA NA KVARNERU U AUSTRO-UGARSKOJ MONARHIJI I BRIGA ZA UNAPREDENJE CASNICKOG ZDRAVLJA / [Military Health Resorts in Kvarner in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Care for Improving Officer Health]

The health of officers (as well as the entire army) is exposed to additional risks due to the performance of various life-threatening tasks for the needs of the state. Therefore, it is not unusual for the state to take care of the health of its officers (as well as the army) through a system of Vojvodina medical care or specialised society through the construction of military or officer health resorts [Militärkurhaus / Offizierskurhaus] with the provision of medical/ health services. The subject of this paper is the relationship between architecture and the provision of military-medical services of officer/military health resorts built by the Society of the White Cross [Gesellschaft vom Weißen Kreuze] in Kvarner at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The research is based on data collected from Austrian architectural, medical and tourist magazines and yearbooks of Austrian Society of the White Cross. The results of the research contribute to a better understanding of the improvement of the health of officers, the development of the architecture of health buildings [Kurhaus] and the entire history of medicine and health tourism in the Croatian Adriatic.

Zvonimir Maretic (1921-1989): The History of Discovery of the First European Antilatrodectic Serum and its Preparator in the Occasion Of the 30th Anniversary of His Death

Zvonimir Maretic was the pioneer of the study of venomous animals and plants, toxicology, and tourism medicine. His achievements have been recognized, but insufficiently researched. His work covers a broad range of biomedical sciences: from public health, ecology, and environmental protection, to epidemiology and infectology. Maretic was one of the founding members of the International Society on Toxinology and the Toxicon journal's first Editorial Board. He was the first in Europe to prepare the antilatrodectic serum and to successfully apply the weever and scorpionfish antiserum on humans. This brief note tries to commemorate the achievements of Maretic, up to now poorly recognized and insufficiently researched.

"Marina-Trinkkur" and a few more modern-time hydrotherapeutic myths from the Kvarner region of NW Croatia.

PURPOSE: The present paper tries to address the rise and decay of the sea-water "cult" in regional health tourism in NW Croatia, concentrating upon and analysing more thoroughly the example of Marina, chemically processed sea water, an invention of Dr Géza Fodor, the Hungarian physician practicing in that part of Croatia. METHOD: The original documents and archived items related to the topic were examined. Furthermore, we investigated numerous communal bulletins and medical authorities' records of respective time. RESULTS: Our research showed that the sea-water baths, introduced thanks to the influence of balneologists (like J. Glax), and "drinking cures" (advocated by M.-J. Ortel, for instance) were surprisingly popular not only among tourists of the time, but also among the physicians that used them extensively for therapeutical purposes. These baths and "drinking cures" enriched and completed the medical offer of the resorts regardless of their sometimes dubious effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: This simple distilled sea-water preparation, advertised as a real panacea, demonstrates a paradigm that elucidates the mentality of physicians, merchants, and patients/consumers of the time.

Hypnosis and modern frontal-lobe concepts--a sketch for a review and an invitation to one particularly promising field.

The present paper intends to briefly review the most important concepts of the modern neuropsychology of the frontal lobes, and to relate these findings to the phenomenology usually encountered in hypnosis research and practice. The frontal lobes have been studied very intensively during the last several years and some of the results, including the syndromes described in frontal-lobe lesions and psychiatric patients, demonstrate striking similarity with hypnotic phenomena. Based on these similarities, an alternative neuropsychophysiological definition of hypnosis/suggestion is proposed, viewing hypnosis/suggestion as the process of external manipulation with frontal-lobe functions with consequent effects upon the entire brain potential of the subject.

Cult of St. Blasius, patron saint of throat sufferers and of otolaryngologists, in Croatia.

In the introductory part presented is a short hagiography of St. Blasius, and the legend of miraculous healing of a child in whose throat a bone had stuck, threatening to choke the child. Thanks to that legend, St. Blasius has become the traditional patron of the laryngeal diseases, and, since recently, the patron of the otolaryngologists, too. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the cult of St. Blasius, which is present in Croatia since the 10th century until present. Venerated all over the country, St. Blasius has been "elected" the heavenly protector of 10 parish communities, as well as of the city and the dioceses of Dubrovnik. Beside pilgrimage and prayers, among many traditional forms of folk piety, a ritual called "grlicenje" has been preserved-a curative and preventive blessing of the throat with crossed candles on the Saint's Day. In more recent times, the same day has been remembered among Croatian otolaryngologists and the societies of laryngectomized persons, who chose St. Blasius for their patron, too.

The cult of St. Lucia, patroness of the eyes: some examples from Croatian ethnomedical tradition. On the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of her martyrdom.

In the introductory part, the authors present several patrons/patronesses of the eyes and sight, as well as the protectors from eye diseases. In addition, presented is a short hagiography of St. Lucia, the most famous among the patrons of the eyes. The second part is dedicated to the cult of St. Lucia, which has existed among the Croats from the 10th century until present day. Testimonies to this are numerous churches, chapels, altars, paintings, sculptures, processions, pilgrimage, prayers, votive gifts, and many other forms of folk piety. By reviewing several characteristic examples from Istria and the region of Kvarner, the importance of this veneration is indicated, for general and religious tradition as well as for the history of medicine, especially the history of ethno-ophthalmology.

Hungarian doctors and the "Golden Age" (1884-1914) of Opatija (Croatia).

At the turn of the 20th century, in the frame of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Hungarian enterpreneurs - backed by the Hungarian government - attempted to launch a "Hungarian area" on the Adriatic coasts with the center of Crikvenica and Abbazia (presently Opatija). (This time Fiume (Rijeka), as the only Hungarian seaport has been partly possessed and governed by Hungarians). Author gives a short overview on these attempts with a special regard to the activity of Hungarian physicians on the Adriatic coasts, especially in Abbazia (Opatija) and to the health resorts founded by them, respectively. He calls our attention to the fact, that as a result of the activity of Hungarian physicians and enterpreneurs this period proved to be the so called "golden age" of Abbazia and of its environment.