[The department of balneology and physical medicine of the S.M. Kirov's Military-medical academy 75 years anniversary].

The article highlights the history of the creation of the Department of balneology and physiotherapy at the S.M. Kirov Military-medical academy and the stages of its development. Employees of the Academy have a priority in the scientific substantiation of main principles of physical medicine and rehabilitation. They stood at the forefront of development of scientific schools and research institutions. The article presents the main achievements of the Department in academic, research and clinical work.

[The Karachi health resort: synthesis of science and practice].

This article is devoted to the history of one of the oldest Siberian health resorts known as "The Karachi Lake". It describes the stages of its development, the scientific component of the system of spa-and-resort therapy and medico-social rehabilitation of the patients. The detailed analysis of the mechanisms underlying the beneficial action of the natural therapeutic factors, cooperation with the leading research institutions, and the formation of the modern scientific and technical basis have strengthened the position of the resort on the market of the medical, health-promoting, and recreational services due to the development of the new activities in this field.

[Reflexotherapy in the context of rehabilitative medicine].

The main stages of the history of reflexotheray and its principal methodological aspects are reviewed in the context of the introduction of this approach into rehabilitative medicine. Productive results of such integration find the demonstrative reflection in the defense of 56 theses for the degree of candidate of science and 28 ones for the degree of doctor of science devoted to various aspects of reflexotherapy. The growing tendency toward the more extensive application of non-pharmacological approaches to complementary medicine opens up new prospects for the further development of reflexotherapy in the context of modern health care practices.

Outline of medical rehabilitation history in Poland and worldwide.

The study is an outline of the historical development of rehabilitation as a new medical discipline in Poland and worldwide. Rehabilitation has developed dynamically in the interwar period. In the US, it was pioneered by Howard Rusk, while in Poland, rehabilitation was introduced by Wiktor Dega. Medical rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary approach and is an integral and irremovable element of treatment at all treatment stages. Of note is the contribution of Wiktor Dega, who has developed and presented the Polish concept of rehabilitation, considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as worth of being followed. Wiktor Dega believed that rehabilitation should be started possibly early--as soon as in the active disease stage and should provide and maintain good functional results after surgical treatment. The article discusses the contribution of pioneer specialists in rehabilitation in two first rehabilitation centers in Poland, established after World War II in Poznan and Konstancin near Warsaw.

[Tourville, a center of rehabilitation during the 1914-1918 war]. / Tourvielle, un centre de réadaptation pendant la guerre de 1914-1918.

After WWI, an important centre of rehabilitation was created for the severely disabled in Tourvielle. It created the opportunity to invent and manufacture many prostheses to compensate the war amputations. In particular, the artificial arm/hand prosthesis enabled amputees to live more productive lives. Raphael Freida, who was an exceptional artist, illustrated the centre of rehabilitation when it was inaugurated by the town of Lyons.

[The 60th anniversary of the Croatian Balneological and Climatological Institute]. / Sezdeseta obljetnica osnutka Balneolosko-Klimatoloskog Instituta Hrvatske.

Sixty years ago, more precisely on 28 August 1949, Croatian Ministry of Health founded the Balneological and Climatological Institute as a result of a long-term endeavor and attempts to provide Croatia with an institution of this type, already existing in many European countries. In 1953, the Institute came under the management of the Yugoslav Academy of Arts and Sciences/YAAS [today Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and became the Department of Balneoclimatology of the Medical Research Institute of YAAS. In 1958, it was transferred to the Medical School of the University of Zagreb, continuing to function first as the Institute of Balneoclimatology and Physical Therapy and, since 1963, as the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. In spite of financial difficulties and occasional lack of understanding from the officials in this field, significant contributions have been made to balneology during this time, justifying the need for such an institution. On 15 April 2008, the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation became Department for Balneoclimatology, under the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health of Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, Rockfellerova 4, Zagreb.

[The history of electrostimulation in rehabilitation medicine]. / Histoire de l'électrostimulation en médecine et en rééducation.

In antiquity, the electrical properties of torpedo fishes were used for therapeutic purposes (in headache and gout). In the 18th century, some practitioners used Leyde jars (Musschenbroek, 1746) and electrostatic devices to treat (notably) neuralgia, contractures and paralysis. L. Galvani's (1737-1798) description of "animal electricity" and A. Volta's (1745-1827) discovery of bimetallic electricity and invention of the voltaic battery prompted renewed interest in the therapeutic effects of galvanism. In the mid-19th century, Duchenne de Boulogne (1806-1875) improved electrotherapy procedures with volta and magnetofaradaic apparatuses. During the first half of the 20th century, research in electrophysiology (chronaxia and rheobasis) progressed in parallel with the work of electroradiologists such as A. d'Arsonval (1851-1940) and his high-frequency currents. From the 1960s onwards, the combination of progress in electronics with data processing and the miniaturization of medical devices opened up the way to today's electrostimulation techniques and their implementations in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[Contributions to the history of foundation and development of physical medicine and rehabilitation services in Serbia].

It is widely accepted that rehabilitation, as a new scientific discipline, was initiated by the foundation of the National Institute for Rehabilitation in Sokobanjska St. 13. However, the available data do not support this assumption. According to the article 23 of the Law on the Sanitary Code and Public Health, brought by the Serbian Principality in March of 1881, institutions for treating the sick and care for the incurable and disabled were to be provided. Numerous activities foreseen by laws of that time can be defined today as occupational and functional work therapy, as well as professional rehabilitation. Thus, there was a positive and truly humane attitude towards the disabled, resulting in better treatment outcome, less adverse events, with the aim of better professional education and training for occupational opportunities. Health-care centers of Serbia used to apply physical methods: electrotherapy, massage and physical training, documented in Serbian archives from 1888. The above mentioned data show that we have every right to be proud of the history of our profession.

Opiate addiction and the entanglements of imperialism and patriarchy in Manchukuo, 1932-45.

In the Japanese colonial state of Manchukuo, opiate addiction was condemned by officials and critics alike. But the state-sponsored creation of a monopoly, opium laws, and rehabilitation programs failed to reduce rates of addiction. Further, official media condemnation of opiate addiction melded with local Chinese-language literature to stigmatise addiction, casing a negative light over the state's failure to realise its own anti-opiate agenda. Chinese writers were thus transfixed in a complex colonial environment in which they applauded measures to reduce harm to the local population while levelling critiques of Japanese colonial rule. This paper demonstrates how the Chinese-language literature of Manchukuo did not simply parrot official politics. It also delegitimised Japanese rule through opiate narratives that are gendered, consistently negative, and more critical of the state than might be expected in a colonial literature.

[Unperfect, handicapped persons: for a history of didactics of neuro and psychomotor rehabilitation of children in Italy]. / Incompiuti, handicappati, diversamente abili: per una storia della didattica della riabilitazione neuro e psicomotoria dell'infanzia.

The history of paediatrics disability and of the attempts at creating a "rehabilitation strategy" for disabled children, in Italy, has yet to be written. This contribution is part of a project involving medical historians, psychologists and neurologists, all from Rome University "La Sapienza".

Paresis, historical therapy in the perspective of Caelius Aurelianus, with special reference to the use of hydrotherapy in antiquity.

Caelius Aurelianus provides in his work Tardarum sive chronicarum passionum, based on Soranos' famous, but lost, work about acute and chronical illnesses, a remarkably detailed description of the physio-therapy of paresis, which covers the complete therapeutic spectrum of the groundwork of a combined therapy. His view that rehabilitative treatment should be started from the second day of illness sounds almost revolutionary. Also, modern early rehabilitation makes a specific use of combined therapy in a way that is analogous to that described by Caelius Aurelianus. Even today, the view is taken that fast mobilisation of the patient is the top priority of therapy. The three-stage mobilisation therapy involving exercises in rolling-in-bed as well as practice in trying-to-sit-up is quite similar to what is common practice today.

[Neurorehabilitation: yesterday, today and tomorrow]. / Neurorehabilitation: gestern, heute und morgen.

Rehabilitation has its roots in the so called "care for cripples", later on in the postcare of war victims. It is a new way that neurologists do a specialized task within rehabilitation. Increasing lifepan furthermore gives a great overweight to cerebrovascular patients for rehabilitations. Only a holistic aspect can coop with this new challenges. It has to regard the patient and his family as well as to create new ways in social politics. The "Vorarlberger Modelle" (organized by Barolin) has not only given postulates, but practically shown new ways for rehabilitation in the future.

The Kur in West Germany as an interface between naturopathic and allopathic ideologies.

In countries where biomedicine developed from earlier medical knowledge, medical pluralism provides unusual cultural parameters and perspectives on biomedical epistemologies. Past therapy traditions, which are still salient in the biomedical system of West Germany today, are examined historically and ethnomedically. The Kur, now part of a complex system of rehabilitation medicine utilizing medical bathing and environmental stimuli, illustrates divergent ideologies in the contemporary German health care system. The influence of cultural, social, and political-economic factors on therapeutic eclecticism and directions are discussed as cultural dynamics of the biomedical system in general.

Hand rehabilitation--retrospective.

From the exercise principles of Galen through the compassionate practices of Canute and the leadership of Tissot, Dunton, Bunnell, Brand, and Hunter, hand rehabilitation has grown. Surgeons, nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists now work together for a common goal--to restore the patient with the injured hand to the greatest possible productivity in the shortest period of time.

[The beginnings of care for cripples in Lower Franconia and its development into the modern rehabilitation of the physically handicapped]. / Die Anfänge der Krüppelfürsorge in Unterfranken und ihre Entwicklung zur modernen Rehabilitation Körperbehinderter.

On the example of Lower Franconia, a predominantly rural region which has maintained its boundaries in both world wars, the author describes the historical development of services for disabled persons since the beginning of this century. Jakob Riedinger may justly be termed the father of cripple care in Lower Franconia, having initiated the establishment, in 1910, of the first vocational rehabilitation facility for physically disabled people in Würzburg. Starting out from the provision of vocational services, further developments in particular after the 2nd world war entailed a growing recognition of the psychosocial situation of disabled persons as the basis of rehabilitative action. Several facilities have hence been established for providing holistic, early services for the physically disabled, where educators, physiotherapists, occupational and speech therapists, social workers and psychologists are involved, along with the orthopaedic doctor, in the care of physically disabled children and youths.

[History of the determinants of attitude toward the handicapped]. / Zur Geschichte von Einstellungsdeterminanten gegenüber Körperbehinderten.

Prejudicial social attitudes towards people with disabilities have from time out of mind been handed down from one generation to the other. They reach far back into the history of mankind. From a social-educational angle it is relevant to trace not only the motivational aspects involved but also the formative forces in historically evolved ambivalent attitudes towards persons with disabilities.