Chronic Gastro-Duodenal Ulcerative Disease and the Death of Father Stephan Schätzl from Viechtwang (Austria).

Stephan Schätzl was the parish priest of Viechtwang, Upper Austria. He lived in the aftermath of the Peace of Augsburg in a period of schism between Roman Catholics and Lutherans. His portrait, depicted only 6 days before his demise in 1590, shows that he had extreme ante mortem cachexia. Documentary sources detailed his life and ill-health and it is proposed that he had chronic gastro-duodenal ulcerative disease which ultimately led his to death.

Votive Offerings from Floresti Orthodox Monastery in Romania: An Ophthalmological Lesson from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries CE.

Since Antiquity, votive offerings were deposited in temples dedicated to deities in order to fulfil a special request of a supplicant. Later, in Orthodox churches, votive offerings entered in the form of anatomical ex-voto or tamata, metallic effigies that realistically represented the disease-affected portion of the body. In this paper, we show four tamata from eighteenth-nineteenth century identified in the museum of the Orthodox monastery of Floresti (Romania); votive offerings that represent ocular pathologies. Even if the supplicants did not have a medical background and often did not fully understand their diseases, the votive offerings demonstrate their ability to observe pathological changes, at the same time emphasising the importance of their faith in the healing process.

Literature "magistra vitae": What literature teaches about society's reactions to pandemic outbreaks.

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 put out many interesting aspects of society's responses to an epidemic. Epidemics have a long-standing history in literature. We want to analyze if society's responses to the epidemic have changed over time, and what literature can teach about the society's reaction to an epidemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We searched and discussed the references to the social effects of the epidemic that are provided in three famous works of European literature providing descriptions about society's reactions to an epidemic throughout the centuries have been selected: "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio, "The Betrothed" by Alessandro Manzoni, and "The Plague" by Albert Camus. RESULTS: Literature teaches us that: the epidemic's spread is often preceded and favoured by a phase of negation or under evaluation of the problem; restrictive measures are the most efficient for containing the virus' spread; some people have difficulties in being compliant with these measures; infodemia may accompany an epidemic, feeding chaos and fear among the people. CONCLUSION: Looking at examples of epidemics reported in the past, we can conclude that the current COVID-19 pandemic shows that society's responses to an unknown disease are not changed over time.

Which Saint to pray for fighting against a Covid infection? A short survey.

BACKGROUND: In the absence of a treatment still considered universally effective, and of a vaccine validated by the health authorities, we wanted to know which Catholic saint the European Christian community turned to in the event of infection with Covid-19 to request a miraculous healing. METHODOLOGY: An online survey was carried out on a sample of 1158 adults using social media tools. RESULTS: All results are presented in this research, with a few saints in the majority, and some dictated by the symptomatology of the Covid-19 infection or the personalities of certain « doctor guru ¼. CONCLUSION: This medico-anthropological study is revealing the psychology of Western patients vis-à-vis the magic-religious means used in the fight against diseases, particularly in the epidemic/pandemic context.

The brainstem and its neurosurgical history.

Brainstem is one of the most complex structures of the human body, and has the most complex intracranial anatomy, which makes surgery at this level the most difficult. Due to its hidden position, the brainstem became known later by anatomists, and moreover, brainstem surgery cannot be understood without knowing the evolution of ideas in neuroanatomy, neuropathology, and neuroscience. Starting from the first attempts at identifying brainstem anatomy in prehistory and antiquity, the history of brainstem discoveries and approach may be divided into four periods: macroscopic anatomy, microscopic anatomy and neurophysiology, posterior fossa surgery, and brainstem surgery. From the first trepanning of the posterior fossa and later finger surgery, to the occurrence of safe entry zones, this paper aims to review how neuroanatomy and brainstem surgery were understood historically, and how the surgical technique evolved from Galen of Pergamon up to the twenty-first century.

Hydroxy-chloroquine to treat COVID-19 - infected patients: Some lessons from medical anthropology and history of medicine.

It is certainly too early to take stock of Professor Raoult's intuitions, and moreover, that is not the aim of this short article. Nevertheless, experience has shown that in times of unprecedented health crises, prescriptions often turn out to be adventurous, especially when it comes to a new virus. The collective imagination around a remedy often takes the place of a guarantee or, on the contrary, a safeguard. Here, the authors question the implementation of hydroxy-chloroquine treatment in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. How was his prescription discussed in this context of crisis? What lesson can we learn from medical anthropology and the history of medicine, by witnessing other epidemics and atypical or unconventional substances or behaviors of practitioners?

Il est certainement trop tôt pour faire le point sur les intuitions du professeur Raoult, et ce n'est d'ailleurs pas le but de ce court article. Néanmoins, l'expérience a montré qu'en période de crise sanitaire sans précédent, les prescriptions se révèlent souvent aventureuses, surtout lorsqu'il s'agit d'un nouveau virus. L'imagination collective autour d'un remède se substitue souvent à une garantie ou, au contraire, à une sauvegarde. Ici, les auteurs s'interrogent sur la mise en œuvre du traitement à l'hydroxy-chloroquine dans le contexte de la pandémie de la COVID-19. Comment sa prescription a-t-elle été discutée dans ce contexte de crise ? Quelle leçon pouvons-nous tirer de l'anthropologie médicale et de l'histoire de la médecine, en étant témoins d'autres épidémies et de substances ou comportements atypiques ou non conventionnels des praticiens ?

The Autopsy of the Prophet Muhammad in Dante's Inferno.

Dante places the sinners who promoted scandals, schism, and discord in the ninth Ditch of the Inferno. Among those is also the Prophet Muhammad. Describing the Prophet's punishment, Dante resorts to technical terms and vulgar expressions. This poetic representation highlights Dante's medical and anatomical knowledge and reflects 14th c. Christian religious beliefs. At that time, autopsies were performed only on prisoners, prostitutes and people without identity. By comparing the Prophet to an autopsied corpse, Dante associates Muhammad with those bearing the badge of shame. Moreover, this description is a further confirmation that Dante had good medical knowledge.

The mandible of Saint-Louis (1270 AD): Retrospective diagnosis and circumstances of death.

INTRODUCTION: Recent paleopathological cases have shown the usefulness of interdisciplinary odontological studies in the investigation of historical figures. OBSERVATION: A macroscopic examination of the mandible of Saint-Louis (13th c. AD), conserved in the cathedral of Notre-Dame (Paris, France) was carried out, and compared with biographical data about the life and death of the King, and contemporaneous cases of infectious/inflammatory diseases. We found post-mortem tooth loss associated with moderate signs of infectious and inflammatory diseases, which precise diagnoses are discussed facing historical chronicles and sources: main diagnosis is scurvy, potentially associated with bacterial infection. DISCUSSION: Our results support the identification of the relics, and improve the knowledge about the saint's circumstances of death related to metabolic deficiencies and infections.