Women in the medical profession in 1900 from extended maternity to social equity. The life of Lucia Servadio.

The history of social medicine in Italy between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was characterised by a marked presence of gender and the consequent commitment of women of Jewish origin to the issues of early childhood education, as well as safeguarding of work and motherhood and health prevention with regard to social and cultural fragility. Some of the roles of women engaged in social medicine campaigns have been widely studied in the historiography of medicine, having recognized their roles and commitment to attempting to create a fair society through their expertise in medicine and health. However, there are some biographies and professional lives that are still unpublished and worthy of attention by historical medical research. Lucia Servadio, who was of Jewish origin (1900-2006), was the youngest Italian doctor of the first twenty years of the twentieth century. She successfully worked, despite the degrading identification of women at the time, in the field of medicine and welfare, thanks to her qualified professional, cultural and social commitment. Dr Servadio's professionalism was constantly defined by a vision of health as a right that the doctor must protect by pursuing the goal of social equity. Precisely on the basis of these principles, solidified by the practical and social activism of women's groups of the time, Dr Servadio's professional and private life was continuously shaped between medicine and social activism. However, her story is also pervaded by the ambiguity of the role played by women, often highly educated and with considerable professional standing, engaged in forms of scientific intellectual collaboration of a conjugal nature.

Once again on the Empress Zoe: Women, dermatology, cosmetics, and materia medica (medical matter) in the ancient world.

BACKGROUND: An article published in 2012 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology discussed the historical sources presenting the Byzantine Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita as an expert in cosmetic and pharmacological remedies that could give their users a youthful appearance and a kind of eternal youth. However, it did not take into account a dermatological recipe attributed to Zoe which text transmission has preserved. AIMS: To examine some ingredients of Zoe's recipe from a historical medical point of view and contextualize the text in the tradition of ancient medical matter, physiology of aging, and gender pharmacological skills. METHODS: After contextualizing the recipe from the historical medical point of view, some of its ingredients have been analyzed in relation not only to their use in the most authoritative pharmacological and medical sources of antiquity but also to their symbolic meaning. RESULTS: The analysis of Zoe's dermatological recipe allowed to highlight: The links between cosmetics and medicine in Greek and Roman Antiquity. The reason why ancient sources dealing with medical matter attributed to certain substances and plants the power to save the human body from old age and decay. The consistency between the ingredients of Zoe's recipe and the humoral physiology by genders and by age of Hippocrates. The existence of a female tradition in pharmacological competence. CONCLUSION: Cosmetic dermatology of antiquity is the perfect point in which survival of the myth and rational pharmacology overlap.

The kinesthetic diagnosis in a homeric item of pathological heartbeat: An overview in the history of ancient greek medicine.

The Iliad, by the Greek poet Homer, is a precious mine of examples of war traumatology. In the specific case of spear wounds in the chest, the death of the Trojan warrior Alcathous is particularly interesting from the point of view of the history of medicine and the evolution of cardiology and knowledge of the heart at the time of ancient Greece. In particular this paper aims to evidence and reconstruct the main anatomical and physiological knowledge of the heart at that time. Indeed, a historical-linguistic analysis of the Greek text prompts some reflections and thoughts on the heartbeat in pathological conditions and on the function of the heart as a hematopoietic organ. Furthermore, Homer's account is a critical text that highlights the relevance of the use of the senses in the ancient description of nosological pictures and it allows us an interesting and suggestive approach to reconstruction from the historical and historiographical point of view.

Soft Skills Are Hard Skills-A Historical Perspective.

The increasingly swift changes in the field of medicine require a reassessment of the skills necessary for the training of technically qualified doctors. Today's physicians also need to be capable of managing the complex issue of personal relationships with patients. Recent pedagogical debates have focused on so-called "soft skills", whose acquisition is presented in literature as a quite recent addition to medical studies. Moreover, the historical investigation of deontological texts dating from the mid-nineteenth century back to the Hippocratic Oath shows that medicine has always discussed the need to integrate technical expertise in medicine with specific personal and relationship-based skills. Debates have often circled around whether these "soft skills" could actually be taught or how they could be successfully transmitted to training physicians. The belief that defining medicine is more complex than defining other similar sciences and that the instruments to be used in the relationship with patients cannot be limited to those provided by technical aspects shows a new awareness. Today, this view is often stated as an innovative realization on the part of doctors with regard to the complexity of training and action in a delicate area in which they are entrusted with the management of the balance of the system that is the human body.

G. B. Morgagni Among Human Pathology, Forensic Medicine and Mummiology. The Beatification of Gregorio Barbarigo of Padua

The article is the first step of a research project aimed at investigating new perspectives and aspects of Morgagni's role and work. His activities as a medical examiner and forensic doctor are yet to be truly discovered. Manuscripts, written by Morgagni when he was a forensic expert for the Health Magistrate of Venice, currently preserved at the City Library in Forli (Italy), shed light on a new aspect of his cultural background. As a forensic doctor, he also helped push an increase in "social medicine" in Italy, when physicians began to collaborate with the administrative and political institutions in order to plan environmental and urban regulations to control air quality. While reading his reports, his contribution to the primordial medical Hygiene and Public Health emerges. Among his reports, the authors focused on the one concerning the Beatification of Gregorio Barbarigo, which clearly highlights his pathological approach, as well as his knowledge and application of embalming systems and mummiology. Moreover, this report could be considered as an issue in the history of paleopathology.

Feet and fertility in the healing temples: a symbolic communication system between gods and men?

Anatomical ex-votos of feet have always been interpreted as representing the unhealthy part of the body for which patients were asking healing. However, according to the archaeological data and literary sources, another interpretation is also possible: the purpose of this article is to focus on the strong relationship between feet and fertility in the ancient world by cross-referencing the available archaeological evidence with the scientific data relating to this topic. That shed light on an important aspect of the Healing Temples in Greek and Roman medicine.

[[Abortive Pollution in the Sacred Laws of Cyrene and Kos].] / Il Miaema Abortivo Nelle Leggi Sacre Di Cirene E Cos.

In the society of the ancient Greece sacred laws on the abortion are a typical example of a mixture between the temple wisdom tradition and the medical tugvr. The epigraphic discoveries made between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century in Cos and Cyrene offered meaningfid evidences of the cooperation between priests and physicians to evaluate each single case of abortion and impose the right atonement. This contribution aims at showing how firm the line of continuity between medicine as wisdom and medicine as T Xvn was in the ancient Greece, focusing on the hot topic of the abortion. The question will be analyzed from a multidisciplinary approach which includes history of language, history of medicine and history of religion as the nature of the topic and of the evidences reauires.

[ABORTION AND CHARTER FOR THE EMBRYO BETWEEN THE ANCIENT WORLD AND THE THIRD MILLENNIUM]. / DARE VOCE AI NON-NATI: ABORTO E STATUTO GIURIDICO DELL'EMBRIONE TRA TRADIZIONE IPPOCRATICA E DIRITTO CONTEMPORANEO.

In 2012 the Italian Court of Cassation recognized a young woman the right not to be born and a compensation for her Down's syndrome. Before her birth, her parents asked their gynaecologist for abortion in case he had found any patology affecting the baby. The clinical tests didn't reveal the syndrome, so, after the baby's birth, the doctor was sued for damages. A similar case had occurred in France, where the High Court affirmed that constitution is based on the right to live, not to die. A debate was opened, in which the hippocratic oath has been used to support the pro vita position. This article focuses on whether, when and why the hippocratic tradition allows abortion; when and by whom the embryo was considered to be a human being; if, according to the few sources we have, a charter for the embryo existed in ancient times.