Reports on Greenlandic and Faroese medicine from an eighteenth-century medical book.

The authors analyse descriptions of Greenlandic and Faroese medicine found in an Italian medical publication from the 18th century entitled, Europae Medicina a Sapientibus Illustrata […], which was printed in Brescia, in Northern Italy, in 1747. The author of these descriptions, Francesco Roncalli Parolino (1692-1769), was a renowned European physician. Roncalli Parolino focused his study on the treatment of scurvy and he promoted the inclusion of the Greenlandic and Faroese therapy into the broader European context. He was influenced to do this due to the already integrated European perspective of medicine which his book follows.Like now, medicine in 18th-century Europe was multicentric and characterised by rich intellectual activity, which contributed to the enhancement of clinical practice during this period. At the time, Greenland and Faroe Islands were also integrated into this European context because they contributed for medical-scientific development that would lay the foundations for modern medicine. Francesco Roncalli Parolino obtained just recognition for these regions through the advancement and defence of their valuable medical contributions.

SALOMONE ENRICO EMILIO FRANCO (1881-1950) AND 1938 ITALIAN RACIAL LAWS: FROM THE ADRIATIC TO THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA / SALOMONE ENRICO EMILIO FRANCO (1881-1950) DI FRONTE ALLE LEGGI RAZZIALI ITALIANE DEL 1938: DALL'ADRIATICO AL MEDITERRANEO

More than eighty years ago, the so-called Racial Laws banished Italian Jews from all their properties and places. The authors analyze the biography of Salomone Enrico Emilio Franco (1881-1950), a cosmopolite pathologist. Born in Trieste but raised in Venice, he had his medical degree in Padua and was a pathologist at the Venice Hospital, and then he went to Portugal. Franco founded the Institute of pathology of Lisbon University. He studied leishmaniosis and hematology. During WWI, he served as a volunteer in the Italian Army. He was then a full professor of pathology at the Universities of Sassari, Bari, and Pisa. However, he was obliged by the so-called Racial Laws to leave Italy and go to Palestine. He fought as a volunteer for the realization of the State of Israel and directed the Institute of Pathology in Jerusalem.

Occupational medicine and occupational psychology: a rendezvous in Milan after World War II.

BACKGROUND: In the 1950s, occupational medicine and occupational psychology found a common field of action in the Clinica del Lavoro in Milan. OBJECTIVES This study aims to analyze and document how this encounter took place and, in particular, the contribution of the Clinica del Lavoro to the development of occupational psychology in Italy. METHODS: Historical sources of that period were investigated. RESULTS: Before the 1950s, experimental psychology was only taught at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. The first professor of clinical psychology in the School of Medicine at the State University of Milan, was Marcello Cesa-Bianchi (1926-2018). He collaborated with the graphic, textile and pharmaceutical industries for the personnel training and management, and carried out important research in occupational psychology on behalf of the European Coal and Steel Community. The Chair of Clinical Psychology was initially located in the Clinica del Lavoro and the activity of the team of Cesa-Bianchi was oriented towards the elaboration of professional profiles and job analysis. In those years Cesa-Bianchi also conducted pioneering research in the field of psycho-gerontology. CONCLUSIONS: The historical experience that integrated psychology and occupational medicine in the scientific context of Milan contains a series of values, useful to today's reflection and practice. Our work also undelines the importance of preserving historical documents: only a better knowledge of history can guarantee a better destiny.

[Mobile miniature X-ray evaluation and pneumoconiosis: the role of the Clinica del Lavoro in Milan (1941-1948)]. / La valutazione schermografica delle pneumoconiosis (1941-1948): il ruolo della Clinica del Lavoro di Milano.

Since the end of the 19th century, X-rays have been used to detect lung diseases. In Italy, 207,096 miniature chest radiographs were taken from 1941 to 1948. Traditional radiographs gave better results, but miniature chest radiographs were useful for screening. Indeed, the development of mobile miniature chest radiography units resulted in an improvement in mass X-rays screening for the detection of penumoconiosis. These mobile miniature units were mounted on a bus chassis, a solution that allowed to easily reach workers. The authors analyze some models of X-ray wagon units used by the "Clinica del Lavoro" in Milan in the 1950s. From the point of view of medical museology, the preservation of these devices requires appropriate spaces.

Work and health care in Milan, 1864-1874. / Lavoro e assistenza sanitaria a Milano, 1864-1874.

In 1864 in Milan, Giovanni Rosmini (1832-1896) opened an ophthalmic dispensary for workers. In 1874 this dispensary was transformed into the first ophthalmic hospital of the city. This hospital still exists today. The authors analyze a document that belonged to the lawyer Enrico Rosmini (1828-1898), brother of Giovanni, which helps to piece together the early years of the dispensary, where about 4,000 surgeries were carried out in the first four years of activity. This historical document is valuable as it sheds light on one of the first healthcare institution for workers in Milan.

[Industrial first aid equipment: a historical analysis (1840-1914) ]. / Gli strumenti di pronto soccorso in azienda: un'analisi storica (1840-1914).

Even if references to the tools required to intervene after an accident can be found in the works of Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714) or Johann Peter Frank (1745-1821), it was only with the development of industrial manufacturing that the need to study means to prevent and intervene in cases of accident became evident. In October 1894 the III Congrés International des Accidents du Travail et des Assurances Sociales was held in Milan. The following year, the Milanese trade union movement acknowledged the necessity to address the problem of industrial accidents. In 1896 the Association for Medical Assistance in  Industrial Accidents was founded in Milan. A specific medical institute was set up, appropriate first aid tools were collected and first aid rooms in the main Milanese factories were inaugurated. Nevertheless, few data seem to be available regarding the manufacture and use of this equipment in industry. We analyzed more than fifty catalogs of European industrial products, between 1843 and 1914, to study the evolution of first aid equipment for industrial use. They reflect and attest to the evolution of medicine and surgery, although some models seem to be related to certain industrial categories (railways, electrical appliances), some were similar to ordinary first aid boxes, others were strictly related to surgery; some could only be used by physicians, and others only by workers. Identification, conservation, and reappraisal of these tools is essential for historians of occupational health because these objects were normally not preserved. The catalogues of industrial production are also precious sources, since they are rarely preserved in public libraries and deserve to be used for historical studies.

["PELVIC ABNORMALITIES" AT THE THE OSPEDALE MAGGIORE OF MILAN: HISTORY AND CURRENT EVENTS]. / LE "VIZIATURE PELVICHE" ALL'OSPEDALE MAGGIORE DI MILANO: STORIA E ATTUALITA'.

The authors deal with the theme of the genesis and the increase of the obstetrical collection of pelvic abnormalities, i.e. the "dry" specimens stored at the Ospedale Maggiore (Major Hospital) of Milan (Italy), and of their scientific and educational values. Recently, following the restoration of the crypt of the Annunciation Church of the Ospedale Maggiore, a large space was converted, which could accommodate the pelvises collection permanently. A first step tofinally be able to introduce these extraordinary specimens not only to experts, but also to a wider audience.

[CORPSE CONSERVATION: ATTILIO MAGGIA'S PREPARATIONS]. / LA CONSERVAZIONE INDEFINITA DEL CADAVERE: LE PREPARAZIONI DI ATTILIO MAGGIA.

The authors analyze Attilio Maggia's method of corpse conservation. His method was based on development of formaline vapours and preservation of corpse into a hermetically closed coffin (U.S.Patent 1150688 - Aug. 17, 1915). The corpses preserved could also be hardened after the treatment, exposing them to the air. Attilio Maggia (1864-1945) treated the corpse of italian writer Giovanni Verga (1840-1922). Some Maggia's preparations were preserved into obstetrical museum at Milan University: they are lost, but some records remain (an old inventory register) and attest us the industry of this physician.

Modernity in medicine and hygiene at the end of the 19th century: the example of cremation.

Medicine in the second half of the nineteenth century takes on some characteristics of modernity. These characteristics are worthy of our attention because they help us to understand better some of the current problems of hygiene and public health. One of the topics that was most discussed in the scientific-academic milieu of the second half of the nineteenth century was cremation. There was a poetic precedent: the cremation of Percy Bysse Shelley (1792-1822). The earliest apparatus to completely destroy the corpse was made in Italy and Germany in the 1870s. As far as hygiene was concerned, the reasons for cremation were not to pollute the water-bearing strata and an attempt to streamline the cemetery structure. As in an apparent schizophrenia, scientists of the day worked to both destroy and preserve corpses. There is also the unusual paradox that when the first cremations took place, the corpses were first preserved then to be destroyed later. The catholic world (mainly in Italy) and forensic scientists opposed cremation. It was left to the hygienists to spread the practice of cremation. An analysis of scientific literature shows us that if we leave out the related forensic and ethical problems, recent years have seen attention paid to any harmful emissions from crematoria equipment which have poured into the environment. Another issue is the assessment of inadvertent damage which may be caused by the condition of the corpse. Some topics, however, such as the need for preventive autopsies (first proposed in 1884 in Milan) are still a subject of debate, and seem to pass virtually unchanged from one generation to the next.

[Disinfection in Milan at the beginning of XXth century]. / Il lavoro della disinfezione nella Milano di primo novecento.

The authors analyse some technical and professional aspects of disinfection in Milan at the beginning of XXth century, and the work of Vittorio Maragnoli. Also the use of HCN vapours in disinfestation is here analysed.

[About some medical bibliographical sources of Jacobinic and Napoleonic age]. / Su alcune fonti bibliografiche mediche del periodo giacobino-Napoleonico.

The authors analyze some bibliographical sources of jacobinic and Napoleonic age: books and pamphlets published by Stamperia Italiana e Francese in Milan (Lombardy); the Bullettino del Consiglio Subalpino di SanitY, ossia Giornale Fisico-Medico del Piemonte in Turin (Piedmont); some Charles Botta (1766-1837) books (Storia naturale e medica dell 'isola di Corfù; Mémoire du [...] sur la doctrine de Brown; Vicissitudes de l'instruction publique en Piémont depuis l'an VII jusq'au mois de ventose an XI [...]). They are useful to analyse the spreading of John Brown (1735-1788) theories in Italy, during the jacobinic and napoleonic time.

[A topical subject in the Lombardy of 1906: the regeneration of nerves]. / Un tema d'attualita' nella Lombardia del 1906: la rigenerazione dei nervi.

The author informs about a manuscript containing a communication of Agostino Gemelli's to the Brescia University (1906). He analyzes end compares it with a similar communication given by Gemelli to the Lombard Institute in Milan, concerning the regeneration of peripheral nerves.