[Naval contributions at the beginning of the tropical medicine research in the 19th century]. / Aportes navales al inicio de la investigación en medicina tropical en el siglo XIX.

In the second half of the 19th century, the beginning of the research on tropical medicine was favored with contributions from shipping companies, like Dutch East India Company, being perhaps the most important of these its collaboration in the creation of the China Imperial Maritime Customs Service (1854-1950), imposed by consuls from England, France and USA, on the weak Chinese government in order to establish regular taxes in all its ports, soon expanding its functions with reports on tides, typhoons and weather, ending up creating a medical service in 1863 to detect epidemics and establish quarantines. This medical service published a Journal, the Imperial Maritime Customs Medical Reports, where they wrote distinguished investigators, such as Patrick Manson, Father of Tropical Medicine. We comment in some reports of this journal, to get an idea about its real importance in the development of tropical medicine.

Aportes navales al inicio de la investigación en medicina tropical en el siglo XIX / Naval contributions at the beginning of the tropical medicine research in the 19th century

Resumen En la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, el inicio de la investigación en medicina tropical se vio favorecido con aportes de empresas navieras, como la Compañía Holandesa de las Indias Orientales, siendo quizás el más importante su gestión apoyando la creación en China del Servicio Marítimo Imperial de Aduanas (1854-1950), impuesto al débil gobierno chino por los cónsules de Inglaterra, Francia y EEUU, para establecer tasas regulares en todos sus puertos, que pronto amplió sus funciones a la información de mareas, tifones y clima, terminando por crear en 1863 un Servicio Médico para detectar epidemias y establecer cuarentenas. Este Servicio Médico editó una revista, Medical Reports, en la cual publicaron distinguidos investigadores, como Patrick Manson, Padre de la Medicina Tropical. Comentamos algunos informes aparecidos en ella, para conocer su real importancia en el desarrollo de la medicina tropical.

Abstract In the second half of the 19th century, the beginning of the research on tropical medicine was favored with contributions from shipping companies, like Dutch East India Company, being perhaps the most important of these its collaboration in the creation of the China Imperial Maritime Customs Service (1854-1950), imposed by consuls from England, France and USA, on the weak Chinese government in order to establish regular taxes in all its ports, soon expanding its functions with reports on tides, typhoons and weather, ending up creating a medical service in 1863 to detect epidemics and establish quarantines. This medical service published a Journal, the Imperial Maritime Customs Medical Reports, where they wrote distinguished investigators, such as Patrick Manson, Father of Tropical Medicine. We comment in some reports of this journal, to get an idea about its real importance in the development of tropical medicine.

El misterio del muguet en la Francia de Luis Felipe de Orleáns (1830-1848) / The muguet's mystery in the France of Louis Philipe d'Orleans (1830-1848)

Resumen Durante el severo reinado de Luis Felipe de Orleáns (1830-1848) existió un breve intervalo de paz en Francia, permitiendo el desarrollo de las ciencias médicas, entre ellas la pediatría. El Dr. Vanier, viendo que los estudiantes de medicina tenían difícil acceso a los hospitales de niños, quiso ayudarles creando para ellos una revista con temas y casos pediátricos, entre éstos comunicaciones sobre el muguet, la candidiasis oral de los recién nacidos y también de lactantes mayores, por parte del célebre Trousseau, de Valleix y de los investigadores Gruby y Berg, quienes llegarían a descubrir que no se debía a la lactancia ni a las nodrizas, sino a un "parásito vegetal", un hongo similar a los champiñones.

Abstract Under the severe rule of Louis Philippe of Orleans (1830-1848) a brief interval of peace in France was favorable for the development of some medical arts, like pediatrics. The Dr. Vanier, considering how difficult was for the students the access to a children's hospital, wanted to help their learning with a journal with clinical cases and conferences on children pathology, including several papers on muguet (the oral infection by Candida albicans in newborns), written by the famous Trousseau and the clinical investigators Valleix, Gruby and Berg, who became to the description of the etiological agent as "a vegetal parasite, a fungus similar to the mush-rooms".

[The muguet's mystery in the France of Louis Philipe d'Orleans (1830-1848)]. / El misterio del muguet en la Francia de Luis Felipe de Orleáns (1830-1848).

Under the severe rule of Louis Philippe of Orleans (1830-1848) a brief interval of peace in France was favorable for the development of some medical arts, like pediatrics. The Dr. Vanier, considering how difficult was for the students the access to a children's hospital, wanted to help their learning with a journal with clinical cases and conferences on children pathology, including several papers on muguet (the oral infection by Candida albicans in newborns), written by the famous Trousseau and the clinical investigators Valleix, Gruby and Berg, who became to the description of the etiological agent as "a vegetal parasite, a fungus similar to the mush-rooms".

[The doctor as a literary character in the Modern Age]. / El médico como personaje literario en la Edad Moderna.

The doctor has been from de Antiquity a victim of the people's affective ambivalence, who loves and hates him accord his success or failures. Some rant against the medical guild, but are proud to be patients of one or another doctor, more o less celebrated, referring familiarly to him as Tony or Jim. A certain envy hurts the doctor's image, countered by gratitude, but finally, as times goes by, the continuous progress of medicine has been improving the public perception about the medical work. A quick review of the Modern Age literature, personal, whimsical and may be imperfect, from Michel de Montaigne, in the sixteenth century until. A. J. Cronin in the twentieth, shows the evolution of the doctor as a literary character, first as a tricky ignorant, after like a clown, later fighting epidemics and ending as a self-sacrificing medical researcher.

[Reading Spallanzani today]. / Leyendo a Spallanzani hoy en día.

We remember Lazaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) mainly for his controversy with Needham over spontaneous generation, but he was a man of multiple scientific activities in the fields of biology, mineralogy, physics, mathematics and… volcanology! Called "the biologist of biologists", he developed a series of investigations about reproduction of amphibian, in one of them -Experiences in service to the history of the generation of animals and plants- we have found horrific experiments with frogs, including severe and useless mutilation of males, in order to interrupt its copulation with females, acts he describes as "barbaric", and we estimate inadmissible in the ecclesiastic man he was, even in an epoch in which animals were considered "anima vili" (something without value). A brief review of the use of animals in laboratories shows significant advances in the ethical regulations for this practice, but we believe that these achievements are not enough.

[The fantastic story of the incredible prion]. / La fantástica historia de la increíble prion.

From the scrapie of the sheep to the bovine spongiform encephalitis, and from the kuru to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, tenacious investigators searched for the mysterious agent of these neurological disorders, till Stanley Prusiner discovered and described the prion in the eighties, wining the Nobel Prize in 1997. But this was not the end of the fantastic history of the incredible protein designed prion by Prusiner, because now the investigation on neuroscience has founded prion-like proteins playing an important role in the genesis of the long-term memory.

El médico como personaje literario en la Edad Moderna / The doctor as a literary character in the Modern Age

Resumen El médico ha sido desde la Antigüedad víctima de la ambivalencia afectiva de la población, que lo ama y lo odia de acuerdo a sus éxitos y fracasos. Mientras algunos despotrican contra el gremio, se enorgullecen de ser pacientes del Dr. Tal o Cual, a quien se refieren por su nombre de pila, como queriendo sentar dominio sobre su persona. Los hay quienes lo envidian y desprecian en público sus éxitos, que niegan, y su bienestar económico, que desearían tener. Pero, en general, restando y sumando, la opinión pública hoy en día reconoce el avance de la profesión y valora la imagen del médico, en tanto que antaño, cuando el arte fallaba a menudo y la oferta de curación era escasa, esta imagen solía ser poco favorable. La literatura, que registra los usos y costumbres de cada época, presta valiosa ayuda para conocer los cambios que ha sufrido la apreciación de la labor médica y de sus ejecutantes. Una somera revisión de algunos textos clásicos en que aparece el médico como personaje, pueden ayudarnos a visualizar esta evolución, haciendo la salvedad que sólo podemos presentar un puñadito de ejemplos, para colmo elegidos según nuestro personal juicio y gusto.

Abstract The doctor has been from de Antiquity a victim of the people's affective ambivalence, who loves and hates him accord his success or failures. Some rant against the medical guild, but are proud to be patients of one or another doctor, more o less celebrated, referring familiarly to him as Tony or Jim. A certain envy hurts the doctor's image, countered by gratitude, but finally, as times goes by, the continuous progress of medicine has been improving the public perception about the medical work. A quick review of the Modern Age literature, personal, whimsical and may be imperfect, from Michel de Montaigne, in the sixteenth century until. A. J. Cronin in the twentieth, shows the evolution of the doctor as a literary character, first as a tricky ignorant, after like a clown, later fighting epidemics and ending as a self-sacrificing medical researcher.

La fantástica historia de la increíble prion / The fantastic story of the incredible prion

Resumen Desde el scrapie de la oveja a la encefalopatía espongiforme bovina y desde el kuru a la enfermedad de Creutzfeldt-Jakob, tenaces investigadores buscaron los misteriosos agentes de estos desórdenes neurológicos, hasta que Stanley Prusiner descubriera y describiera las priones en los ochenta, obteniendo el Premio Nobel en 1997. Pero, este no fue el final de esta fantástica historia de la increible proteina designada prion por Prusiner, porque ahora, la investigación en neurociencia ha encontrado proteínas prion-like jugando un importante papel en la génesis de la memoria a largo plazo.

Abstract From the scrapie of the sheep to the bovine spongiform encephalitis, and from the kuru to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, tenacious investigators searched for the mysterious agent of these neurological disorders, till Stanley Prusiner discovered and described the prion in the eighties, wining the Nobel Prize in 1997. But this was not the end of the fantastic history of the incredible protein designed prion by Prusiner, because now the investigation on neuroscience has founded prion-like proteins playing an important role in the genesis of the long-term memory.

Leyendo a Spallanzani hoy en día / Reading Spallanzani today

Resumen Recordamos al abate Lázaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) fundamentalmente por su victoriosa contienda con Needham sobre la generación espontánea, pero fue un hombre de múltiples intereses en distintos campos de la ciencia, desde la biología a la volcanología. Se lo llamó el "biólogo de los biólogos", desarrollando una serie de investigaciones sobre la reproducción de los anfibios, en una de las cuales - "Experiencias al servicio de la historia de la generación de animales y plantas" - el lector moderno se estremece de horror ante las crueles mutilaciones que infligiera a los sapos machos tratando de interrumpir su copulación con las hembras. Él mismo las califica de "bárbaras" estas torturas, inadmisibles en un hombre que detentaba una jerarquía eclesiástica, aún en una época como la suya, en que se calificaba a los animales como "anima vili" (cosa sin valor). Mucho se ha avanzado hoy en día en resguardo de nuestros "hermanos menores", como los llamara San Francisco, pero aún falta mucho que hacer en la regulación de la experimentación científica que los utiliza.

Abstract We remember Lazaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) mainly for his controversy with Needham over spontaneous generation, but he was a man of multiple scientific activities in the fields of biology, mineralogy, physics, mathematics and… volcanology! Called "the biologist of biologists", he developed a series of investigations about reproduction of amphibian, in one of them -Experiences in service to the history of the generation of animals and plants- we have found horrific experiments with frogs, including severe and useless mutilation of males, in order to interrupt its copulation with females, acts he describes as "barbaric", and we estimate inadmissible in the ecclesiastic man he was, even in an epoch in which animals were considered "anima vili" (something without value). A brief review of the use of animals in laboratories shows significant advances in the ethical regulations for this practice, but we believe that these achievements are not enough.

La alferecía y los primeros casos de tétanos neonatal descritos en Chile en 1894 / Alferecía and the first cases of tetanus neonaturum described in Chile in 1894

Federico Puga Borne presented the first two cases of known Chilean tetanus neonatorum in 1891. These cases had a fatal course, were poorly described and had no necropsy. The presentation was done in a regular session of the Sociéte Scientifique du Chili, founded in 1891 by a French citizen settled in the country, and published in the Actes de la Sociéte Scientifique du Chili. At this time, tetanus had never been seen in a newborn in Chile, while it was very common in other South American countries; its popular name was alferecía, but this term covered many other neurological disorders.

Se reproducen in extenso los dos casos de tétanos neonatal presentados como los primeros descritos en Chile por Federico Puga Borne en una reunión de la Societé Scientifique du Chili, sociedad fundada en 1891 por ciudadanos franceses, cuyo órgano de expresión Actes de la Société Scientifique du Chili apareció hasta 1938. Aimbos casos fueron fatales, no tuvieron autopsia y están pobremente descritos. En la reunión se comenta la rareza de esta patología en Chile, a diferencia de su alta incidencia en los países vecinos, y se menciona que el pueblo la conocía con el nombre de alferecía, que parecía reunir diversas afecciones neurológicas.

[Aldo Castellani and the expeditions of the Royal Society to the black sleep's country]. / Aldo Castellani y las expediciones de la Royal Society al país del sueño negro.

At the beginning the investigation on infectious diseases was plenty of adventures in exotic countries. The efforts of the English investigators, headed by Patrick Manson, gave birth to the "tropical" medicine and "tropical" diseases, like the sleeping sickness, which was sweeping the country north to the Victoria Lake in 1901. The Royal Society of London sent two Commissions in search of the etiological agent. Aldo Castellani was decisive for the failure of the first - Low, Castellani, Christy,1902 - because even he saw Trypanosoma in samples of some patients, he did not appreciate his discovery; and decisive also for the success of the second -Bruce, Nabarro, Greig, 1903 - when he and Bruce recognized this Trypanosoma as the etiological agent. Following these expeditions, Low developed a brilliant career in England, Christy a life of investigation mixed up with adventures through Asia and Africa and Castellani a long life of lights and shadows in many lands.

Aldo Castellani y las expediciones de la Royal Society al país del sueño negro / Aldo Castellani and the expeditions of the Royal Society to the black sleep's country

At the beginning the investigation on infectious diseases was plenty of adventures in exotic countries. The efforts of the English investigators, headed by Patrick Manson, gave birth to the "tropical" medicine and "tropical" diseases, like the sleeping sickness, which was sweeping the country north to the Victoria Lake in 1901. The Royal Society of London sent two Commissions in search of the etiological agent. Aldo Castellani was decisive for the failure of the first - Low, Castellani, Christy,1902 - because even he saw Trypanosoma in samples of some patients, he did not appreciate his discovery; and decisive also for the success of the second -Bruce, Nabarro, Greig, 1903 - when he and Bruce recognized this Trypanosoma as the etiological agent. Following these expeditions, Low developed a brilliant career in England, Christy a life of investigation mixed up with adventures through Asia and Africa and Castellani a long life of lights and shadows in many lands.

En un comienzo la investigación sobre enfermedades infecciosas estuvo llena de aventuras en países exóticos. Impulsada por los investigadores ingleses, encabezados por Patrick Manson, nacieron la medicina y las enfermedades "tropicales", entre las cuales se encontraba la enfermedad del sueño, que a comienzos del siglo XX hacía estragos al norte del lago Victoria. La Real Sociedad de Londres envió dos Comisiones a Uganda para determinar el agente etiológico. Aldo Castellani fue decisivo para el fracaso de la primera, que incluía también a Low y Christy, en 1902, pues aunque vio tripanosomas en LCR de enfermos, no les otorgó valor y prefirió postular un diplococo como agente causal; y decisivo también para el éxito de la segunda, de Bruce, Nabarro y Greig, en 1903, al concordar con Bruce en que el tripanosoma era realmente el causante de la enfermedad. Después de estas expediciones, Low desarrolló una brillante carrera en Inglaterra, Christy una vida que combinaba investigación con aventura en Asia y África, y Castellani una larga vida de éxitos, oscurecida por sus ideas políticas, que lo ligaban a Mussolini.

[Some remarks on the evolution of medical language across the times]. / Algunas observaciones sobre la evolución del lenguaje médico a través de los tiempos.

The language employed by the physicians in their communications has been suffering a continuous evolution through the times, from the sober beauty that in their conciseness and accuracy had the Greek and the Latin, to the verbosity and flowery of the Middle Age and posterior centuries, for ended in the poverty and monotony characteristics of the today publications. A brief selection of different papers and book's extracts is presented in order to illustrate these changes, including words of Hippocrates, Celsus, Leonardo, Van Leeunwenhoek, Spallanzani, Jenner, Koch, Laveran, Manson, Grassi and other less conspicuous, ending with the assertion that the scarce time for read adduced by physicians must not serves like an excuse for ignorance and lack of culture.

Algunas observaciones sobre la evolución del lenguaje médico a través de los tiempos / Some remarks on the evolution of medical language across the times

El lenguaje que empleamos los médicos en artículos y libros ha sufrido una continua evolución a lo largo del tiempo, desde la sobria belleza que en su concisión y brevedad tenían el griego y el latín, pasando por la ampulosidad y fiorituras de la Edad Media y de los siglos posteriores, para terminar en la pobreza y monotonía que caracterizan nuestras actuales publicaciones. Una breve selección formal de textos de diferentes épocas, incluyendo palabras de Hipócrates, Celso, Leonardo, Van Leeunwenhoek, Spallanzani, Jenner, Koch, Laveran, Manson, Grassi, y otros menos conspicuos, concluye en que, si bien el tiempo que los médicos tenemos para leer es escaso, ello no debe servir como excusa para la ignorancia y la incultura.

The language employed by the physicians in their communications has been suffering a continuous evolution through the times, from the sober beauty that in their conciseness and accuracy had the Greek and the Latin, to the verbosity and flowery of the Middle Age and posterior centuries, for ended in the poverty and monotony characteristics of the today publications. A brief selection of different papers and book's extracts is presented in order to illustrate these changes, including words of Hippocrates, Celsus, Leonardo, Van Leeunwenhoek, Spallanzani, Jenner, Koch, Laveran, Manson, Grassi and other less conspicuous, ending with the assertion that the scarce time for read adduced by physicians must not serves like an excuse for ignorance and lack of culture.

[Alferecía and the first cases of tetanus neonaturum described in Chile in 1894]. / La alferecía y los primeros casos de tétanos neonatal descritos en Chile en 1894.

Federico Puga Borne presented the first two cases of known Chilean tetanus neonatorum in 1891. These cases had a fatal course, were poorly described and had no necropsy. The presentation was done in a regular session of the Sociéte Scientifique du Chili, founded in 1891 by a French citizen settled in the country, and published in the Actes de la Sociéte Scientifique du Chili. At this time, tetanus had never been seen in a newborn in Chile, while it was very common in other South American countries; its popular name was alferecía, but this term covered many other neurological disorders.

[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and infectious diseases]. / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes y las enfermedades infecciosas.

Besides a pleasant author of best sellers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a medical doctor, writing excellent short stories about the exercise of his profession in England. However, even he mentions The British Medical Journal and The Lancet in the Sherlock Holmes's stories, when in the plot introduces infectious diseases, Conan Doyle ignores important discoveries in the field of tetanus. Anyway, the appearing of infectious diseases in the adventures of the detective are rare: one mention of tetanus, another of leprosy and- the most analyzed in medical literature a case of murder by inoculation of bacteria, probably the agent of melioidosis. Also he makes his hero discovers the toxic actions of a medusa and a transplant of solid organ. Little for a physician and less for an author who also wrote science fiction: it seems that the history of the great medical discoveries at the end of nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth has passed by his side.., and he just couldn't see it.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes y las enfermedades infecciosas / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and infectious diseases

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, además de ameno escritor de best sellers, era médico y escribió excelentes cuentos sobre el ejercicio de su profesión en Inglaterra. Sin embargo, a pesar de mencionar The British Medical Journal y The Lancet en sus historias de Sherlock Holmes, al introducir enfermedades infecciosas en sus tramas, ignora descubrimientos importantes ya realizados en su época en el campo del tétanos. En todo caso, las apariciones de las enfermedades infecciosas en las historias del detective son escasas: una mención del tétanos, otra de la lepra y -la más analizada en la literatura médica- un caso de asesinato realizado mediante la inoculación de una bacteria, probablemente del agente de la melioidosis. También hizo a su héroe descubrir las acciones tóxicas de una medusa y de un trasplante de órganos. Poco para un médico y poco para un autor que también escribía ciencia ficción: pareciera que la historia de los grandes descubrimientos médicos de fines del siglo XX y comienzos del XXI pasó por su lado... y no la vio.

Besides a pleasant author of best sellers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a medical doctor, writing excellent short stories about the exercise of his profession in England. However, even he mentions The British Medical Journal and The Lancet in the Sherlock Holmes’s stories, when in the plot introduces infectious diseases, Conan Doyle ignores important discoveries in the field of tetanus. Anyway, the appearing of infectious diseases in the adventures of the detective are rare: one mention of tetanus, another of leprosy and- the most analyzed in medical literature -a case of murder by inoculation of bacteria, probably the agent of melioidosis. Also he makes his hero discovers the toxic actions of a medusa and a transplant of solid organ. Little for a physician and less for an author who also wrote science fiction: it seems that the history of the great medical discoveries at the end of nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth has passed by his side… and he just couldn’t see it.

[Were there infection disease specialists in Ancient Rome?]. / ¿Hubo infectólogos en la Antigua Roma?

The existence of infectious diseases specialists in Ancient Rome is unlikely, but there were at least three authors able of keen observations on infectious matters, with enough merit to be considered our predecessors: Varro, Columella and Vitruvius, none of them physicians. Varro, in his first Book on Agriculture recommended, "Build the houses distant from swamps, because certain minute creatures are bred which cannot be followed with the eyes but which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose, giving rise to severe diseases". Also in a text of agriculture and in the same sense, Columella says "that with heat a swamp releases a pestilential vapor and produces a very dense swarm of insects, which come flying over us armed with harmful stings Vitruvius, the great architect was worried about drinkable water: its sources and properties, how to obtain it and the methods for testing its quality. The concern on its distribution and disposal of sewage started on 614 B.C., little after the foundation of Rome, with the building of the first aqueduct, the Aqua Marcia. This aqueduct in Trajan's times (century II A.D.), reached a total of 443 km, with 49,500 meters of arcades, which were up to 32 meters high, plus 2.4 km of an underground net. This system released 947,200 m(3) of water per day, two thirds of which were for public use and one third for private customers.