[The physician in the Roman Army in the early period and at the height of the empire]. / Der Arzt in der römischen Armee der frühen und hohen Kaiserzeit.

This article deals with the organization of health care in the Roman army, especially in the garrisons stationed in the more remote provinces of the Roman empire. A system of military healthcare was first created during the reign of Augustus. It consisted of various ranks of military physicians (milites medici) and assistants (capsarii and marsi) as well as military hospitals (valetudinaria). These played a major part in the spread of rational medicine over the less civilized parts of the Roman empire.

[Surgical treatment of breast carcinoma since Hippocrates of Cos]. / Zur operativen Behandlung des Mammakarzinoms seit Hippokrates von Kos.

The pessimistic prognosis for cancerous diseases made by the founder of occidental medical science, Hippocrates of Cos (ca. 460 BC--ca. 370 BC), resulted also in the fact that the surgical treatment of breast cancer was performed rather as a last resort. Not until the rise of scientific surgery in the 16th century did European surgeons begin to develop different procedures in the surgical treatment of breast cancer. In 1774, in a treatise rewarded by the Academy, the French surgeon Bernard Peyrilhe, who may be considered one of the founders of experimental cancer research, demanded radical operative surgery in cases of breast cancer. Peyrilhe first formulated the principles of that surgical concept which is connected with the name of the American surgeon William Stewart Halsted (1852-1922), a concept which has long remained influential.

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria first described in 1882 by Paul Strübing: an example of cooperation between clinical and basic research.

The 100th anniversary of the first description of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria by Paul Strübing presents an opportunity to analyze the premises valid for the description of this disease in addition to an attempt at an extensive pathophysiological analysis. Strübing's two papers of 1882 were way ahead of his time, when pathophysiology was just at its beginning, particularly considering the fact that neither Marchiafava, who is still commonly credited wit the first description of this disease (1911) and its recognition as a clinical entity (1928), nor his student Micheli analyzed the PNH syndrome in pathophysiological terms as carefully as Strübing. Both of the former names were given to the disease, which is generally referred to as the Marchiafava-Micheli Anemia. William Crosby, who in 1951 in a historical review of PHN first pointed out the pioneering achievement of Strübing, suggested that it was mainly due to the lack of the right "intellectual climate" at the time that so little attention was paid to his work. Still another important aspect of the early history of PNH will be described in the present paper. The analysis of Strübing's publications leads to the conclusion that he was only able to make his important contribution to medical science because he not only had the appropriate clinical setting but also the scientific backup of the famous physiologist Leonhard Landois and his institute at the University of Greifswald, which is an excellent example of scientific progress through cooperation between a clinician and a research scientist.