Pentagon Inside the Circle of Willis and the Golden Ratio.

The Golden ratio ("phi" or "Ф") has been known to us for ages and its use in art and architectural designs has enhanced its exquisiteness. Even some of the astounding creations of nature do follow this principle of Golden or divine proportions. Three centuries ago the circle of Willis at the base of the brain was first described and illustrated by Thomas Willis. Classically it was described as being circular in shape, however, the gross anatomy reveals a slightly different picture. The components of this complex neurovascular structure are so arranged that it appears more like a pentagon than a circle. A regular pentagon, unlike a circle, is a Golden shape that mathematically obeys the laws of Golden proportions. Like most other marvelous structures in nature, the close resemblance of the circle of Willis to a pentagon is more of a conscious effort of nature to establish consonance with aesthetic perception, rather than just a mere coincidence.

Was William Harvey's commitment to experimentation reflected in his clinical practice?

The physician and physiologist Dr William Harvey is known for having discovered that the heart pumps arterial blood round the whole body and receives venous blood from the periphery, which it forwards to the lungs for reoxygenation. Harvey's discovery was based on anatomical and physiological evidence and experiments using ligatures of varying tensions. As a clinician, however, Harvey does not appear to have appreciated the value of experiments in assessing treatment effects. Although he criticised Galenic views about the clinical value of experience and authority in the absence of accompanying empirical evidence, two handwritten prescriptions that he wrote for his friend and future biographer John Aubrey provide evidence that he conformed with Galenic theory when it came to drug therapy in clinical practice. This was consistent with his senior position in the College of Physicians, whose Pharmacopoeia Londinensis was based on Galenic principles, an appreciation of which was required for entry into the College. Harvey's prescriptions reflect this and open a window onto 17th-century therapeutic practice and the personal elements on which such practice was sometimes based.

Philippe Pinel and the foundations of modern psychiatric nosology.

Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) played a major role in the foundation of modern psychiatric nosology. Much of his contribution, historically contextualized within the enlightenment generally and post-Revolutionary France more specifically, can be summarized through five themes in his background, education and writings. First, he applied an inductive, enlightenment-informed natural science approach to classification adapted from the biological sciences, which he had studied, and applied this to large samples of mentally ill individuals in Parisian asylums, frequently referring to 'varieties' and 'species' of insanity. Second, Pinel's classificatory approach rejected metaphysical and highly speculative etiologic theories in favor of a Baconian inductive approach utilizing observational data. Third, Pinel advocated repeated assessments of patients over time, feasible given long in-patient stays. Fourth, trained in philosophy, Pinel relied on philosophically informed models of the mind and of insanity. Fifth, Pinel extensively utilized faculty psychology to understand and classify mental illness. He anticipated further developments of nineteenth-century psychiatric nosology by challenging the then-dominant intellectualist models of insanity, adopting a humanistic-informed emphasis on the importance of symptoms alongside signs, arguing that passions could be the primary cause of mental illness, and trying to infer causal inter-relationships in psychiatric patients between disturbances in affect and understanding.

Bad Chemistry: Basilisks and Women in Paracelsus and pseudo-Paracelsus.

The basilisk of the pseudo-Paracelsian De natura rerum is the evil twin of the homunculus. Created from menstrual blood by artificial ectogenesis in an alchemical laboratory, the basilisk embodies the poisonous character traditionally ascribed to catamenial women, but magnified and concentrated by its mode of generation to the degree that it can kill by its glance alone. How does this remarkable thought experiment relate to other instances of the basilisk in the genuine and pseudonymous corpus of Paracelsus? The present paper outlines two primary uses which emerge repeatedly: first, in works other than De natura rerum, the basilisk is used by Paracelsus and his imitators as a means of explaining action at a distance, especially in the case of plague. Relying on a medieval association between the basilisk's deadly gaze and the putative ability of menstruating women to damage mirrors, the genuine Paracelsus links contagious disease to the deleterious action of the female imagination. Second, because the basilisk was traditionally held to be the product of an unnatural birth, being born from an egg laid by a rooster and incubated by a toad, the Paracelsian corpus frequently invokes the monster as a model for unnatural generation in general.

Cross and Crucible: Alchemy in the Theology of Paracelsus.

Paracelsus was not only a reformer of medicine with a preference for medical alchemy, but also emerged as a radical church reformer. However, he only rarely used the imagery of alchemy as a parable for theological salvation. Fire as the driving force for every alchemical process was also suitable as an image for the purification of souls. A central idea of alchemy, to transfer a substance from its still impure original state into the purified final state, was very much in line with Paracelsus's doctrine of the Last Supper, according to which the mortal human who had descended from Adam is to be brought to a new birth through baptism with the Holy Spirit. As an alchemist, Paracelsus was keenly interested in the transfiguration of Christ, which he first explained alchemically, but later magically, probably according to the model of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

Wild melancholy. On the historical plausibility of a black bile theory of blood madness, or hæmatomania.

Nineteenth-century art historian John Addington Symonds coined the term hæmatomania (blood madness) for the extremely bloodthirsty behaviour of a number of disturbed rulers like Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya (850-902) and Ezzelino da Romano (1194-1259). According to Symonds, this mental pathology was linked to melancholy and caused by an excess of black bile. I explore the historical credibility of this theory of 'wild melancholy', a type of melancholia that crucially deviates from the lethargic main type. I conclude that in its pure form Symonds' black bile theory of hæmatomania was never a broadly supported perspective, but can be traced back to the nosology of the ninth-century physician Ishaq ibn Imran, who practised at the Aghlabid court, to which the sadistic Ibrahim II belonged.

Scatological Asklepios: The Use of Excrement in Graeco-Roman Healthcare.

In the classical world, "official" rationalistic medicine made therapeutic use of excrement, urine and other substances that modern humans normally regard as repulsive (this was even true of Galen, the culminating authority); and popular medicine seems to have done so on a large scale. Such practices, which finally lost their professional though not their popular acceptability in the 18th century, have been studied to good purpose by other historians, but they have never been explained in a satisfactory fashion, partly because the relevant evidence is highly diverse. The present paper, by considering the long term (pre-Greek as well as Greek and Roman) and all the relevant contexts, including ancient feelings of disgust and the general state of ancient pharmacology, and by probing people's subconscious motives, attempts to establish a multi-factor explanation. This explanation balances traditions, beliefs about the inherent qualities, physical and magical, of natural substances, and the psychological needs of both healers and the sick.

Los inicios de la medicina griega y su influencia sobre el pensamiento filosófico de occidente / The beginnings of Greek medicine and its influence on western philosophical thought

El final del siglo V y del siglo IV a. C. representaron en la historia de la medicina un momento culminante de cotización social e intelectual. La escuela hipocrática de Cos fue la primera fundación de la ciencia médica como una ciencia especial de existencia propia. A partir de la concepción de la dieta como prescripción terapéutica, la medicina se convierte en una verdadera techné, pues el principio sobre el que descansa la alimentación del hombre sano y del enfermo es el mismo, el de lo adecuado. La influencia de la medicina sobre la filosofía de Platón y Aristóteles ilustra la importancia científica del nuevo método y el nuevo modo de pensar. El médico es, según Platón, el hombre que a base de lo que sabe acerca de la naturaleza del hombre sano conoce también al enfermo, y sabe encontrar los medios para restituirlo a su estado normal. A este ejemplo se atiene Platón para trazar su imagen del filósofo, llamado a hacer otro tanto con el alma del hombre y su salud. El propósito de este trabajo es analizar los inicios de la medicina griega y en qué medida contribuyó ésta al desarrollo del pensamiento filosófico de occidente

The end of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. represented in the history of medicine a culminating moment of social and intellectual contribution. The Hippocratic School of Cos was the first foundation of medical science as a special science of its own existence. Starting from the conception of diet as a therapeutic prescription, medicine becomes a true techné, since the principle on which the diet of healthy and sick man rests is the same, that of what is appropriate. The influence of medicine on the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle illustrates the scientific importance of the new method and the new way of thinking. The doctor is, according to Plato, the man who, based on what he knows about the nature of the healthy man, also knows the patient, and knows how to find the means to restore him to his normal state. This example is followed by Plato to trace his image of the philosopher, called to do the same with the soul of man and his health. The purpose of this work is to analyze the beginnings of Greek medicine, and to what extent the latter contributed to the flourishing of Western philosophical thought

[SALERNO HEALTH CODE AS A SOURCE OF MEDICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE].

The purpose of the article is to comprehensively disclose the meaning and relevance of the Salerno Health Code as a medieval source of medical and philosophical memo. In the process of writing a scientific article, the authors have used theoretical, empirical, and historical methods of scientific knowledge, in particular, methods of analysis, synthesis, deduction, comparison, the historical method, and the description method. In addition, the analysis of medical legislation, publications in the media and scientific periodicals, allowed us to study the essence and features of the Salerno Health Code. The article gives reason to a correspondence between the treatment methods proposed by the Salerno Health Code and the methods of modern medicine and the reflection of the basic standards of sanitary and epidemic well-being. The individual components of the Salerno Health Code were analyzed, which contributed to the development of bioethical views on sanitation, gerontology, dietetic, pharmaceuticals, disease prevention, medicine philosophy and more. The attention is focused on the author's approach to the formation of a positive worldview by a person and its relationship with the state of his physical health. The author symbolism of the poetic presentation of medical and philosophical ideas is analyzed. The treatise considers the author's approach to the formation of a positive worldview by a person and his relationship with his state of health. The article notes insufficient attention to the work of Arnold de Villanova in the scientific works of modern Ukrainian scientists in medicine and the humanities, which determines the relevance of further scientific research aimed at revealing the importance and potential of this source of medical and philosophical knowledge. Noted the relevance of certain parts of the Salerno Health Code for solving the problems of modern medical science.

[Natural Science as a Kind of Natural Poetry: A Statement by Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762-1832) Against Natural Philosophical Medicine]. / Naturwissenschaft als Naturpoesie: Eine Stellungnahme Christoph Wilhelm Hufelands (1762­1832) gegen die naturphilosophische Medizin.

At the turn to the 19th century, medicine in Germany became strongly influenced by the teachings of John Brown, who was a scottish physician. He had advocated a theory which regards and treats disorders as caused by defective or excessive excitation. His teachings were welcomed by natural philosophers like Schelling or Hegel. They modified it and integrated it into their systems of thinking. On the other hand Hufeland, who was one of the foremost physicians at that time, heavily opposed Brunonian System. This becomes evident in a fragmentary text that had been found only recently. In it he criticizes that these teachings were based on pure speculation and not on sound science as executed by Albrecht von Haller. It was meant ironically when he concluded that it thus resembled natural poetry. As viewed from today, evidence based medicine eventually established our modern ways for successfully diagnosing and treating disease. However, Hufelands disapproval appears to be still relevant. There are many people that even now advocate alternative ways and who consult quacks, healers etc.

Osler Centenary Papers: Would Sir William Osler be a role model for medical trainees and physicians today?

If Sir William Osler were alive and practising as one of our contemporary colleagues, would he be viewed as a role model by medical trainees and other physicians? Recently published literature has sought to define clinical excellence; this characterisation of physician performance establishes a context in which role models in medicine can be appraised. Building on this framework, we present rich anecdotes and quotes from Sir William Osler himself, his colleagues, and his students to consider whether Osler would have been regarded as a role model for clinical excellence today. This paper illustrates convincingly that William Osler indeed personified clinical excellence and would have been appreciated as a consummate role model if he were alive and on a medical school's faculty today. However, a century has passed since his death, and he is not sufficiently visible today to serve as a role model to modern medical trainees and physicians. Moreover, we speculate that Osler himself would not have wanted to be a role model for today's trainees, as he emphasised that medicine is best learned from teachers at the bedside-a place where he cannot be. Reanimating Osler through rich stories and inspiring quotes, and translating his example of clinical excellence into modern clinical practice, can remind us all to carry Oslerian virtues with us in our professional work.

Waddington, Holmyard and Alchemy: Perspectives on the Epigenetic Landscape.

In 1923, Conrad Hal Waddington was in his final year at Clifton College, Bristol, UK, being taught chemistry by Dr. Eric John Holmyard. During this year, Waddington and Holmyard both wrote about alchemy, the former in an extended school essay and the latter in the journal Nature. Almost twenty years later, Holmyard and Waddington were instrumental in the formation of the journal Endeavour in 1942. Using recently discovered primary source materials and unpublished manuscripts, the influence of Holmyard and alchemy on the early development of Waddington's thinking is explored, including his subsequent attraction to Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy and the impact on his epigenetic research.

Ferments and the AIDS virus: interspecies counter-conduct in the history of AIDS.

In the first three decades after AIDS started infecting people in the USA and Canada, before, during and after the emergence of anti-retroviral therapies, numerous "alternative and holistic treatments" for AIDS were debated, tested, circulated, written about and taught. This paper, taking a narrow focus, examines documents that reveal how some people with AIDS developed a logic of care predicated on intimate interactions with microscopic lifeforms-the AIDS virus and the bacteria involved in fermentation, in particular. Focusing on the writings of Jon Greenberg and Sandor Katz, two former members of ACT UP/NY, I show that the men did not just dissent from management by biomedical authority but found new authority about how to care for themselves as people with AIDS from their interactions with non-human microscopic life. The practices and writings of both men demonstrate that Foucault's theory of counter-conduct exists in the history of AIDS as an interspecies process in which microscopic existents lead humans. From Katz and Greenberg, I argue there is an interspecies dimension to counter-conduct that exists as a frame for understanding people who find in non-human life a guide towards unconventional forms of care, revised forms of human behaviour and philosophies for persisting with illness.

The Meteorology and Medicine of the Romantic Era in Context : Henrik Steffens' Ideas on Medical Meteorology (1811) and Its Reception by the Prussian State.

This article introduces to a wider public a hitherto unknown report written by the "Romantic" natural philosopher and mineralogist Henrik Steffens (1773-1845). In the 1811 report Ideas on Medical Meteorology, commissioned by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior via the physician Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813), Steffens argued for a new, "organic" perspective on meteorology focusing on interrelations between the atmosphere and diseases among humans and animals. This new outlook, he argued, was to be realized via a series of observations directed by the state administration. Excerpts from the report are translated and commented upon in order to illuminate their context. These show the report to be part of a significantly older European tradition of inquiry into the connection between changes in the atmosphere and health. A speculative variation of this tradition, for which the general term "Organic Meteorology" is introduced here, was ignited in German-speaking regions through Schelling's natural philosophy. The report and its context show that the Prussian state was willing to engage with "Romantic" natural philosophy, that Steffens gladly provided expertise for this purpose, and that this was part of a more general effort to professionalize medicine.

Ventricular localization in late antiquity: The philosophical and theological roots of an enduring model of brain function.

Ventricular localization, or cell theory, is first attested in Christian texts of the fourth and fifth centuries CE. It remained dominant in learned medicine until the seventeenth century. Contrary to common representation, the earliest theorists of ventricular localization were not trying to displace the faculties of the rational soul from the substance of the brain to the empty spaces and spirit within. Rather, they considered the substance and structure of the brain vital to the operations of the soul. Late antique accounts of ventricular localization envision the ventricles as "instruments" of the soul. These instruments are best imagined through the ancient figure of the lyre, as hollow structures that resonate with the passage of air and the movement of strings, or nerves.

[Machines and artisanal health workers]. / Máquinas y arte-sanos.

This work discusses the dominant models and tensions within the health field regarding the conceptualization of the human body (as a machine), the process of health work (industrial and artisanal models), institutions (hospitals and health centers) and primary agents (the medical corporation and the medical industrial complex). The context of analysis is the United States from the end of the 19th century to the present. Economic-political, ideological-cultural, and scientific-technical dimensions are discussed, which permeate the historicity of the field. The purpose is to illustrate how the health field has transformed over time, as well as the role instrumental reason and financial capital has played in this process, to the detriment of relational aspects.

Este trabajo discute los modelos dominantes y las tensiones, al interior del campo de la salud, entre la concepción del cuerpo humano (máquina); el proceso de trabajo médico (modelos industriales o artesanales); las institucionalidades (hospitales y centros de salud) y los principales agentes (corporación médica y complejo médico industrial). El análisis se contextualiza en EEUU desde fines del siglo XIX a la actualidad. Se discuten dimensiones económico-políticas, ideológico-culturales y científico-técnicas, que atraviesan la historicidad del campo. El propósito es elucidar cómo se viene transformando el campo de la salud, y qué peso tiene la razón instrumental y el capital financiero en ese proceso, en detrimento de lo relacional.

Um olhar sociológico sobre o privilégio epistémico da biomedicina: desconstruindo a metanarrativa / A sociological view on the epistemic privilege of biomedicine: deconstructing the metanarrative

Resumo Apesar do crescente reconhecimento público da sua incompletude e da necessidade de a fazer dialogar com outros saberes, a biomedicina continua a figurar como metanarrativa, como modelo médico epistemologicamente superior, definidor e regulador do que se entende por "saber médico". É na persistência dessa representação de superioridade que reside um dos grandes obstáculos - senão mesmo o maior - à criação de uma efetiva ecologia de saberes no campo dos cuidados de saúde. Com base numa revisão da literatura sobre o tema, este artigo toma justamente por objetivo a desconstrução da versão essencialista da superioridade biomédica, evidenciando o modo como essa suposta superioridade é, na verdade, decorrente de um complexo quadro sociocultural de produção histórica. Assim, revisitando a literatura existente, o artigo desenvolve perspectiva condensada em torno dos principais pilares da construção do poder hegemónico da biomedicina no contexto da modernidade ocidental, a saber: (1) a ligação umbilical da biomedicina à ciência moderna e à sua trajetória de colonização; (2) o processo de anatomoclínica e o modo como, por esse processo, a biomedicina se estabeleceu como poder normativo/regulador, passando a auferir legitimidade e proteção por parte dos Estados; (3) a suposta maior eficácia da biomedicina no quadro de sua maior compatibilidade com os novos imperativos capitalistas; e (4) a constituição de forte movimento profissional biomédico e suas estratégias de fechamento na construção de sua hegemonia.

Abstract Despite the growing public recognition of its incompleteness and its need to make it dialog with other knowledges, biomedicine continues to figure as a metanarrative, as an epistemologically superior medical model, defining and regulating what is meant by "medical knowledge". One of the great obstacles - if not the greatest - to the creation of an effective ecology of knowledges in the field of health care lies in the persistence of this representation of superiority. Based on a review of the literature about the subject, this article aims precisely at deconstructing the essentialist version of biomedicine's superiority, showing how this supposed superiority results, in fact, from a complex sociocultural framework of historical production. In this sense, revisiting the existing literature, the article develops a condensed perspective around the main pillars of the construction of the hegemonic power of biomedicine in the context of Western modernity: (1) the umbilical connection of biomedicine to modern science and its colonization trajectory; (2) the anatomical-clinical process and how biomedicine established itself, through this process, as a normative/regulatory power, gaining legitimacy and protection by the States; (3) the alleged greater effectiveness of biomedicine in the context of its greater compatibility with the new capitalist imperatives; and (4) the constitution of a strong biomedical professional movement and its closing strategies in the construction of its hegemony.