Determinantes espaciales de la malaria en España del siglo XVIII al XX / Spatial determinants of malaria in Spain from 18th to 20th century

Actualmente, el paludismo o malaria no circula de forma activa en muchos países de renta alta, y la mayoría de los casos que se producen en el mundo se localizan en el continente africano. España fue un territorio habitual para el paludismo hasta 1964, fecha en que se confirmó su erradicación en nuestro país. El objetivo de este estudio es investigar, desde una perspectiva geográfica e integradora, el paludismo en España a lo largo de los siglos XVIII, XIX y XX. La interrelación o superposición de diversos factores resultaría determinante en la persistencia de situaciones endémicas a lo ancho de las grandes cuencas hidrográficas al oeste e interior peninsular, así como en la fachada levantina, principalmente. No obstante, sería la actividad humana la que moduló, en última instancia, fluctuaciones locales en esta distribución, creando o modificando las condiciones idóneas para la aparición del paludismo. La malaria epidémica también se caracterizaría por emerger de una interrelación de partes en un sistema complejo, y en ella destacó el papel de fenómenos atmosféricos extremos.(AU)

Nowadays paludism, also known as malaria, is not an active disease in most of high-rent countries, while the majority of newly reported cases are located in the African continent. Malaria was present in Spain until 1964, when its eradication was confirmed in our country. The aim of this study is to investigate paludism in Spain through XVIIIth, XIXth and XXth centuries, from a holistic, geographical perspective. In most of our selected time lapse, persistent endemic situations spread along the main western hydrographic basins of the Peninsula, and also affected the Mediterranean coastal provinces: such distribution was determined by several interrelating factors. However, it was human activity that utterly shaped the local configuration of paludism, creating or transforming environmental conditions related to the development of endemic or epidemic situations. Epidemic malaria was also a product of interactions taking place in a complex system, and extreme atmospheric phenomena may have played an important role in it.(AU)

Genetic continuity and change among the Indigenous peoples of California.

Before the colonial period, California harboured more language variation than all of Europe, and linguistic and archaeological analyses have led to many hypotheses to explain this diversity1. We report genome-wide data from 79 ancient individuals from California and 40 ancient individuals from Northern Mexico dating to 7,400-200 years before present (BP). Our analyses document long-term genetic continuity between people living on the Northern Channel Islands of California and the adjacent Santa Barbara mainland coast from 7,400 years BP to modern Chumash groups represented by individuals who lived around 200 years BP. The distinctive genetic lineages that characterize present-day and ancient people from Northwest Mexico increased in frequency in Southern and Central California by 5,200 years BP, providing evidence for northward migrations that are candidates for spreading Uto-Aztecan languages before the dispersal of maize agriculture from Mexico2-4. Individuals from Baja California share more alleles with the earliest individual from Central California in the dataset than with later individuals from Central California, potentially reflecting an earlier linguistic substrate, whose impact on local ancestry was diluted by later migrations from inland regions1,5. After 1,600 years BP, ancient individuals from the Channel Islands lived in communities with effective sizes similar to those in pre-agricultural Caribbean and Patagonia, and smaller than those on the California mainland and in sampled regions of Mexico.

Diseases of Africans, an African disease: transformations of quijila between Central West Africa and Minas Gerais, in Brazil, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. / Doenças de africanos, doença africana: transformações da quijila, entre a África centro-ocidental e as Minas Gerais, Brasil, séculos XVII e XVIII.

This article discusses the origin of quijila/kijila in Central West African culture, more particularly in the cultural universe of the Imbangala (Jaga) and the Ambundu and Kimbundu populations who lived in the Portuguese regions of Angola and the Congo in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Following this, it investigates how the concept of quijila was structured, comprehended, and transformed, both in Africa, where it was basically a food prohibition, but whose applications and meanings varied; and in Brazil, to where it was transported in the 1700s, and where it transformed into a disease which attacked blacks, especially Africans of various origins, being framed as such in the Hippocratic-Galen universe characteristic of that time.

Este artigo discute a origem da quijila/kijila na cultura centro-ocidental africana, mais particularmente no universo cultural dos imbangalas (jagas) e das populações ambundos e kimbundos, que viviam nas regiões portuguesas de Angola e do Congo, nos séculos XVII e XVIII. Em seguida, investiga como foi estruturado, compreendido e transformado o conceito de quijila tanto na África, basicamente um interdito alimentar, mas cujos significados e aplicações variam, quanto no Brasil, para onde foi transportado nos Setecentos, transformando-se numa doença que atacava os negros, especialmente os africanos de diversas origens, sendo enquadrada pelos médicos locais no universo da medicina hipocrática-galena vigente na época.

Native American geography shaped historical fire frequency in forests of eighteenth-century Pennsylvania, USA.

Researchers have debated the relative importance of environmental versus Indigenous effects on past fire regimes in eastern North America. Tree-ring fire-scar records (FSRs) provide local-resolution physical evidence of past fire, but few studies have spatially correlated fire frequency from FSRs with environmental and anthropogenic variables. No study has compared FSR locations to Native American settlement features in the eastern United States. We assess whether FSRs in the eastern US are located near regions of past Native American settlement. We also assess relationships between distance to Native American settlement, environmental conditions, and fire frequency in central Pennsylvania (PA), US, using an "ensemble of small models" approach for low sample sizes. Regression models of fire frequency at 21 locations in central PA often selected distance-based proxies of Indigenous land use. Models with mean annual temperature and Native American variables as predictors explained > 70% of the variation in fire frequency. Alongside temperature and wind speed, "distance to nearest trail" and "mean distance to nearest town" were significant and important predictors. In 18th-century central PA, fires were more frequent near Indigenous trails and towns, and further south due to increasing temperature and pyrophilic vegetation. However, for the entire eastern US, FSRs are located far from past settlement, limiting their effectiveness in detecting fire patterns near population centers. Improving understanding of historical fire will require developing FSRs closer to past Native American settlement.

Friedrich Jakub Fuker and his universal preventive tincture.

Fridrich Jakub Fuker (1749-1805), a physician from Kosice, is the author of works on medical topics, as well as works on social life. In addition to his medical practice, he also owned a pharmacy, and his short work on a universal preventive tincture is related to this. The author argues that there is no universal medicine, but it is possible to prepare a universal preventive preparation suitable for everyone, every age and sex. Fuker has announced that he will prepare such a tincture, available in his pharmacy, along with information on its use. However, he did not divulge its composition, as supposedly, any physician knowledgeable in the matter would figure it out on his own. With the universal tincture, Fuker abandoned rational medicine, perhaps suffering from involutional depression or acting as a salesman.

[On "the remedies and medications which were given to ailing negroes:" health and death spending on slaves by the Office of the Jesuit Province of Paraguay, 1711-1745]. / Sobre "os remédios e medicinas que se haviam dado a negros enfermos": os gastos com a saúde e a morte de escravos do Ofício da Província Jesuítica do Paraguay, 1711-1745.

This text analyzes the way sick slaves were treated at the Office (ofício) of the Jesuit Province of Paraguay and Santa Catalina Farm (estancia) between 1711 and 1745. The sources consulted - Libro de cuentas del Ofício, Memoriales, and Cartas ânuas - reveal that the sickness of the enslaved people generated expenses, not only for medications, clothing, and food, but also for shrouds for their burial. As for the slaves from the Santa Catalina Farm, the sources indicate that depending on the infirmity, they were sometimes sent to Córdoba, where they were treated by laypersons trained in the healing arts, which incurred different expenses, also recorded in the ledgers.

Neste texto, analisamos o tratamento dispensado aos escravos enfermos do Ofício da Província Jesuítica do Paraguay e da Estância de Santa Catalina entre 1711 e 1745. As fontes analisadas ­ Libro de cuentas del Ofício, Memoriales e Cartas ânuas ­ revelam que o adoecimento de escravos do Ofício gerava despesas tanto com a aquisição de medicamentos, roupas e alimentos quanto com mortalhas para seu sepultamento. No caso dos escravos da Estância de Santa Catalina, observou-se que, dependendo da enfermidade, eles eram encaminhados à cidade de Córdoba, onde eram tratados por leigos treinados nas artes de curar, o que implicava despesas de outra natureza também registradas nos relatórios contábeis.

Bartolomeo Panizza (1785-1867) and his contribution to the discovery of the visual cortex.

Bartolomeo Panizza (1785-1867) was an eminent anatomist and a pupil of Antonio Scarpa (1752-1832) at the University of Pavia. In 1855, before the revolutionary studies of Paul Broca (1824-1880) on aphasia that supported the theory of cortical localizations, Panizza delivered a lecture in Milan on the anatomy of the visual system, Osservazioni sul Nervo Ottico ("Observations on the optic nerve"). This lecture contains the first description of the cortical projection of the visual pathways in the occipital lobe, anticipating the revolutionary studies performed by Hermann Munk (1839-1912) in the late 19th century. The findings of Panizza questioned the assumption of the French physiologist, Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens (1794-1867) who was defending the holistic concept of cerebral equipotentiality, which was widely accepted among the scientific community in the early 19th century. The present essay highlights the life and the scientific studies of Bartolomeo Panizza, with emphasis on the issue of cerebral localization that was simmering in the scientific community at that time.

A History of Teaching Medical History in Medical Schools in Europe and America.

Medical history was an important part of medicine in the West from antiquity, through the Middle Ages, and until the Renaissance. Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna were historical figures, but they dominated the medicine of the Western world at least until Renaissance. The medicine of the past, which did not become history, still remained an important part of present medicine. In the 19th century, medicine in the past is now relativized as an object of history. At the same time, the 'practicality' of medical science was emphasized. The practicality referred to here means that, unlike previous times, medicine in the past has been historicalized, but it can provide practical help to current medicine. In particular, in the era of positivism that dominated the late 19th century, this practicality was a core value of medical history. In the 20th century, the era of scientific medicine, the new role is given to medical history. It was to give a integrated view on contemporary medicine which was subdivided into many specialized fields. Along with this, medical history, once a main part of medicine, moves to the field of history. At the same time, the rise of medical humanities in medical education becomes an opportunity to redefine the role of medical history. Seeking productive cooperation with other humanities and social sciences that deal with medical issues, such as medical anthropology, medical sociology, and literature, will be a new task given to medical history today.

Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud (Apodado Bonpland): médico y naturalista: 250 años de su nacimiento 1773-2023: sus vínculos con el Uruguay / Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud (Apodado Bonpland): physician and naturalist: 250 years of his birth 1773-2023: his links with Uruguay / Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud (Apodado Bonpland): médico e naturalista: 250 anos de seu nascimento 1773-2023: seus vínculos com o Uruguai

Se conmemoran en 2023 los 250 años del nacimiento de Bonpland, francés, médico y naturalista, botánico y viajero, hacendado y político que transitó en el siglo XIX por los cuatro países que hoy integran el Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR). En Argentina por Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, Corrientes y Misiones; en Uruguay reiteradamente en Montevideo; en Paraguay por Santa María de Fe, Itapúa y Asunción; en Brasil por San Borja en Rio Grande del Sur. Vino al Río de la Plata atraído por promesas que no se cumplieron luego de explorar parte de América con el barón Alexander von Humboldt y encargarse como intendente botánico de los jardines de Malmaison, la residencia de la emperatriz Josefina, primera esposa de Napoleón Bonaparte. No pudo retornar a su patria, Francia y terminó sus días -ya octogenario- en un apartado pueblo correntino, donde hubo que sepultarlo de apuro por carecer de medios de embalsamamiento que permitieran trasladar su cuerpo a la capital provincial.

The year 2023 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Bonpland, Frenchman, physician and naturalist, botanist and traveler, landowner and politician who traveled in the 19th century through the four countries that today make up the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). In Argentina, he visited Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, Corrientes and Misiones; in Uruguay, Montevideo; in Paraguay, Santa María de Fe, Itapúa and Asunción; in Brazil, San Borja in Rio Grande do Sul. He came to the Rio de la Plata attracted by promises that were not fulfilled after exploring part of America with Baron Alexander von Humboldt and taking charge as botanical intendant of the gardens of Malmaison, the residence of the Empress Josephine, first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. He could not return to his homeland, France, and ended his days -already an octogenarian- in a remote town of Corrientes, where he had to be buried in a hurry due to the lack of embalming means to transfer his body to the provincial capital.

O ano de 2023 marca o 250º aniversário do nascimento de Bonpland, o francês, médico e naturalista, botânico e viajante, proprietário de terras e político que viajou no século XIX pelos quatro países que hoje formam o Mercado Comum do Sul (MERCOSUL). Na Argentina, ele viajou por Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, Corrientes e Misiones; no Uruguai, viajou várias vezes para Montevidéu; no Paraguai, para Santa María de Fe, Itapúa e Assunção; no Brasil, para São Borja, no Rio Grande do Sul. Ele veio para o Rio de la Plata atraído por promessas que não foram cumpridas depois de explorar parte da América com o Barão Alexander von Humboldt e assumir o cargo de intendente botânico dos jardins de Malmaison, a residência da Imperatriz Josefina, a primeira esposa de Napoleão Bonaparte. Ele não pôde retornar à sua terra natal, a França, e terminou seus dias - já octogenário - em um vilarejo remoto na província de Corrientes, onde teve que ser enterrado às pressas devido à falta de equipamentos de embalsamamento que permitissem que seu corpo fosse transferido para a capital da província.

Venae spermaticae post aures: The early modern angiology-neurology of virility.

The famous discussion of Scythian cross-dressers in Hippocrates' Airs Waters Places (Aer.) 22 puzzled perhaps most medieval and Renaissance medical authorities. The text wrestled with a pre-Hippocratic, encephalocentric theory of spermatogenesis. Modern reception of the convoluted hypothesis put forward here gradually distilled three etiologies of failing virility: impotence, subfertility, and unmanliness. A gradual shift is discernable from increasingly Galenic neuro-andrological theories (sixteenth century) to neuropsychiatric (late-seventeenth through eighteenth century), phrenological and psychopathological (early- and late-nineteenth century), and finally early psycho-endocrinological (early-twentieth century) ideas about masculinity. Aer. 22 was a ubiquitously recurring reference across all of these episodes, indeed well beyond medicine, rendering it a highly sensitive index of change in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric thinking. The pre-Enlightenment, neurology-centric onset of this extended modern history of sexual/gender medicine is briefly discussed, as well as its phrenological afterlife.

The Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques of Toulouse: Oldest Dental Site still in Activity?

The Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques of Toulouse (in Southwest France) is an ancient hospital officially existing since the 16th century and initially dedicated to the treatment of the poor and the destitute. In the 18th century, it became a hospital in the "modern" sense of the word, by maintaining health and trying to cure diseases. The first official traces of professional dental care in the Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques by a dental surgeon date from 1780. From this period, the Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques had a dentist to treat "paupers" in the early years. The first "officially" recorded dentist was named Pierre Delga, known for having treated the French Queen Marie-Antoinette for a difficult extraction. Delga also provided dental care to the famous French writer and philosopher Voltaire. The aim of this article is to relate the history of this hospital along with French dentistry, and to advance the hypothesis that the Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques, now a hospital site of the Toulouse University Hospital, is probably the oldest building in Europe still in activity and still hosting a dentistry department.

Nathanael Mathaeus von Wolf and Johanna Henrietta Trosiener (Schopenhauer). Variolation in the 18th century on the Polish lands according to the guidelines of a doctor and the memoirs of his patient.

Variolation became a popular method in Europe in the eighteenth century. Sources from Gdansk not only illustrate the guidelines that were used for these procedures, but also make it possible to compare that with the memories of the person on whom it was performed. In this case, the primary sources are: a 1772 work by physician Nathanael Mathaeus von Wolf, and the diaries of Johanna Henrietta Trosiener, mother of Arthur Schopenhauer. As the comparative analysis shows, the theoretical assumptions were sometimes changed during the practical implementation of variolation.