{"title":"[Montaigne, his illness and his doctors].","authors":"Hans Adserballe","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), the great French humanist and inventor of the Essays, a central work in the world-literature, suffered from a severe hereditary kidney disease with stones, gravel and frequent colic. The illness is well and carefully described in the essays with valuable and detailed contributions from his experience as a patient, trying to humanize and accept the suffering. He experimented with quite a number of cures (hydrotherapies) during a long journey on horseback to Rome and back to Perigord. Fundamentally, he was in favour of leaving the treatment to the nature, and he had an aversion to the medical art, doctors and drugs. He was preoccupied with the death and in particular the so-called rational suicide, a revival from the antiquity. He died from his renal disease. Montaigne's inspiration for the following centuries and his literary importance today is briefly outlined, including his extraordinary experience as a patient. It is strongly recommended to read Montaigne and to learn from his wisdom.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"42 ","pages":"43-66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33017836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Reverend Blicher's difficulties with vaccinations in 1807].","authors":"Gerda Bonderup","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Prevention of smallpox was the great goal of the doctors since Jenner had published his discoveries in 1798. They had asked for help and ministers, school teachers, and landlords accepted. In fact, ministers performed one fourth of the vaccinations during the first years. One of them was Reverend Niels Blicher from Jutland, the father of a well known Danish writer. However, he soon ran into difficulties because he could not obtain any vaccine. In 1802 an institute had been founded in Copenhagen to organize vaccination of the children in the city, and to provide vaccine for the rest of the country but when Copenhagen was bombarded in 1807 it became nearly impossible to bring out the vaccine. That, however, did not prevent Rev. Blicher from proceeding: When he was told that a child at a manor 15 km away had been vaccinated, he went there together with two children to have them vaccinated with pus from the child at the manor. When the blisters of \"his\" children had developed, normally after nine days, he would continue with pus from them.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"35-40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30457459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[War surgery on Anholt 200 years ago].","authors":"Sten Krarup","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>On March the 27th 1811 the Danish tried in vain to reconquer the island Anholt, occupied by the British in 1809. The Danish casualties were treated by a British naval surgeon, James Marr Brydon, who was carrying out a good deal of amputations, a procedure very seldom among Danish surgeons. The treatment is documented by certificates from Danish surgeons after transfer of the wounded persons to garrisons in Jutland. James Marr Brydone furthermore saved one of the Danish surgeons for a court-martial having been blamed responsible for the death of a wounded Danish captain treated by the British. In a letter to the commanding Danish general Brydone explained what actually happened.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"41-58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30457460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[On warrior virgins, effeminate men, and infertility among ancient Scythians].","authors":"Anders Frøland","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Hippocratic text 'On the winds, waters and places' contains a fairly long description of an ancient Scythian tribe, the nomadic Sauromats. In this tribe the gender roles appear to have been inverted to some degree. The virgin women fight from horseback with swords, bows and arrows, and are not allowed to marry before they have killed three enemies. The married women are often infertile. The Hippocratic author ascribes this to the pronounced fatness of these women. Many men suffer from impotence and as a consequence dress as women, talk like them and carry out feminine household work. The Hippocratic author emphasises that the male impotence and the female infertility stem from the cold, damp climate and the Scythians' way of living, particularly the men spending most of their time riding. In contrast Herodotus states that the male impotence is Aphrodite's revenge because the Scythians ravaged her temple in Ascalon many years earlier. The difference between the Hippocratic emphasis on natural explanations for all natural phenomena, including health and disease and the occasional divine intervention promoted by Herodotus is underlined. There seems to be no plausible modern explanation for the impotence and infertility as described by the Hippocratic author.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"15-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30459133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Svend Norn, Henrik Permin, Poul R Kruse, Edith Kruse
{"title":"[History of gold--with danish contribution to tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis].","authors":"Svend Norn, Henrik Permin, Poul R Kruse, Edith Kruse","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Gold has a long history as a therapeutic agent, first as gold particles and colloidal gold, then as a soluble salt made by the alchemists, and potable gold was recommended almost as a panacea against different diseases. Gold compounds were introduced in the treatment of tuberculosis, based initially on the reputation of Robert Koch, who found gold cyanide effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in cultures. Although several investigations of gold salts showed no convincing effect in experimental tuberculosis in guinea pigs, the idea of using gold compounds as chemotherapy was furthermore encouraged from the work of Paul Ehrlich with arsenicals. The enthusiasm and the craving desperately for a remedy for tuberculosis forced Danish physicians, in the mid-1920s to treat tuberculosis with Sanocrysin (gold sodium thiosulfate). Professor Holger Møllgaard, in collaboration with the clinicians the professors Knud Secher and Knud Faber, was the theoretical promoter of the project. He recommended sanocrysin-antiserum therapy, since sanocrysin caused serious reactions in tuberculosis animals, possible by releasing toxins from tubercle bacilli \"killed\" by sanocrysin. However the enthusiastic response to sanocrysin in Europe declined along by controlled trials and reports on toxicity in the 1930s. The belief that rheumatoid arthritis was a form of tuberculosis caused a renaissance in chrysotherapy. In France Jacques Forestier obtained encouraging results in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with myochrysine and other gold salts, and he pointed out the disease modifying effect of chrysotherapy. In Denmark Knud Secher, who was the clinical initiator of Sanocrysin therapy in tuberculosis, now became the founder of chrysotherapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Although new potential agents are now taking over in the treatment of arthritis, it is still believed, that there is a place for the chrysotherapy. However a new future for gold, in the form of nanoparticles, appears on the horizon, especially in the imaging, diagnostics and therapies of cancer.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"59-80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30457461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Roosevelt and Hopkins: a paretic president with a chronically ill adviser leading the United States during World War II].","authors":"Finn Jorgensen","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Succeeding Herbert Hoover in 1933 as President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt of The Democratic Party did not hesitate to make Congress immediately endorse his New Deal relief and recovery measures to help the depression-stricken Americans. Doing this, and during the rest of his life, Roosevelt had to cope with severe paralysis of his legs resulting from poliomyelitis infection in 1921 necessitating the use of leg braces and crutches, or a wheel chair. Before and during World War II Roosevelt leaned on Harry Hopkins, a former director of various health agencies with a penetrating mind and ability to discuss and implement Roosevelt's decisions. In spite of Hopkins suffering from the sequels of surgery for stomach cancer, he rendered invaluable support to the president. Franklin D. Roosevelt died 63 years old in April 1945 from a cerebral haemorrhage, and Harry Hopkins died 56 years old in 1946 from haemochromatosis.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"81-94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30457463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Neonatal tetanus--an explanation why the slaves in the Danish West Indian Islands not were self-sustaining].","authors":"Kristina Lenz","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The sugar plantation complex in West India was based on forced labour, mostly slaves from Africa. The problem was that this population had to be sustained by a constant stream of new slaves just to maintain their numbers. This demographic imbalance has during generations puzzled scholars and doctors. Modern research, however, shows that the fertility rates were normal. The problem was the infant mortality. The slaves' cultural tradition concerning childbirth had fatal consequences by being transferred to West India, where many newborn slave children died of neonatal tetanus.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"29-34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30457458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[The first 50 years of the Blood Transfusion Centre, Aarhus University Hospital].","authors":"Jan Jørgensen","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The first step to establish a blood transfusion centre in Aarhus was taken in 1951, when an ordinary refrigerator, to be used in a kitchen, was installed in the operation theater area (surgical department) and used for short time storage of blood from bleeding of the donor to transfusion of the patient. In order to celebrate the 60 years anniversary this paper tells the history of the Blood Transfusion Centre at Aarhus University Hospital, especially location in hospitals and scenery of laboratories. The paper is initiated with a description of some of the major milestones in transfusion medicine, which are essential for the function of a blood bank. The last part consists of photos, which shows the setting of the department during the 60 years. In order to facilitate the impression of the great technical improvement, which took place during this period, the photos are, together with a description, grouped according to the motive.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"133-84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30457466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Obstetric aid seen in relation to the Nissen-family in Hillerup and on Spøttrup from about 1771 to 1835].","authors":"Magne Juhl","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The very rich owner of the medieval castle Spøttrup in Sailing, Jutland died without any descendents. A lot has been written about the Nissen-family, but the circumstances by the deliveries of their children are not explained before. In the local churchbook six of seven deliveries from 1825 to 1835 are described as it was demanded to document and explain birth of dead children to control the skills of the midwives. Only one child survived the birth, and he died in the age of eight month. In the other six cases several ways of attempts to resuscitate the babies are described. One baby had its head crushed by the forceps, and at the last delivery the midwife did not show up, as she assisted at another place. The doctor then had to assist without help. The education of midwives in Denmark took place in Copenhagen, but in lack of a sufficient number, alternative education was given by local doctors ('stiftsfysicus') in Ribe and in Viborg, both in Jutland. The bishop of Viborg, Tetens, tried to help the local 'stiftsfysicus' to establish a school for midwives in Viborg in about 1783, but without success. A grandson of the bishop was the doctor, who unsuccessfully handled the forceps at a delivery at Spøttrup and who also had the honor to assist at the last delivery without the help from a midwife.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"95-115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30457464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Danish pioneers of psychopharmacology].","authors":"Per Vestergaard","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although a small country, Denmark has played an important role in the development of modern psychopharmacology due to an active and ambitious pharmacological industry, excellent researchers and last but not least, far-sighted clinicians. The most prominent among these clinicians are portrayed here. Mogens Schou advocated throughout his long life for the benefits of lithium treatment for bipolar patients, Lars Gram for the use of drug monitoring in the pharmacological treatment of depressed patients, Erik Jacobsen invented Antabus for treatment of alcohol dependence and later became one of the first presidents of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP) and finally, Claus Braestrup was the first to describe the benzodiazepine receptor.</p>","PeriodicalId":81069,"journal":{"name":"Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog","volume":"39 ","pages":"117-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"30457465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}