ACTA HISTORIAE MEDICINAE STOMATOLOGIAE PHARMACIAE MEDICINAE VETERINARIAE
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Publisher: Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture, Belgrade
ISSN 0352-7840 (print)
ISSN 2466-2925 (online)
UDK 61+615+616.31+619(091)
DOI 10.25106/ahm
Frequency: biannual
The journal Acta Historiae is an open access (CC BY) external double-blind peer reviewed academic periodical; every manuscript is evaluated by two independent experts on the subject matter. The journal publishes original scientific articles, review articles, short scientific articles, reviews and bibliographies from fields of history of medicine, medical deontology, history of mentality, private life, urban and rural everyday life and living conditions, structure of urban and rural settlements, history, demography, boundaries, as well as the history of architecture and urban planning in the context of history, culture and health care institutions.
The first issue of the journal was published in 1961 and for three decades it was one of the most modern, open and dynamic Yugoslavian journals.
The journal is also available on the Copernicus and CEEOL databases.
Editor in chief is prof. dr Nikola Samardžić
Pages
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- Between Narration and Medicine
- Summary/Abstract: The paper is based on data from the work History of the Death of Philip II written by Antonio Cervera de la Torre and published in Spanish in Madrid, a year after the king’s death. After Cervera’s death in 1606, the idea came up to publish his work in Latin and thus make it available to the European public. The idea of organizing the work was for the purpose of the classic Habsburg propaganda dictated from the center, whose head was Archduke Maximilian III. This work was entrusted to Franz Guillimann, the official historian of the Habsburg dynasty, who translated the work into Latin and prepared it with minor modifications. The article discusses the segment that refers to the description of the disease and the last days of Philip II’s life. The idea was to present Philip II as a ruler who dedicated his entire physical and mental potential to Christianity, that is, Catholicism, and the state. A special aspect of the work is the king’s enduring and suffering from diseases that tormented him and tied him to his bed for the last fifty days of his life. Cervera drew data on the king’s illnesses from the oral testimonies of doctors, but also from official records of treatment and death. Through the description of the illness and torment from which he died, an image of the king’s martyrdom and strong faith was created, which portrayed him as a true Christian.
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- Bezoar Use in Early Modern Transylvania
- Summary/Abstract: The present paper examines, for the fi rst time, the use of bezoars in Transylvania during the 17thand 18thcenturies. Th e author employs both written sources (correspondence, pharmacy inventories, apothecary tariff s, and memoirs) and historical artifacts in order to reconstruct the place of bezoars in the era’s Materia Medica, by comparison with Western Europe.
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- Domovi za stare i ostale „druge”
- Summary/Abstract: Long-lived intertwining of socio-cultural as well as health-related and biological aspects of old age is shown by an example of old people’s homes where the last haven is also found by, in the eyes of the society, the “others”. Keeping track of the developments in placing the elderly in care homes, from poorhouses to modern gerontology centres, provided a basis for understanding the manner for constructing the designated characteristic of the “otherness”. This is an enduring process, creating an almost indestructible link between the old and the corps of all kinds of unfortunates, most often united by poverty.
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- Drug Addict in Belgrade
- Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the stories and socialization of drug addicts in Belgrade. The most often used method in literature is the analysis of narrative. The narrative helps us to find out story about the addiction, crisis, family and stigma. Support and conversations help addicts to forget and get over the crisis, get self-confidence and participate in second socialization. During the treatment, addicts make a new identity. They are treated in hospitals, home-prisons and churches.
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- Dubrovačko nasleđe u XIX i XX veku
- Summary/Abstract: By its content rather traditional in spirit and expression, the historiography of Dubrovnik grew rather slowly during 19th century, for several reasons. First because of the unusual attachment to traditions and ideas inherited from the Dubrovnik’s past, and then because of the very infrequent use of archival documents. Dubrovnik’s historiography maintained the same characteristics of the provincial amateurism even when it was written by well known historians outside Dubrovnik. New elements in the historiography of Dubrovnik did manifest themselves with the resumption of archival research, publication of documents and broadening of themes related to Dubrovnik. Due to such developments, the historiography of Dubrovnik is endowed today with modern scientific methods, so we can devote ourselves to the appearance of those phenomena of ancient life that were neglected until now; this primarily refers to the biological basis and conditions of existence of former human groups.
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- Emanuel Edward Klein’s Anatomical Researches
- Summary/Abstract: Emanuel Edward Klein (1844−1925), anatomist, embryologist, physiologist, histologist, and microbiologist, has finished medicine in Vienna and developed his professional career in London. Due to the fact that his greatest contributions were in microbiology, his researches in the other fields of medicine such as anatomy were generally neglected. In this respect this paper tries to systematically present his anatomical researches. Special notion is given to the highlighting of the connection between his earlier Viennese and his later London years in order to establish his role in the transmission of the knowledge between the Continent, precisely the Viennese Medical School, and the United Kingdom. With this goal the archival sources comprised of the original documents on Klein’s life, the library sources composed of the primary and the secondary sources about Klein’s career, and finally Klein’s published works were analysed. Descriptive, comparative and analytical methods were used with the aim of their evaluation. Emanuel Edward Klein’s anatomical researches were thus interpreted in the general context of the development of medicine at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and with the regard to the contemporary medical achievements.
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- Erasistratus of Samos
- Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the life and work of Erasistratus of Samos (304–227 BCE), and especially on his discoveries regarding the work of cardiovascular system. The focus of the article is on Erasistratus’ priority in conceptualizing the blood circulation over Sir Willem Harvey some twenty centuries later. Erasistratus wasn’t the first to speculate the concept of blood circulation, but he was the first to comprehensively describe and prove it. The attention is also devoted to his work in other branches of the medicine, which is no less important: neuro–histology, anatomy, physiology, anatomy and physiology of digestive and uropoetic system, as well as his work in gynecology (sterility in women) and andrology (impotence in men). He fathered many practical inventions, such as the instrument for embriotomy, “Erasistratus’ patch” in treating rheumatic conditions etc.
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- Ethical Issues in Vaccine Research and Development
- Summary/Abstract: The early development of the concept of immunization and the first vaccines was based mostly on courageous work of visionaries such as Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. From those first attempts of vaccination in the 18th century, the development of vaccines was further encompassed by some of the most significant achievements in the field of immunology, molecular biology and genetics. The development of vaccines changed the picture of global health. As the most life-saving innovation in the history of medicine, vaccines have eradicated some diseases, reduced the mortality of others and prevented many types of disabilities. From the late 18th century to modern innovative, cutting-edge technologies in the vaccine research, thousands and thousands of researchers, some who caught the spotlight and some who remained anonymous within the walls of their laboratories, contributed to their safety and efficacy. The key ethical debates surrounding the vaccines revolve around several questions, such as mandatory vs. voluntary vaccination, the ethics of vaccine development and testing, informed consent regarding risks and benefits of the vaccination, and the disparities in distribution and availability. In more developed countries, the ethical issues regarding vaccination tend to focus on the rights of individuals vs. regulatory bodies. Those issues, together with the growing anti-vaccination movement and vaccine-hesitancy, have become more significant during the time of COVID-19 pandemics. This narrative review gives a summary of the most important breakthroughs in the history of vaccine development, but also focuses on the emerging problems regarding ethics and controversies surrounding the issue of vaccination during catastrophic pandemics that affected the world.
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- Ethnodentistry Research in Serbia and Montenegro
- Summary/Abstract: Ethnodentistry (E), the branch of ethnomedicine, might be defined as the scientific discipline which deals with collection and study on the folk customs in the scope of the knowledge on the causes and treating of the oral diseases, teeth and gums and orofacial diseases and anomaly. E records the survived empiric dentist’s experiences, archaic terms and witchcraft elements and influence of magic elements to the oral hygiene. The first E research in Serbia were ran by Vera Gavrilović (1972), the professor-lecturer on the history of dentistry. There were no approved method for this pioneer research thus preliminary study resulted in many mistakes which pointed out to the construction of the adequate questionnaire valid for ethnodentistry research. Because of that and due to the political situation in the former Yugoslavia and later events (1991-2001), the polling was continued from 2002 to 2008. The aim of this research was to record the present folk dentistry knowledge (health culture) in 31 representative areas of Serbia and six of Montenegro (by the help of trained inquirers) concerning the data about treatment of oral and orofacial tissues (teeth, gums), dentist’s standing as well as magic and religious elements involved in. The data were collected through the authors and students of Faculty of Stomatology in Belgrade using modification of original method on the sample of rural regions on the old person who were non-professional or “professional’’ folk dentists and herbalists by the additional help of local physicians and dentists. Operation on 1125 survey sheets classified into five groups revealed the most data about toothache (61) and the least (7) of magic recipes. The most valuable obtained data considered to be about plants whose active ingredients has not been yet used in dental pharmaceutical industry. The valuable suggestions might be directed to the contemporary applied pharmacology and those herbs that are growing on the still unpoluted isolated spots. Collected data might be of use for some social sciences (ethnology, linguistics, history etc.) Analysis of data pointed out to the very few wrong methods of treatment in traditional dentistry whereas majority of them noted as beneficial ones what depicted the health culture level of every single investigated region.
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- Eugenics and Induced Abortion in Post-War Greece
- Summary/Abstract: Amongst diverse population problems, induced abortions were one of the most crucial in modern Greece. In fact, not only was abortion a population problem, but also medical, social and moral. Τhe practice of induced abortion has to be put in the context of the social changes, medical advances and moral principles of the then Greek society, in order to explain its incidence. Gynecologists, deeply involved in the institutionalization of eugenics in post-war Greece, played an important role in the ‘abortion issue’; either negative or positive. Some of them were proponents of abortion because they earned large sums of money from practicing it, being at the same time unsupportive of contraception. On the contrary, others were against induced abortion and advocates of contraception and family planning. Most of the eugenicists belonged to the second category; however, this was not the case in the event of negative prenatal genetic diagnosis, when they unanimously suggested ‘therapeutic’ abortion. The protagonists were of course the Greek women. Gender equality and emancipation occurred in Greece only after the 1950s. The feminist movement began during the interwar period when many women’s clubs were founded by women living in urban centers. In the rural areas the society was far more conservative than in the cities. The issue of abortion is inextricably linked with eugenics, contraception, social transformation and gender roles. In this respect, the most significant of events in Greek post-war history were: the women’s right to vote in 1952; the revival of the discussion for contraceptives in the 1960s; the change of the Greek constitution in 1975; the enactment of the new law on abortion in 1986.
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- Eugenics and Racial Hygiene in Theory and Political Thought of the Serbian/Yugoslav Extreme Right 1918-1944
- Summary/Abstract: This paper is mainly focused on “racial hygiene” and eugenic questions in the context of the ideology of the interwar Yugoslav extreme right and during occupation of Serbia in the World War II. The main historical sources used in this research were racial narratives and journal articles from 1920s and 1930s, together with unpublished archival records originating from the period of occupation. Analysis of sources and literature have shown that racial and eugenic themes were present in Serbian and Yugoslav political thought from the very first days of the new South Slavs state. The term “race” had several different meanings in this country, particularly regarding the “Yugoslav race”, that referred both to the cultural individuality of so-called “Yugoslav civilization”, and to the biological attributes of the Dinaric race. The ideology of (integral) Yugoslav nationalism, strongly promoted during the dictatorship of King Alexander I, encouraged racial and eugenic stances. Affirmative writings on the qualities of Dinaric race from the world-wide famous eugenic authors like Houston Stewart Chamberlain also spurred interests in racial and eugenic discussions in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Since the mid-1930s a number of Serbian eugenicists became close to the extreme political right, placing themselves in the first rows of ongoing ideological struggle between fascism, communism and liberal democracy. Many of them, like Dr. Svetislav Stefanović, Branimir Maleš, Dr. Stevan Z. Ivanić and others, were fascinated with the rise of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and were later on involved in the collaboration with the Germans during the occupation of Serbia 1941–1944.